In 2009...
-Store managers at locations with front end sales of less than 25000/week (all stores in Dayton) are Non-Exempt, Hourly employees that must punch a clock. There is no such thing as "whatever it takes" anymore... you work your 45 hours and go home. To cover the store, store manager must take unpaid 30 minute break every day, as well. I hadn't taken a break or punched a time clock in 15 years.
-There are NO Assistant Managers... the position is GONE. Your only hope for decent help is to get a VERY GOOD Shift Supervisor... and the really good ones are going to be pulled out for promotions due to rapid Store Manager turnover or go elsewhere because they cannot hope to make any more than $20K a year (current exceptions are demoted store managers, but they don't allow that anymore... noone can step down once they are a store manager... "ties up the pipes" with people that cannot be promoted to cover for the high-turnover store managers).
-170 hours (including my own) to run a 10000 sq ft store that is set up like a maze, so that Cashiers cannot help on any task on the floor.
- Managers spend 80% of their time working on projects that should not be done by management figures. Burger King had a good balance - Store Managers spent 20 hours on administrative, 30 hours on the floor & Assistants spent 10 & 40, respectively. That is normal, I think. Rite Aid... 38 hours on the floor working planograms, putting away truck, etc, 20 hours on administrative... and still doesn't add up to 45 hours, does it? Shift supervisors are usually 25 hours on the CASH REGISTER as the only person in the front of the store, 10 hours on the floor trying desperately to help the SM, and the other 5 covering employee breaks ON THE CASH REGISTER.
- Pay 40% lower than what it should be for the amount of work that is needed.
-Current company policy is that there is NEVER to be a moment of the day that someone is not in direct and constant line of sight of the door, to greet every customer (in itself not a bad policy, but cannot be done with such limited hours). Cashiers, in effect, are not permitted to stray from the register at all except for VERY slow periods, but these periods are the ones that the Store Manager or Shift Supervisor are the only ones in the store anyway, so no extra work can be done.
-Constant "ZERO-TOLERANCE" initiatives being launched, i.e. Backroom Inventory System, Freshness Application, the required script "Have you reached Gold Status with your Wellness+ Card yet?" Then the inevitable "Huh?" and a lengthy explanation while other customers wait in line. These are all good ideas, don't get me wrong. Wellness+ is a great program, and it needs to be pushed, but the labor allowances just aren't there...
