The Woolworths Thread (20 Viewers)

[Ethicks]

Bernie14, always remember you have the right to refuse service to abusive customers. All you need to do is ding your bell and call your supervisor, and just explain to them that you are feeling uncomfortable and abused by the customer. Generally, your supervisor will just finish off your transaction for you while you go breathe for a few minutes.

Ethicks, I couldn't agree more with you - most supervisors when they start off have the power go straight to their heads. It's actually quite funny, all they need is another note experienced supervisor or manager to tell them they need to calm down and not be so controlling and remember the responsibility they hold is not a massive one. If there's one thing I could say to new supervisors starting up, please don't treat your staff like shit to make your authority stand out because this will lead them to hating you! Also Ethicks, so they have supervisor badges at your store?

I used this as a metaphor, supervisor badges to my knowledge don't exist just the best way to describe these big headed women - Hate to be sexist but it is the women.

 

[FrontendFreak]

Yeah, the ones who have nothing else to show for so they see a small promotion from cashier to supervisor as a big thing. You can see why they do it, but it doesn't make it right... I don't think my store has any of those types, except my 2ic who was only promoted because of her availability. No one likes her as a 2ic because it went straight to her head. She would stand in the service kiosk shuffling papers and staring at the computer screen pretending to do work. But ever since we got a new service manager, she's sorted her out and made her do work

 

[T_Knight]

Haha yes to all of the above. I'm pretty chill as a supervisor myself and don't call people to 'return to service' exactly after 15minutes and 0 seconds have elapsed cause its short enough as it is when you include walking time to the lunch room. Bit of give and take I find works best, especially with the young ones who sometimes slack off and do sfa if you don't engage them. The other supervisors (all younger girls) just boss people around - both the full-service staff and constantly calling longlife on the PA, all the while pretending to look at the computer screen or "do breaks" with the flippin clipboard, turning their back to the express line and pretending its not there. Heck, the dills we have here will even attempt to call service staff back to registers just as they STARTED their lunch break (um, don't even try that on me)

Overall i find working in service is pretty cliquy but managable. You've got all the oldies who are FT working during the day and are pretty friendly. Then you've got the high school/uni girls who suck up majorly to CSM to get favourable shifts. Luckily for me, i'm perceived as a 'good worker' (stay out of the gossip and just do my thing), and get most if not all the public holidays and sundays lol (apparently i have a really good scan rate and get through returns, customer complaints & enquiries done pretty efficiently). Woo!

 

[FrontendFreak]

Haha yes to all of the above. I'm pretty chill as a supervisor myself and don't call people to 'return to service' exactly after 15minutes and 0 seconds have elapsed cause its short enough as it is when you include walking time to the lunch room. Bit of give and take I find works best, especially with the young ones who sometimes slack off and do sfa if you don't engage them. The other supervisors (all younger girls) just boss people around - both the full-service staff and constantly calling longlife on the PA, all the while pretending to look at the computer screen or "do breaks" with the flippin clipboard, turning their back to the express line and pretending its not there. Heck, the dills we have here will even attempt to call service staff back to registers just as they STARTED their lunch break (um, don't even try that on me)

Overall i find working in service is pretty cliquy but managable. You've got all the oldies who are FT working during the day and are pretty friendly. Then you've got the high school/uni girls who suck up majorly to CSM to get favourable shifts. Luckily for me, i'm perceived as a 'good worker' (stay out of the gossip and just do my thing), and get most if not all the public holidays and sundays lol (apparently i have a really good scan rate and get through returns, customer complaints & enquiries done pretty efficiently). Woo!

I came from a much bigger store that had a service manager who started to bully me just because I couldn't stop what I was doing to come into work for a call in shift. I was 17 at the time and she just treated me like I was a very replaceable asset to her department. I ended up moving to a store that put me onto PPT and within about 6 months I started being trained as a supervisor. I'm currently the only male supervisor in my store and I have excellent managers (bar the 2ic who is just lazy) who I have an awesome work relationship with because they know I work hard and do my best to achieve the best results while I'm there. My service manager is trying to teach me to do rosters (not sure when she wants me to do them because I'm rarely available on Tuesdays) but she's adamant to make it happen. I feel like if I didn't make the move to my new store, I'd either be stuck as a cashier at my old store or would have quit woolies for a happier work environment (which I didn't know existed in woolies until I moved). As for those staff (supervisors or not) who boss everyone around and turn a blind eye to help out just so they can keep their "status", there's a way to deal with them; if you're ranked higher than them as a supervisor (there's obviously no official list, but we all know there's a pecking order, then pull them as aside and just tell them they need to clean up their act and realise no one is here to polish their shoes. If you rank lower than them, talk to your CSM and let them know there's problems going on when so and so does service. It's not about dobbing them in but it makes a happier work place for everyone. Also, in my store, supervisors serve too because our express checkouts are connected to the smokeshop and service desk area, so when someone's not serving because they are avoiding it, it's clear that they are being lazy.

On a lighter note, who's working Easter weekend? I've been asked to do service on the Monday as well as my regular Saturday shift! Bring on the 2.5 time moooooollahhhhh!

 

[T_Knight]

On a lighter note, who's working Easter weekend? I've been asked to do service on the Monday as well as my regular Saturday shift! Bring on the 2.5 time moooooollahhhhh!

My current roster is Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday so won't have to worry about missing any of those public holidays, well for this time around at least. Last year, remember earning over $1000 after tax which was real nice. Anyone who isn't work those days, my advice is start sucking up to your CSM now so they'll roster you on lol.

 

[FC ATAR]

WOOLIES FOR LIFE!

Been working there for 3 years in july! I like working but not this year (due to HSC). I feel as if it's wasting my time but how else will I play for schoolies?

 

[FrontendFreak]

I live for penalty rates haha

 

[FrontendFreak]

I got yelled at by my SSO today because our finger scanner broke so everyone was supposed to sign an adjustment. I already signed an adjustment for a flexup I sorted the other day so I told her that and she started having a go at me in front of my CSM (who loooves me like a son who can do no wrong.) I eventually said "okay, I'm signing it and you're still yelling at me and I don't need that okay? Please stop.". I'll be talking to my ASM tomorrow (who is awesome, so it's my SM but he's not in) and get them to have a serious word about it because that was probably the rudest, most unprovoked thing someone's ever done to me in the whole 5 years I've ever been in woolworths. I don't come to work to be yelled at customers and I CERTAINLY don't come to be yelled at by an SSO just because she's looking for someone to unleash her frustration onto. I'm expecting an apology the next time I see her.

Also, has anyone's managers gone through the system and taken off supervisor numbers from people who weren't really supervisors but still had numbers? Ours have and I mean it didn't effect me obviously because I am a contacted supervisor, but I felt bad for my friend whose numbers have been taken off him :/ I think it was for audit purposes, but they haven't removed them from everyone they should have.

 

[T_Knight]

Ouch. Def sucks to be on the recieving end of someones rant. Regarding the supervisor numbers, its normal practice that stores periodically audit their internal systems & supervisor number priveldges in storeline is a common one. I wouldn't worry about it too much as you can always get someone to turn them back on later for any reason. If it happened to me, i wouldn't take it personally and just live without super numbers for a couple of weeks, and then request them back on a day i'm rostered onto smokeshop or supervisor. In the meantime, its just a minor inconvenience to call someone over or borrow someone elses.

 

[FrontendFreak]

Yeah I can edit all that stuff on storeline because I've got service manager account on that, but he asked or service manager yesterday of she could put them back into his user ID and she said no :/ oh well, he's going to be out of woolworths soon anyways. But I did go to do my morning gap scan today and they had switched me to a stockyard (ruuude) so that didn't last long before we switched it back haha

 

[harry1701]

I know that in ISIS you can see Aisle, Shelf and Facing for a lot of items, is there any way to get this info from a RF gun as well?

 

[bernie14]

What's the process for getting trained as a supervisor?

There's a big bunch of us 18-22 year olds who started working at a similar time (nearly a year ago) and out of all of them, I am getting the most shifts per week and I'm ranked in the top three for scan rates within the store. I almost always work in customer service so I know how to deal with returns and all that stuff, so was just wondering if I can expect to receive supervisor numbers any time soon? I don't really know how it works, or whether it might happen if a current supervisor leaves.

 

[FrontendFreak]

I know that in ISIS you can see Aisle, Shelf and Facing for a lot of items, is there any way to get this info from a RF gun as well?

I'll try finding something this weekend on an RF gun for you. Might not have it there because ISIS has quite a lot more function than guns.

 

[FrontendFreak]

What's the process for getting trained as a supervisor?

There's a big bunch of us 18-22 year olds who started working at a similar time (nearly a year ago) and out of all of them, I am getting the most shifts per week and I'm ranked in the top three for scan rates within the store. I almost always work in customer service so I know how to deal with returns and all that stuff, so was just wondering if I can expect to receive supervisor numbers any time soon? I don't really know how it works, or whether it might happen if a current supervisor leaves.

Talk to your CSM and just tell them you're interested in supervision. Generally, they don't go on a "cashier-to-supervisor conversion spree", but if you let them know you're interested and show your stuff, they might consider you. Good tips for impressing your manager:
Turn up to your shift early and sign on 5 mins before you're rostered - they will see you are keen to work.

Constantly ask them for jobs to do while they are there, and get the jobs done as soon and well as you can. This will show them you are reliable and there to get everything done. If you show them that you get all this stuff done, they will know that you'll also make sure that you get the same stuff done as a supervisor.

Anywho, good luck with all that, make yourself known to all the managers too (for all the right reasons). Hopefully you'll be considered! Let us know how it all goes!

 

[Xantios]

I know that in ISIS you can see Aisle, Shelf and Facing for a lot of items, is there any way to get this info from a RF gun as well?

Go into 'Inventory Review' (5, 5, 1) and then press 'L' for location. It should give you that information, provided that it is in the system.

 

[FrontendFreak]

So there's a new aldi going in right next door to our store, it opens in a few weeks time... We'll see how it goes. Our store is really old and with a new supermarket going in right next door, do you think woolies would schedule a refit to compete with Aldi? We have a very busy smokeshop because so many people in the area smoke (it's pretty low SES), so I don't think aldi would steal much of our business, but if our store looks crap compared to theirs, im not sure what would happen. Also, our store is small so we don't have proper trolley boys, we have to send our checkout boys out to get them (sometimes myself, but very rarely because I usually supervise so I need to stay in the store). But now that Aldi is going in, our centre will have 2 different types of trolleys and the car park will be huge. I'm wondering whether woolies will employ new designated trolley boys? I think it's wishful thinking but it will make things very hard to get all the trolleys back in the store at the end of each day - round up will now take twice as long.

 

[berk]

Hi , is there anyway to rest the plu in selfserv ... if produce adds or deletes items selfserv screens don't update until it the whole sco is restarted. I had a look trougth the manual that came with sco but it's was made before sco's had a major software facelift. Also i'm trying to get my own supervisior numbers as most nights i work iget stuck in smoke shop and have to do the supervisors break... i'm just getting sick of using other peoples numbers , i have my own isis and citrix acess , the csm has only giving numbers to females. The only males with supervisor numbers are sm,asm and duty managers. I was wondering how should i approach her and ask her for my own supervisor numbers. P.S who ever thought forced weight on sco's is a good idea need a smack in the head .

 

[FrontendFreak]

Just tell her your situation on nights, ISIS numbers aren't necessarily for supervisors unless you have access to a "service supervisor" profile. What do you use citrix for if you're not a supervisor???

 

[Ethicks]

I should stop reading this read, in your mind now working at Woolworths sucks and it's the worst job ever but when you look back it wasn't bad at all. When it was busy you would fly the items through the scanner (I had the fastest scan rate in the store) and time was irrelevant it would go so fast. I was a rebel and always got yelled at for not doing my produce ID check because I found it ridiculous might have been handy for those rare items that no one buys or something that was just in season. When I started working there in.. 2009 or something the 'Check outs Manager' was related to my cousins and she was a cow. She would intimidate staff to do extra shifts by using words like "I need you to work until 8 or I need you to work tomorrow" people were treated like they were in the military all she did was stand in front of the deli hot chickens and talk to everyone she knew. She even liked to make up her own policy with jewelry at one point I had the top of my ear pierced and apparently it was company policy that I had to remove it which was incorrect I believe you could have up to 2 ear rings or some thing similar.

I used to work at the same store as my two sisters but they never put us near each other, my older sister has just resigned now after 9 years working there, she is 23 and moving away.. tried to transfer but never heard from the new store, despite my advice she resigned and is probably looking for another career path.

Hm this turned in to a bit of a rant/life history post

 

[T_Knight]

So there's a new aldi going in right next door to our store, it opens in a few weeks time... We'll see how it goes. Our store is really old and with a new supermarket going in right next door, do you think woolies would schedule a refit to compete with Aldi?

Aldi will definitely impact you guys alot. Maybe not first 2 weeks but once people find out where it is and starts to get traction, you will feel it. I reliefed for fairly busy city store whose sales where $1.4mil a week, and it dropped to just under a mil because aldis was just around the corner. To add insult to injury, shoppers there will go to woolies, taking our trolleys and using them at aldi cause we dont have the coin security mechanism on ours lol (stupid stupid)