The Woolworths Thread (12 Viewers)

[nanakid12]

Or there was the rude, horrible, arrogant lady that insisted on shopping for TWENTY MINUTES AFTER WE HAD CLOSED. She verbally abused me for telling her politely that WE HAD SHUT, wow. Just wow. It's fine. I gave her the service she deserved. She had a massive, huge, trolley that was totally overflowing. Told the front end staff that they had to leave on time, and that that customer would just have to put all her shopping through on the self check out.

Holy god I love it. How did that go down in the end though?!

If people are rude to me like that, I am rude back to them now, I don't deserve to get treated like dirt. I don't care if they complain about me, my manager knows I am never deliberately unpleasant. She's a legend.
Obviously I don't go out of my way to be rude or anything, but if someone's going to try and put me/a co-worker down or whatever, I'll stand up for myself/them if the customers being unreasonable.

Also, random story cause this irked me recently, I put two of those glass sparkling apple juice bottles in the same bag together for this old couple, and the lady stopped me, all shocked and condescendingly said "Oh my god, you never, EVER put two glass bottles in the same bag together!!!!"
Funny, she's the first customer to ever stop me doing so... and I have been working at woolies for soooooooooo loooooooooong.

 

[bernie14]

Hey all,

I worked as a front-end supervisor for a couple of years at a major metropolitan Woolworths in Melbourne, but recently moved for full-time work. Unfortunately, I've decided the job I relocated for isn't for me, and have thus quit. Unsure what to do with my life now, I am thinking about applying at the local Woolies here.

I just dropped my resume in at the store to the store manager, and he told me to go on WOW Careers and set it up so I am notified when jobs are open. Do you reckon he'll bin my resume and trust me to do what he asked? When I applied a few years ago in Melbourne I basically asked someone in produce if they needed any more workers, the produce department manager went out the back, saw the store manager, came back and said "yeah can you start next week?", so I've never really done the online process before. Thanks for any advice!

 

[BSammy]

yeah it's basically all online

your previous experience is not the norm.

 

[nanakid12]

This thread is so dormant.

Our power went out the other day for like an hour or so - all the customers were asking me if our EFTPOS still works. It was actually really annoying how many times I had to answer that question.

 

[Katebrunner]

This thread is so dormant.

Our power went out the other day for like an hour or so - all the customers were asking me if our EFTPOS still works. It was actually really annoying how many times I had to answer that question.

What was the answer?

 

[nanakid12]

The answer was no, our EFTPOS was not down, because our checkouts were still working, and they are all integrated.

Reasonable question I guess but I was fairly stressed, it just got annoying.

 

[nanakid12]

Help me pls.

I've put in for a transfer to a closer store to wear I live now, spoke to CSM the other day, and my roster I think is primarily going to be weekends and Friday nights. This is all I have been doing for the past 6 years, and at my current store I've got it pretty good - flexible service manager, supervision almost every night I work, weekends only once a fortnight, and travel doesn't actually cost me as much as I expected it to.
If the new store can't give me a roster that's as favourable as my current one, can I decline the transfer or anything? I don't want to seem all entitled or anything, but working every Friday night and weekends isn't something I want to continue.

 

[T_Knight]

I've been through the same thing. My experience was, you need to clarify your contract with your new store FIRST (get it in writing and possibly signed by them, but not submitted formally). For me, becuse I already had a relationship with the "new" CSM as she used to work at our store previously - got the exact days and hours I wanted. So I notified my CSM of the transfer (it was pre-succesfactors so was all paperwork through the office), took unpaid leave and began working at the new one for about a week.

Soon after, my "old" store quickly caught wind of my actions. CSM talked to our store manager and they call me up to come immediately down to the manager's office. They sat me down and asked "Why are you leaving??". Mentioned to them "They've had given me the hours I've wanted and its all contracted." They immediately responded, "Whatever contract and hours they've given you... we'll match it!!!!" hahaha. They matched it plus extended me to 10 hour Sundays and 10 hour Mondays ... just like that. It went from "sorry we don't have enough hours to give you, theres not enough wages" to an all-out bidding war. I wasn't even pushy about leaving, was just taking a better offer given to me.

So in the end, I stayed due to the comfort of knowing all the managers, staff and customers. For context, new store was further away - 20mins drive, old store 5mins away). Found out later on, the "new" store had high staff turnover in its first year and poor culture because the SM was a power-tripping type). So yeah, moral of the story - make sure you know what you're getting because the grass isn't always greener.

 

[Tomtheboss]

Hey guys,

I'm 17 been working at a store in melboune for 1 year now as a front end cashier how do I go about asking by CSM about starting to learn how to become a supervisor like getting sup numbers because I've already know what to except like counting registers I've been like the unofficial 2ic of many shifts as I get along with all the supervisors and they give me their sup numbers while they go on break. So yeah was wondering don't wanna actually start supervising just yet but wondering how I can get like sup numbers.

 

[nanakid12]

Depends on your manager lol they might be really lax about it, or they might be really strict.

If they see you as someone who's responsible though, you might have an in. A lot of stores won't do it thought, because if they get audited and you're not actually a supervisor then they can possibly get in trouble.

 

[nanakid12]

Anyone have customers that come in, loudly playing music on their phone? How do you deal with them?

Theres this douchebag that always comes in doing it of a night, and I usually don't say anything because he's in and out fairly quickly, but the other night he came in and it was quite loud, so i said "Hey mate, turn your music off, please" and he looked at me and looked away. I think he also shoved his phone down his underwear, which sorta brought the volume down I guess.

 

[StudyToDeath]

News reports state that the fair work commission has cut Sunday penalty and public holiday rates. For hospitality and retail.

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-23/weekend-penalty-rates-fair-work-commission-decision/8295758

My question is will this affect Coles and Woolworths workers? Surely the trade unions can't agree on this

 

[BSammy]

News reports state that the fair work commission has cut Sunday penalty and public holiday rates. For hospitality and retail.

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-23/weekend-penalty-rates-fair-work-commission-decision/8295758

My question is will this affect Coles and Woolworths workers? Surely the trade unions can't agree on this

It won't affect the current agreements, but it will influence future agreement negotiations. That's why we haven't had a new agreement for so long.
Still bad for us, just not as immediate as is affecting everyone else.

 

[nanakid12]

I feel like this is the reason negotiations have been purposely delayed - so that they can drop penalty rates sooner than being locked in for another three years.

Although the amount of time this has taken, it's nearly been 3 years since we should have had a new EBA.

 

[FrontEndHero]

Hey guys,

I'm 17 been working at a store in melboune for 1 year now as a front end cashier how do I go about asking by CSM about starting to learn how to become a supervisor like getting sup numbers because I've already know what to except like counting registers I've been like the unofficial 2ic of many shifts as I get along with all the supervisors and they give me their sup numbers while they go on break. So yeah was wondering don't wanna actually start supervising just yet but wondering how I can get like sup numbers.

Could be just my store but they strongly prefer if you're over 18 to be a supervisor

 

[BSammy]

I feel like this is the reason negotiations have been purposely delayed - so that they can drop penalty rates sooner than being locked in for another three years.

Our SDA rep has basically confirmed this for us.

Anyone following the SDA on facebook? Why do they seem so concerned about the double time on sundays now, they weren't when negotiating our agreements.
Hypocrites.

 

[zhu0902]

Re: Woolworths FAQ- how to get a job

This guide is pretty extensive Good work

 

[nanakid12]

Do you guys get 200% penalty rates on Sunday? I don't work Sundays since I moved to Melbourne but back in QLD it was only ever 150%?

I see all these articles now about it being reduced from 200% to 150% it's quite confusing :S

 

[BSammy]

Do you guys get 200% penalty rates on Sunday? I don't work Sundays since I moved to Melbourne but back in QLD it was only ever 150%?

I see all these articles now about it being reduced from 200% to 150% it's quite confusing :S

That's the national award rate. At woolworths (and coles etc) we have Enterprise Agreements. The SDA colluded with the companys to cut our penalty rates already. (even with the reduced award rates, some woolworths staff are still being paid less than award)

Join RAFFWU everyone. Let me know if you need a membership form, won't it be nice to be part of a union that fights for you again!

 

[FrontEndHero]

What's the RAFFWU?