The weeks of counting crap continued in RGIS district 414, and still we were without a District Manager. Ops Manager Sai still remained in Santa Rosa, torturing Area Manager Joe by dangling the DM position in front of his eyes, like a carrot held out to an eager horse. As much as Sai wanted to name a DM and get the hell out of Santa Rosa, he and his fellow Ops Managers still had some reservations about giving Joe the job. And rightly so; as I've mentioned in previous blog entries AM Joe was much too immature to be in charge of an entire district.
Of course Joe didn't see it that way. He was always way more enthralled of his managerial skills than anyone else. This was why he finally decided to push himself to the front of the stage and declare himself a viable candidate for the DM position, which was a big mistake in my opinion. I always felt that Joe was better suited to working behind the scenes. The puppetmaster behind the curtain, if you will. That's why the situation that he was in previously, with himself as AM and Kevin as DM worked so well for him, although he didn't see it that way at the time. DM Kevin would be out there, front and center, taking credit when things went right (which was almost never) but more often taking a hit when things went so very wrong. As second banana Joe could do and say things virtually without risk of putting his head on the chopping block, as he was the number two guy and not technically in charge of the district.
However, for what reasons only Joe knew, he got a bug up his ass about being our new DM and campaigned heavily for the job. But the longer it took for the Ops Managers to name a new DM the more frustrated Joe got. At one point he told me, "If Sai doesn't make me the new DM I'm gonna quit. I swear I will. Did I ever tell you about the time I walked out?" I said no. Joe then disclosed that back when he was an AM in San Francisco, he had been approached by some CSK (auto parts store, a customer of RGIS) representatives and asked if he wanted to come work for them. The idea intrigued Joe at the time because he had begun to feel a bit burned out in his RGIS job. So he proposed the idea to his DM and Ops Managers that he (Joe) take a leave of absence from RGIS and try out the CSK job for a while, to see how he liked it. Naturally RGIS told him "No way". Childish Joe was so ticked off at being denied that he went into his office, left his company car keys and pager on his desk and walked out without telling anyone. He ended up working for CSK for a couple of years before quitting and coming back to RGIS, who of course wasted little time in making him a manager again (What is wrong with this company? They just keep rehiring the same assholes over and over again).
By now it was apparent to even AM Joe that his self-perceived dazzling managerial skills weren't wowing the powers that be in RGIS upper-level management. So he turned to schmoozing some of his auditors, all in the attempts to butter some of us up, hoping that we might go to bat for him and tell Ops Manager Sai what great guy (!) Joe was and how he would make a marvelous DM. Incredibly, he even tried this out on me, an auditor who just a short time ago had had a major confrontation with him (see blog entry "Fear and Loathing in District 414 {Part 2}", August 2006 archives).
Either he was absolutely, shamelessly desperate for the DM position, completely retarded or perhaps his alleged heavy drug use had fried his brains out, I'm not sure which. Maybe it was a little of each. In any event he even tried to sweet talk me into thinking what a nice guy he was, and how it would be just super! if he were named Santa Rosa's new DM. Amazingly Joe told me, "DM Kevin didn't care about you, DM Dan didn't really know you, AM Dave was useless. We (Joe and I) have known each other a long time (1+ years, strictly on the job) and you know you can trust me. I'll look out for you."
Huh? What? Are you kidding me? I wanted to say to him, "Joe, are you suffering from Alzheimer's or something? Have you completely forgotten about the numerous times you screwed me over in my schedules? Did it completely slip your mind that just a few days ago you almost scared me shitless when you threw your hissy fit and screamed at me in Penney's? And now you're telling me that you're my good buddy, and you'll look out for me when no one else will? Are you insane?" Joe's brazen campaigning for the DM position had reached the point of ridiculousness.
I wasn't too worried though that AM Joe would get the job because I picked up on the fact that Sai and the other Ops Managers were tepid to naming Joe as the new DM. In fact, during a Sear's inventory in San Rafael that Joe was running and Sai was of course watching him like a hawk in, I at one point found myself in a conversation with Sai regarding this very same subject. I told Sai that there was a rumor going around that Joe might be named our new DM, and was it true? I must have sounded as worried as I felt to Sai because he smiled and told me politely that in his opinion Joe was too immature for the position. Yes! Thank you Sai! Sai then went on to explain that "The decision hasn't definitely been made yet, but I really think it might be better if we brought in someone from another district." Oh happy day! Thank you thank you thank you!
So it was with a light and happy heart that I went about my merry auditor's way. I sailed into the hardware department and spent several pleasant hours counting tons of hammers, screwdrivers and other various assorted tools. I didn't even mind when the Sear's head hardware guy asked me to step into the dark storeroom and count a huge box full of wrenches. None of the wrenches had tags but that didn't matter as they were all Craftsman (Sear's brand) tools with SKU numbers stamped into each piece. I sat cross-legged on the cold linoleum floor and cheerfully punched in SKU number after SKU number into my little green audit machine. I was almost singing as I tossed each counted wrench into another cardboard box. "Joe's not gonna be our DM! Joe's not gonna be our DM!" What a great day it was turning out to be!
I was so ecstatic, so pleased as punch, so elated that childish, partisan Joe would not be named Santa Rosa's new DM. But the screwy way thing were done in my district should have curbed my enthusiasm. I should have known that it was all too good to be true. And sure enough, later that same day as I was up on the second floor of Sear's counting some vacuum cleaner bags my sky-high joyfulness came crashing down. Ops Manager Sai caught up with me and said quietly that word had come down to him from the division office that Joe was to be named the new DM of District 414.
I was crushed. I couldn't say a word; I wasn't even able to ask Sai, "What happened? What happened to your (and everyone else's) belief that Joe was too immature for the job? That he couldn't possibly handle the responsibilities of running a district?" I wanted to shout, "Has everyone at the division office gone mad? Are the Ops Managers insane? Demented? Have they lost their senses? What kind of lunatic company is this that they would..." Oh...right. This was RGIS. Shit. Piss. Fuck.
49 comments:
Ft. Collins here....
Dude, you should have known better ;)
I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Division had discovered that *no one else wanted the job* and that they went with Joe out of sheer desperation(a common condition for RGIS)
OK, first you have to understand one thing: Some districts are known black holes -- manager go in and they just disappear. Sometimes this is because of some aspect of the district itself (the demographics don't allow for the hiring of good auditors, bad market, etc.). Other times its because a district has been badly managed for so long, it has developed a culture of misery, laziness, disregard for what happens, or all of the above. Sounds like D414 fits into the latter category.
Bottom line is if other managers in the division know that a district is a black hole, they won't go near it. I've seen AMs who seriously deserved a promotion turn one down districts because they knew it would be the end of their RGIS career. So maybe Joe was the only person willing to take on D414.
BTW, all of the stories here relate to the auditors and management. Surely you folks have some tales about the crazy customers you've encountered.
I started this in my previous comment, but it got kind of long so I decided to post it separately.
As for the future of RGIS, and inventory firms in general, even without the new technology, I've seen enough changes over the years to figure out that RGIS has to change. When I started, most inventories were done at night, after the store closed, or on weekends. This meant inventory was a great second job, or something that stay-at-home moms (or dads) could do in the evening when their spouses were home to watch the kids.
Most of the core people worked 9-to-5 jobs and made extra money working for RGIS. In general, these people are more reliable and more professional, because its a carryover from their professional positions or responsibility to their kids. They didn't care about not having insurance because they had coverage from their day jobs or their spouses. Sure there were some people who worked exclusively for RGIS, but they would also be in the core group and get their hours.
You also had what you might call the Geritol Gang, a group of older auditors who didn't really need the work but wanted something to do for 20 hours or so a week. They would never be power counters, but they required minimal supervision, didn't complain about doing things like precounting dump bins, and made excellent team buddies for the new auditors.
Now, most inventories are scheduled in the morning. The 9-to-5ers can't do those, so they don't get work, become frustrated and leave. RGIS (and presumably its competitors) need more people who can work at 6 am -- that means people who do this exclusively, and who need benefits. At the same time, RGIS customers have become more specific in their scheduling. Instead of giving a window, they specify an exact date for each inventory. So if you had three large stores in week, instead of spreading them over three days, they might have to all go the same day.
This hurts two ways. First, you can't schedule your "regulars" for all three stores, so they have fewer hours. Second, you need to carry more people on your district roster, which means you can't be as selective in hiring, and you have to spread the work even thinner the rest of the week.
So now you have more people, less talent, and less work for the people who need and deserve it, so they end up leaving. And all of these problems just feed on each other.
I think the company that will come out ahead in this is the one that finds a way to offer full-time positions with benefits for their core people. Maybe a dozen people who are guaranteed 35 hours of pay, with insurance, vacations and bonuses (tied to the performance of the district, to keep them motiviated). Now you have a stable group of productive, dependable, and probably happy auditors with no commitments to another job.
Slow work week? Put 'em to work in the office, especially since there are no more full-time secretaries. Let them work a table at the job fair. Send them on PIVs. Maybe one of them knows how to change the oil in the vans. If you can't find 35 hours of work for 10 people, you probably need to do some selling. Let the full-time auditors mail letters to sales prospects, or bring them on sales calls.
Or you could continue to churn through increasingly worthless auditors while losing good people because they are frustrated and have no work, watching customer satisfaction fall off a cliff....
Misfit, I wasn't at all surprised to hear that Joe was promoted to DM. We had lots of things happen like that in my dysfunctional district. As I wrote in one of my previous posts, we had an AM who was accused of making sexual commnets to one of the auditors and even though he was written up for the incident, he was soon moved and promoted to DM in a Connecticut office. He is no longer with RGIS, being terminated for some reason (maybe sexual harrassment?). For what reason I cannot say for sure.
I could never understand the reasoning behind some of the promotions I witnessed over my many years. Most people that were promoted were competent and qualified, but there were others.
I seriously feel that some promotions were given because of lack of better or maybe no other candidates. I remember one auditor who left our district and moved to New York and became an AM. This guy, although he was a nice person had the greasiet hair you can imagine and was very unkempt. Another is a DM who still works for RGIS and is still a Dm was once demoted, his office closed, accused of harrassment from several of his employees and then repromoted a couple of years later.
But then again, maybe there is a desperation when it comes to finding management. I never applied for a management position because I seen firsthand the hours and dedication that were required with such a position. The managers are way overworked. They are on call essentially 24/7. They pretty much have no freedom to have an outside life and its almost impossible for them to make plans of any kind.
Now, that might not be the way in all districts, but it certainly was in mine. My DM was very demanding of his AM's and always reminded them that they needed to be available at all times. I hope that there are districts out there where the DM's show more compassion and reasonabilty when it comes to their AM's.
Ft. Collins: You know, you may be right. I didn't think of that at the time, but I should have. Probably by that time 414 had such a bad rep that no one really did want to be there. It would figure.
the refugee: You and Ft. Collins are on the same wavelength! And customer tales. Hmmm, I'll have to think about that one. I can't remember anyone too weird offhand, right now. Anyone else?
Lol! to the Geritol Gang. I like that, and it's very apt. We had a few of those in my district. You're right, they weren't the fastest counters, but they could be depended on to do their job with minimal supervision.
As far as your suggestions on how to improve RGIS, they make far too much sense so of course they will never be implemented.
P.S. Confidential to refugee: Verrry interesting theory of yours!
jkat: You, Ft. Collins and refugee all hit on the same theory, and I believe it's a sound one. My district WAS bad news, and word had probably got around to many of the other districts as well. It makes sense.
Regugee....you hit the nail right on the head about creating full time positions with benefits. So many inventories now go during the daytime and we lose most of our people during the day because they seek work where they will get benefits. Another problem in my District is because so many inventories are now daytime jobs, a lot of our regulars end up working over 40 hours a week. And...if they are going to work that many hours and still be called part time, they seek work with benefits. You are right about the Districts hiring a lot more people and then when the work is a little slow, the hours are shared by people who really have no particular skills so the regulars leave. The night people are leaving because they obviously applied because they needed extra cash. It is a second job for most of them. But they end up working 3-6 hours a week, so they quit. There was some talk when the company was first sold of making full timers out of some of the day people in order to keep them. But, we haven't heard anything more about that in ages. When we had a team leaders' meeting not too long ago, medical benefits became a question that was asked. Our DM, in his usual wisdom, said:
The Company had medical benefits before and no one took it." Uh??
Times do change. And offering benefits just might keep core people around.
anon. at 12:01 pm: Your DM was either bullshitting you regarding past medical benefits, or someone bullshitted him. We auditors DID have medical benefits, but the program was cancelled because according to RGIS two problems occurred: 1. Not enough people signed up for the program (RGIS was outputting more than the auditors were inputting, regarding monies) and 2. Too many people signed up for the benes, and then quit but kept the benes, something like that. I remember getting a letter "explaining" it all. If I still have it I'll reprint it here.
I love your blog, and I enjoyed reading other people's comments too.
My district is also in a huge mess. Our scheduler, she seriously has problems estimating how much people do they need for an inventory. Yesterday she scheduled three TLs and two auditors to do a store that only requires two auditors an hour and a half to complete. Sometimes she doesn't even know the location of the store and gives you the phone number and asks you to check it out yourself. The worst thing is, since she's our DM's good friend, she never get into trouble for messing up our schedules.
The so called 100 hour test, are they still doing it? I've passed my 100th hour (and even my three months period) a long time ago and still don't get to do the test. huh!?
Oh, yeah, one thing I forgot to add about the Geritol Gang: If they are pushing APH, these guys are screwed. But you really do need a few auditors like this who will do the most tedious work and not complain. Plus, if they can do the time-consuming areas and spend time with rookies, you aren't losing a lot of productivity by taking them away from other things. BTW, it seems every district has a different name for these guys, but the names are not intended as denigrating.
As for the hypothetical full-time positions, even without benefits it would be enough to keep the auditors. One of the greatest difficulties in working regularly for RGIS is that the amount of work is so variable -- one week you work 70 hours, the next week you might have 10. Sure that pays better then working 40+40, but it's too unpredictable.
The only good thing is that the slow season coincides with the time of year when retailers are hiring seasonal help. I did that a few years, and at one time when I was working for RGIS and a retailer, I just took off from RGIS the while month of December and made mucho OT at the store.
Misfit, if you don't have any customer stories, I gotta wonder if you really worked for RGIS at all! If you can't think of any, just put up a posting asking the rest of us about crazy customers, and we'll take it from there.
refugee: Seriously, I'm going blank on the subject of weirdo customers. A couple of annoying ones, but no one seriously deranged (I think). A few examples:
1. Once we were doing an Albertson's inventory at night, in San Anselmo. This grocery store closed a little early for us RGIS people. While we were counting, a couple of customers came up to the door and got angry when the store personnel wouldn't let them in to shop. So they dropped their pants and gave us all a little pressed ham under glass, if you know what I mean. Right up against the front door they did it. A pleasant sight.
2. Once when we were doing Sear's department store one auditor found that her audit machine kept buzzing. She looked down and saw this little kid standing next to her, pressing all the buttons on the audit machine.
3. Once when I was counting OTC in Long's Drugs some old man came in my aisle, stood at the end of it and screamed at me, "Tylenol!" I assumed he wanted the product, and wasn't just announcing his favorite pain reliever to the world. I told him that I was doing inventory, I didn't work at the store. He got extremely upset with me and said, "Well, if you're doing inventory then you should know where everything is!" I explained to him that I was only one of a crew of people and so hadn't counted the entire store myself. He didn't care for my sarcasm (weak as it was) and stomped off. I hope he never found the Tylenol.
auditor 000: Welcome to my blog! I hope you'll continue to read, and to post your comments.
You mentioned a scheduler. Is that all she does, or is she a TL or AAM and also does scheduling? We had one of those "schedulers only" in our district, by the name of Tina. She was HORRIBLE at it. She would never remember to call people and let them know if a store had been cancelled or rescheduled. She would just tell one person and then assume that that person would tell everyone else. She sucked big time.
ya she only does schedules, and she totally suck at it. She always forget to call people and then ask you to show up half an hour before an inventory, if you say no she would beg you until you feel gulity about not coming to work.
I wonder if that happens to other districts too. In our district, practically most of the auditors do not have a staff id badge. I thought we are suppose to wear them to all inventories!?!? I've seen some people wearing an empty badge, what that means is they have a card with "RGIS" written on it but no photo or name whatsoever printed on the card.
REfugee, you know what? I'm a TL and give me the Geritol Gang anyday. I'd rather have those people scheduled in my stores than the younger hot shots who are just coming in the door and think they were born with an audit in their hands. These people won't ask questions because they think they know it all. They will cause you problems in your stores always, if that is, they even show up. They are the constant no shows. The Geritol Gang as you call them will always be there. You can schedule them and never worry that they will actually show up for the store. You can bet your life that they will be there. And, because I run a ton of stores, give me the people who will be there anytime.
If I have 5 from the Geritol Gang and they show up then we will get through the store. But, if I have 5 brand new hot shots who can outcount the Geritol Gang by tons, and 4 don't show up then I am screwed. Just my opinion but that is what is wrong with this company. They always make idols out of people who don't deserve it and DO NOT appreciate the good, steady workers who are always there for them and who you can call at the last minute and they will come to bail you out.
J Kat,
The AM I think you are speaking of (Unless there are two sexually harassing AMs from Mass promoted in CT... you never can tell with RGIS) He was promoted to our district (355) as an AM (from an AAM?). He worked from December-mid April, when (up to this, in addition to being sexually harassing, he was late/not showing up/showing up ill prepared to the stores he ran) he hit on the LP manager of Victoria's Secret, who called our DM and RGIS HQ-thing and filed a sexual harassment complaint and he was fired. He had from January until that store to quit before he got fired but failed utterly to take a hint. He is currently collecting unemployment off Mass.
The AM that replaced him came from outside RGIS. He started in May. He found a better higher paying job (with sane hours) at Sleepy's. He put in his two weeks notice right before I left to go back to school and his last day is this friday.
Seriously, I started carrying around a little notepad to write down the odd and amusing things I hear during the day -- not just at RGIS, but anywhere. However, most of the material I have is from inventories.
As we all know, the usual hassle is people who ask where things are in the store. Usually you tell them you don't work there. Some of the more unusual things related to that:
1) "Well, you look like you're working."
2) "Well, then what ARE you doing?" (Under my breath: "Getting ready to shove this machine up your ass, lady.")
3) "I didn't ask if you work here! I asked where the beans are!"
4)When I was an AM, I was standing outside a store shortly before we started, talking to an auditor. Now, when you wear a tie, that is PROOF that you work in whatever place you happen to be standing, even if it's a coal mine, a manure farm, or a sewer. But no, this lady asked the auditor a question. When he said he didn't work there, the lady said, "I think you do!" So being the ever-supportive manager, I turned to the auditor and said, "Yeah, Nick, don't lie to the woman."
5) One lady didn't want to know where something was. She wanted to know what day does the truck come. So I told her I don't work for the store. "Well, that must be nice," she said as she walked a way. As I stood there trying to figure out what she meant by that, she called out, "I guess that means you don't have to answer any questions!"
And at least twice, I was asked where a particular item was in the store, and the person asking WAS A STORE EMPLOYEE.
the refutee(refugee?): That last one was ridiculous. The store employees asking you where stuff was? How did you keep from laughing in their faces?
How well I remember being told in lots of Long's Drugs inventories, "If a customer asks you where something is, just tell them you work for RGIS, and you're there to do inventory. Tell the customer to look for a Long's employee in a green coat. Be polite." Well, most of us were polite but I can't say the same for the customers.
I haven't been posting lately because I moved to Oregon actually and well kind of mad at the Portland, OR office because they won't let me "transfer" to their district because the DM here looked at my stats from D354 and felt my attendance wasn't up his districts policy.
I think is a giant error...how would I go about getting this DM to change his mind?
To anon. at 4 p.m.....the AM that JKat is talking about was promoted to a DM position in Ct. He was promoted several years ago and then fired within a short time.
Word around the District was that he had sexually harassed his secretary the first week he got to his District and that she filed a complaint against him.
Haha the store's customers are always annoying.
It's nice when it's a night inventory and store finally closes and herds them all out.
I like when a customer asks you where something is and you give them the standard reply. Then they turn around and ask another auditor with the same maroon shirt.
Like DUH, didn't you hear me lady!? We aren't store employees!!
to anon at 400pm, no it wasn't the same person. The person I was referring to was an AM in d356 and got promoted to DM in Ct. His initials were JP. It doesn't surprise me though that there could be more than 1 manager in trouble with sexual harrassment. Most other companies would nip the problem in the bud, RGIS promotes instead. Go figure.
misfit: Do you know whats happening in the bay area? One of my friends is from Dallas and she called to say she was heading out to San Fran to help the district. That just seems really retarded. Couldn't they get help from somewhere closer? My DM is all panicky now because his boss just got the boot. She just got the promotion to OPS not too long ago! My DM has been in charge of our district for ages..if they are getting rid of long termers no wonder he is stressed. What's going on with this company. Confused in NM.
anon. at 7:55 pm: Sorry, I couldn't tell you what is specifically going on (or wrong) with the Bay Area districts. I don't work for RGIS anymore; this blog is just from my 'RGIS memoirs'. But it doesn't surprise me that the Bay Area districts are fucking up (again). That they would need to get help from as far away as Dallas IS surprising. Good luck to your friend. If he's coming here to work, he'll need it!
agentskelly: Does that mean you can't work for the Oregon district at all, or that you just can't transfer at your current rate of pay? If you don't get to work for the Oregon district, then you will miss out on the exciting opportunity of working with my old district. Because we were constantly screwing up we always needed help from Medford.
Oh, I won't be with the Medford guys for sure, I would of been with the Portland guys. An AM got back to me saying "I'm sorry, the DM here felt your attendance at your old district isn't good enough for this district"
Now, I was thinking of calling up the Vancouver, WA district, which also covers Portland...
agentskelly: Wow, the Portland district must not be hard up for auditors. I've never heard of a distict turning down an auditor from another district because "their attendance wasn't up to par." In my old district you would have been welcome with open arms. Of course, then if you knew what was good for you, you would have run like hell.
Well, actually I got off the phone this afternoon with the Vancouver, WA office, the DM there said there's room for me, just have to check with my old district and all.
Hey, if I transfered to your old district, I would of been DM in like 3 months :P
agentskelly: No, not three months. How about 3 weeks? Or 3 days? Or how about you going into my old district office and applying for a job, and when they found out you had already worked for RGIS (in a good district) they asked you, "Wanna be our DM?" I've seen them hand out TL shirts to people that had been there less than a week.
Sorry, that was me with a typo, not an imposter. I am Refugee, not Refutee!
Agentskelly...I thought your old District thought very highly of you. Why didn't you have them transfer you instead of trying to do it yourself? I'm just a TL and I have helped in transfering people from my team to other Districts in the country. Example: I had a kid on my team who went to college in New Mexico.
I emailed that District and they just transfered her. I had another girl who moved to North Carolina and I emailed them and they transfered her. Just wondering why your old District didn't help you with this.
Well, that wasn't the procedure when it was explained to me a long time ago when before there was a time I might of needed a transfer.
Agentskelly...I'm confused by your answer. Are you saying that isn't the procedure? I just did it again with a college kid who attends school in Portland, Maine.
He worked on my team here in Mass. and I contacted Portland in his behalf. I'm thinking your old District just didn't want to be bothered with it. And....didn't you always say they were one of the best Districts going? Guess they play games like every other District.
All this talk about benefits....
I just got in the mail on Saturday (11/25/06) a postcard that states:
Be on the lookout for more information about your new benefit plan RGIS is making available for its hourly employees.
Enrollment will begin in November, (HELLO?? November is almost over, fuckwits!) coverage will become effective Jan. 1, 2007
It also says the ...plan is voluntary and is paid for 100% by the employee. Duuuhhhhh.
I can hardly wait to see how much these so-called benefits are going to cost out of my already meager paycheck.
I used to work in the same district as agentskelly, and yes, everyone did like him, but his attendance was horrible. great guy, but seriously, who calls in because someone ran over his grandmother's flowers?
Chad, is that you? :P
I have to admit, my attendance was horrible in my last 3 months in 354 for many reasons.
And yes, the contractor did run over not just a few flowers, but ALL of them and well...you have to know my grandmother to understand this situation better to see why I did do that Price Chopper in Amsterdam that day.
But I am glad to say, I am in a happier place now at District 408 and have no attendance problems whatsoever.
But if you are Chad, just for any hell I gave you during those 3 months, if you come out west to Oregon anytime soon, dinner and beer on me :P
Sai...I cant believe he is still there. I worked with him when I was the AM at South San Jose.
anon. at 12:44 pm: Actually, Sai left RGIS shortly after finally escaping Dist. 414. The last I heard he was working for Long's.
I am one of the geritor gang and have a different perspective on it. Yeah, I'm not fast and only got one 25 cent raise in two years. But at 25 cents, who cares. I might be able to buy a pack of gum with the added money. All the time I had the person running the store ask me to do areas because "I need it to be done right" so although we were told constantly that "accuracy is our primary concern" obviously that is bullshit because they never pay for accuracy. The job is entertaining because I don't really care about their audits. If it takes 15 hours I look at it as more money for me. I would rather be at fewer longer audits than a bunch of 3-4 hour jobs. Its wasting my time. It seems to be the trend to have too many auditors so its done faster, not necessarily accurately.
exauditor: You're so right about the trend to "overschedule" stores with too many auditors, so that they can be done as quickly as possible. Sure, it must look good on paper at first ("Hey! We did this store in only X hours!") but they had to pay an additional 6-7 people to do it. Does RGIS make money that way? I wonder.
ExAuditor: I know a few of those 3-4 hour inventories from experience happens because its demanded from the store itself. Like back east, Price Chopper wanted us done with counting within 6 hours and they paid the price for it.
Sports Authority is like that too...they pay the price to have the counting done by store opening time.
Agent Skelly: What sort of store is "Price Choppers"? I've never heard of it. I mean, is it like a MacFrugal's, where they sell all sorts of discounted items?
Price Chopper is the Safeway of the Northeast but 50 times nicer.
Agent Skelly: Thanks, I'd never heard of it before. Nicer how? In prices or selection? I never inventoried a Safeway; in this district that's done by WIS.
Both price and selection. They are very popular regional chain because of that among other reasons.
They are as I recall one of the more important contracts with RGIS in New York state.
Agent Skelly: Thanks for the info. Have you ever done any Safeway inventories before? I would guess that they wouldn't be much different from any other grocery stores. I used to do Albertson's, and they were financial (at 4:00 am no less. Zzzz...)
We also do not do Safeway up here in Oregon acutally.
Though WIS actually does a few Albertsons up here.
How come no one has talked about a Big Lots!! OMG they and Victorias Secret were my two mosts hated stores. The whole store is crammed with crap and we had to do them one after the other (like the Longs runs). Also their emloyees would stand behind us breathing down our neck, (i think watching for batching which I did at every opportunity) but most of them didn't speak english so they were useless.
Here in Tucson, the DM (Mary Ann)for Big Lots had a real thing for tags. We had to tag both sides and middle of every shelf, and every peg hook. If any tags fell on the floor she would walk buy and say "this area must not have been done". I was so irritated one day that I put about 15 tags on a tiny little cardboard display. There were tags on the linolium floor that had been waxed over and became permanently fixed. We would laugh like hell when people tried to pick them up.
Also they would tear open every box of candy and take out a couple so that we couldn't just key in 24 or 36 (I asked about this and they told me that Mary Ann told them to do it)!!! In the bags of candy they could hide one bag of another kind of candy in the pile probably to check how closely we counted. UG-I think this was my most hated store.
exauditor: Wow, we used to do Big Lots here and I guess fortunately for me I never had an experience like yours. That Mary Ann sounds like a real horror! The Big Lots that I did, the store managers never seemed to care all that much about accuracy. I mean, I never saw or heard of anyone having to do recounts. And they weren't too fussy about yellow tags either. I guess we were lucky.
And geez, deliberately yanking candy bars out of a box just so you couldn't count the quantity printed on it? What was their problem? I mean, how long did they want you guys to be in their store? Maybe it's just me but I've never heard of a store manager doing that before.
Who in district 469 can pass a drug test?
Big Lots inventories up here are not all that bad...we have a whole battle plan up here that insures we get them done in 5 hours.
But yeah...the stores themselves can be a mess but what do you expect from a store chain that leases ex-grocery store buildings, removes some walls, slaps ancient cash registers in, puts up shelves rejected from K-Mart (its true!) and sells discontinued and off-brnad products?
Reading your stories has made me appreciate my district even more. Things are far from perfect here, but we are much more organized and professional than District 414. That was a district run the wrong way, as you already know. I'll be waiting for any new stories you have to offer. The INSTANT RAISE story was frustrating and amusing. Frustrating because it was a slap in the face to the hard-working, punctual auditors who deserve to earn more. Entertaining because of how you expressed it, like snap your fingers, INSTANT RAISE.
raiderhater: Thanks, posts like yours are one of the things that made doing this blog so enjoyable. I'm glad your dist. isn't the disaster that mine was! :-)
I'm not sure when I'll be doing a new entry, if ever. In one of my last entries (Running On Empty) I noted that I had simply run out of stories. But you never know. One of these days I might be able to jog the old brain and come up with a new horrendously true tale of Dist. 414. I never say never!
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