Ever read the RGIS newsletter, "The Auditor's Auditor"? This stellar piece of news excellence was (and maybe still is?) published twice a year by RGIS and was available for perusal in my district office. As far as I know I was the only one in Santa Rosa who ever picked up a copy. Well, you never know when it might come in handy. Say you car breaks down and you're stranded way out in the middle of nowhere, when suddenly you experience some intestinal cramping and you think, "Whoops! Gotta go." The Auditor's Auditor would substitute for toilet paper quite nicely.
I have a copy of the Winter 2001 edition (the newsletter was published twice a year). The first page has several photographs of employees who have 25 years or more of subjugation, er I mean employment with RGIS. These photos left me wondering: given the rather dismal treatment that RGIS has been dishing out to their auditors, Team Leaders and Managers lately (wage caps, travel pay cuts, minimum hour cuts, etc.) makes me curious about how many RGIS employees will be "celebrating" their silver anniversary 25 years from now. Wanna bet that it won't be many? If any?
There are several little pieces of first-rate journalism in this issue, and chief among them is a stern piece admonishing auditors who use multi-colored ink pens when filling out time sheets. The anonymous author of the piece also notes that "gel type ink" pens are creating the most havoc, as "many copying and scanning machines cannot 'see' these newer colors and densities. Instead of your name...nothing." The article goes on to state that ballpoint pens with black or blue ink are considered to be the best solution; auditors are also admonished about their poor penmanship and urged to write legibly.
It's nice that RGIS was so helpful in their advice regarding the proper ink pens for use on time sheets. Might I make one more suggestion? If you're a District or Area Manager and you want to alter an auditor's sign in or sign out time, make sure you use the same color pen as the auditor's. That way, you'll be less likely to be caught doing this illegal (in California) act. See, one time during a Target inventory I signed in at 6:00 pm (by my watch and the store's clock. The store had a large clock very helpfully situated on the wall right above where we RGIS folk set up). Later that night when I went to sign out I saw that someone had changed my (and several other's) sign in time to 6:06 pm. Had that person not used a red pen on top of my black one I might not even have noticed.
In regards to this unlawful act committed by a RGIS manager, I would normally pose this question to you: Can you believe this? Can you believe that an AM or DM would be so tightfisted that they would try to cheat a couple of auditors out of 6 minutes worth of pay? But given everything that I've learned about RGIS lately I'd believe anything negative said or written about them. RGIS has some serious problems brewing.
Which brings me to the piece on page three of the "Auditor's Auditor". It's a helpful length of crap called "Handling People Problems at Work." It presents six problems that could potentially crop up at work. RGIS then gives the reader some solutions to each problem. Of course, being RGIS the 'solutions' are both laughable and unusable. I mean, the resolutions they've presented are not that absurd, it's just that the thought of trying to implement these solutions while doing a RGIS inventory is so ridiculous.
1. MY COWORKERS SEEM DISTANT AND UNFRIENDLY. "...Take the first step. Greet everyone pleasantly every day...To avoid misunderstanding, communicate frequently and openly...It's hard to remain gruff when someone is smiling at you." "Greet everyone pleasantly every day." Well, I can just imagine the reaction if I tried to pull this one off at work. I probably would have gotten my head bitten off. I actually witnessed a few newbies trying to act human and say "Good morning" in a few stores. All they got was a vacant stare. As I've mentioned in previous blog entries, most of the auditors in my district were hostile and unfriendly to newbies. Lydia used to say that she never bothered learning any newbie's name until they had been working in the district for at least six months. Given the extremely high turnover rate in my district, this was probably a practical thing for her to do.
"To avoid misunderstandings, communicate frequently and openly..." Another thing that wouldn't have worked in my district. Witness what happened to me when I tried to "communicate" with Area Manager Joe one night during a J.C. Penney's inventory (see blog entry "Fear and Loathing in District 414 {part 2}, August 2006 archives). As I've mentioned before, the managers in my district absolutely hated confrontations of any kind. There was no possible way to communicate with the managers in District 414.
2. MY SUPERVISOR DOESN'T GIVE ME ENOUGH DIRECTION... "Tactfully and pleasantly ask your supervisor to explain the required tasks or supply a written description of them." I can just imagine the reaction I would have received if I had walked up to AM Joe and said (tactfully and pleasantly of course), "Could you please explain to me how I am supposed to count this area? What, you don't have time to explain? Oh, I see. Well, then could you supply me with a written description of what I'm supposed to count and how?" I either would have been laughed out of the store or killed on the spot. Any store that Joe ran was like a nightmare for newbies. Joe's method of introducing newbies to the inventory business was like a sadist's method of teaching someone to swim. Throw 'em in the water and let them sink or swim.
3. MY SKILLS AND ABILITIES ARE UNDERUSED. "Look for ways to make your job more challenging...Take on tasks other have neglected." Hmm...a way to make my job more challenging? Oh I know! Have the AM or TL refuse to bring any stepstools to an inventory and that way I can use my skills and abilities to balance myself on 2 or 3 stacked milk crates. That certainly would be challenging!
"Take on tasks others have neglected." And for how many of you was this already a regular part of your job as an auditor? I mean I was constantly having to come along behind the cherry-pickers, picking up all the areas that they refused to count. One auditor that was notorious for this was an enormously fat girl named Victoria. She would constantly whine and complain about how she was "too tired to count this" or "I'm too tired to climb up this ladder". She would then just wander off aimlessly. It made one furious but what could I do about it? If I told AM Joe he would just mumble something like, "I'll look into it but in the meantime could you do that section?" and then rush off to do God knows what. The whole incident would be instantly forgotten by AM Joe and thus fat Tori would get away with yet another incident of cherry-picking laziness. Again, the AM and DM hated having to go face to face with anybody on anything, so auditors got away with all sorts of shit all the time.
4. MY COWORKER IS VERY CRITICAL OF OTHERS, INCLUDING ME. "Tackle the situation head on by discussing the problem with your co-worker...If necessary, state clearly and frankly what will happen if the behavior doesn't stop..." Okay, I'll try it out on TL Mondo. "Um, Mondo? You know when some auditor screws up an area in an inventory you're running, and then you go over and get in that auditor's face and scream at them and tell them that they're stupid and that they don't know how to count? Well, I don't feel that you're exhibiting very productive behavior. It isn't nice to say to someone, "Stop fucking up and start counting right." There are better ways to put it. And Mondo, if you don't stop with this negative behavior, I'm afraid I will have to inform AM Joe or DM Kevin, who will then have no choice but to ignore me completely and do absolutely nothing about the situation." There! Ahh, I feel so much better now. Thank you RGIS!
5. I AM BEING...TREATED UNFAIRLY BY MY SUPERVISOR. "Discuss the problem in private with your supervisor as soon as possible." Ahem. Tried that, didn't work. (see blog entry "Fear and Loathing in District 414 {part 2}, August 2006 archives).
6. TWO OF MY COWORKERS DISLIKE EACH OTHER, AND I AM CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE. "Talk to someone you respect who is skilled at dealing with people." Well, okay, on the surface that sounds good. But what happens when you have an entire district that dislikes itself? This auditor doesn't like that auditor who doesn't like that auditor, and the managers don't like anyone. What do you do then? What do you do if there is no one at work who you respect, or who is 'skilled' at dealing with people'? What happens then? The district implodes, my friend. It caves in on itself for lack of support or structure.
Well, I hope you enjoyed RGIS' examples of how to handle "People Problems at Work." Tune in next week for more RGIS nonsense.
39 comments:
You know, I found your blog in a search for some information about RGIS when I applied there. I can't say that I do or don't believe that these things have actually happened with you at your district but it definitely gave me a bad impression of RGIS. However, after starting work with them, it was completely the opposite of your stories. I don't see any favortism going on in my district. Also, I haven't seen auditors talk bad about each other. I'm not getting too few or many many hours. Sometimes I get a lot and sometimes I don't. Either way, I still enjoy reading your blog.
drivenbywhat: Give it time, give it time. How long have you worked for RGIS? I was there for years. But anyway, thanks for reading.
drivenbywhat- If your time with RGIS is a positive experience, free or mostly of the trials and troubles misfit and other talk about here, more power to you :). It's not that the whole apple is rotten, it's that there are a number of bad spots and good spots. But the organization, it seems, would often rather pretend the bad spots weren't there and point out the good spots as proof that there aren't bad spots. In any case, I wish you good luck.
Misfit- I have a story about auditors not liking each other and being in the middle. I once had to do a "partial" inventory of a store which was sort of a Farm&Fleet/Big "R" type store(Farm supply, hardware, clothing), only smaller. Because it was only a "partial" inventory, they gave me 2 auditors to help instead of the usual 9 or 10. The first problem was that what the store meant by "partial" was that out of the 3 depts they have, they wanted only one counted. Problem was, that department comprised 70% of the store. So much for "partial". The other problem was my co-workers. Let's call them Joe and Val(Names changed to protect me and my job). Joe has been working for the district for years, and thinks he knows everything about the job. He also has a very short temper, and anything can set him off, especially if you disagree with him about something. Val has also been working for the company for years. She is less tempermental, but does not like to be pushed around. And she has a knack for getting under Joe's skin. So the result was that I was often working with one of them in the 4' section to the left of me, the other on the other side. And as we piled up hour after long hour of counting plumbing fittings, bolts, nuts, horse tackle and other unpleasant, tedious things, they would argue about....everything. And I would be right there in the middle, unable to get them to calm down or completely shut up. And I couldn't send anyone home, cause there was no one else to replace them, and the day was going to be long as it was. Good times :/
I had to laugh when I read number 2(MY SUPERVISOR DOESN'T GIVE ME ENOUGH DIRECTION...) in my district most supervisors (and some AM's) didn't bother to give any directions, or gave directions that were so vague no one knew what was going on. This caused lots of problems at the end of the night because most TL and old auditors were so busy trying to hit their APH they didn't want to be bothered. Well in our district we had this theory that it was faster to take everything out of your machine and recount the area than to search for the missing pieces. Well the new people would take a reading, write down the total, and then do a physical recount. When they found it was wrong, they would take the area out of their machine and then move on to the next area. Since the area had been tagged and had a total on it, we would assume the area was done. Well at the end of the night when we did range check, areas would come up missing and all heck would break loose. This happened in a Sears and 25 areas had not been counted. There were only two auditor left, a TL, AM and the DM. The AM had to count and boy was he pissed. Needless to say that person got fired, but had the AM given better instructions, or somebody bothered to help the person out, it probably wouldn't have happened.
hahahaha I love this, so that's how RGIS expects us to handle problems like that!? Honestly their so called solutions are all bull shit.
Once I saw an auditor yelling f*** you to his TL because she asked him to help her do a missed area. She went up to the manager and complained about his attitude. Guess what the manager said? Because of all the friends he has in the company, if he leaves a bunch of people will quit too therefore it's not wise to fire him. The manager "promised" her if that ever happens again she'll do something about it, but this time on behalf of RGIS she would like her to keep quiet about it. She was so angry that she refused to work at the same store with that guy anymore.
In my district, people are generally nice to newbies. But the thing is, once some of the newbies become fast counters and get promoted quickly, the other auditors get jealous and start treating them like dog shit. Many young(like in early 20s) TLs had to step down because many auditors think they are "too young to boss around" and often refuse their orders.
There're good auditors who are helpful and respectful, but to be honest only very small portion of them are nice. Majority of the auditors are very unfriendly and refuse to teach you their own little secret tricks. Also, they'll only be friends with you if you're a slow counter so that you don't make them look bad.
I like counting, I like my job, I just don't like the people and how the company does things. Managers never solve your problems, they just ask you to keep quiet and pretend nothing is happening.
Haha the auditor's handbook. We get those still. We have to sign the back page and turn it in to show that we read it.
I like where it says to "Take on tasks others have neglected."
Ok here's the plan for the majority of our auditors: They see an awful area, so either A) skip past it pretending you dont see it. B) Slow down to a painfully slow pace in the area you are in now and wait for someone else to get it before you. Making sure to say HEY DONT SKIP THAT!
If I did all the areas people neglected to do, my aph would be low. And in RGIS eyes that would make me a bad auditor.
As for your comments about managers changing the time on time sheet: That happens all the time here.
I'm not sure if it's illegal in this state but its a very common occurance here.
As a team leader I'm guilty of it too. I mean come on, Ill have people come in at say 7, sign in, get equip, and I give my speech. My speech is over and I'll get a retard walking in 15 min past 7 signing in at 7. Ill be damned if that person got signed in at the same time as the others when I have to wait for him to get ready and get instructions.
We do have managers though that are worse about it. Like you said. People will get to inventory right on time, say at 7, but get docked 6-10 minutes. The managers will claim it's because they are supposed to be there 15 min early to get ready. But that is bullshit. If we arent going to get paid for the 15 they cant force us to be there.
There's other time sheet cheating here also. If someone doesnt sign out at the end of the night they will get marked out at the same time the first auditor left.
I have team leaders that will add time to your timesheet if you count fast and do well in a store. As long as we quote "keep it a secret"
And if you forget to sign your name on lunch waiver. Tough luck! Managers wont hesitate to mark you down as taking a lunch!
And I guess one last thing I remember. I was in a store once. It was a small store. I asked the team leader where this other team leader was on the time sheet. (Its common to have other team leaders counting as auditors in our stores.) Anyway this other team leader's name was on the time sheet but she wasnt in the store at all. Well I find out that there's a secret deal between them where when they work each others stores they can sit out and still get paid for it. Of course I was told to keep it secret and I shouldnt be looking in his procedure packet in the first place. Haha
Ahhh this company sucks in so many ways. LOL
anon. at 2:51 pm: You're so right about RGIS wanting to pretend that the "bad spots" don't exist. I thought it was just my district at first, but after reading the comments of many here at my blog I see now that it goes on in other districts as well. Maybe not all, but many others.
I've never heard of Farm & Fleet, it must be a regional store. I really enjoyed the story though. Ugh! That sounds like one awful day. How many hours were you guys there? Is it possible for TL's to request or deny certain auditors for their inventories, in your district?
anon. at 5:08 pm: I know what you mean. That's one of the problems with RGIS pushing the APH. Most auditors are so panicked at the thought of dropping their APH level that they can't spend the time they might have, helping the newbies out. The AM or DM should appoint a couple of auditors for the specific task of helping out newbies, and let the APH thing rest for them, in that inventory.
The auditor that backed out the areas in his machine. He didn't bother to recount them? Oh, that's funny! Your managers must have been boiling. Was that auditor a newbie?
auditor 000: That part about the manager asking the TL to "keep quiet" about it sounds so familiar. It's like the managers in my district, ignoring problems in the hopes that that would make them go away. No one ever wanted to DO something about a problem, they just hoped that you wouldn't notice, or if you did, you wouldn't make a fuss but instead just accept it and let it go. Good for that TL, to refuse to work with the guy again. Too few people in my district refused to take a stand on anything.
"Managers never solve your problems, they just ask you to keep quiet and pretend nothing is happening." Man, does that sound familiar! That's my district all over again.
Catty: This was from "The Auditor's Auditor", the newsletter that RGIS used to publish twice a year. I don't know if they still do. But I too remember having to sign the back of the handbook and turn it in to the office. Seemed like a waste of time to me.
Wow, so time sheet cheating goes on in other districts too. I don't know why I am continually surprised that it wasn't just my district that had so many problems. I remember hearing about one inventory: a store employee witnessed the AM changing the sign in or sign out times for a couple of auditors, and the store employee told the AM something like, "Well, I hope you're prepared to go to jail for that. It's illegal in CA, you know." The AM looked startled but didn't do anything. I wish that store employee had turned the AM in.
But that part about TL's signing each other in, when they're not even at the store...Wow! That's a new one on me! I don't think they ever did that one in my district. At least, not that I know of.
And speaking of procedure packets...I can remember lots of TL's complaining about them because the office secretary Bonnie would continually fuck them up and forget to put in area tags, worksheets, what have you.
Ohhhh you mean that newspaper thing they have!
Haha ok that thing is a joke too.
We used to get them mailed out to us but that stopped. Probably to save money on postage.
Our TLs always cheat on timesheets......but they cheat the company not us haha.
I notice that they always cheat hours when we go out of town. Last time we finished the whole thing at around noon and the TL brought in some food for us. We stand around and ate and talk and such for almost an hour and she end up signing us out at 1pm. We cheated an hour!
Last week I did a small store with two TLs, I finished at around 8:50pm so I put that down right, she told me to put 9:00pm, but I've writtend down the actual time so I just leave it like that. She ended up starting a new time sheet and she put down 9:00 for me. hehehe
Another time all of us including the TL took an hour lunch break, when I received my pay stub I realized the TL wrote down 30 minutes break instead of an hour.....
Once we went to an out of town trip, on our way back our TL decided to stop at a resturant for lunch. We ended up spending an hour and a half at the resturant and we got travelling pay for that so the meal was practically free hahahaha.
Auditor's Auditor, I've recevied a few of those. I liked the one that had on the front page about the Alaska guys who go inventories on snowmobiles. Actually, a few of 354's finest who have been with the company for have been with the company for 20+ years have been featured in there.
Speaking of pens, I actually I went out and bought specificy for inventorying. I have prescription writing pens I use.
You know, the suggested solutions from "Handing People Problems" work in a normal district. Its just that districts like your old 414, well they are not normal. The only solution to these werid districts is well, fire people :P
agentskelly: Yes, I had no problem with the solutions presented in the article, it was just the thought of trying to implement them in my district that made me laugh. But no, they couldn't fire anyone because they were always so hard up for people to staff their inventories.
I use to fill in for the district secretary when she was on vacation. I witnessed the managers and dm changing timesheets all the time. Most of the changing was not on the actual times but on the travel and milegage. This was back in the day when auditors got paid for travel from their meets. I use to cringe, but the worst part was the fact that hardly anyone even noticed. they would change the travel pay say on 15 differnt auditors and maybe one would call and say that they were short on travel pay, so my dm would say "oh, we are sorry, something must have been entered wrong, I will put the difference in your next pay". And half the time not even do that. This would go on every single week. I was told on several occasions to change travel pay, but I refused so they (the managers), just did it themselves.
It use to really piss me off though and I don't think RGIS itself condones this at all. The manager's thinking was that some of the auditors were known for trying to make more money off of the company than they were entitled to. This could be true, but instead of handling it the way they did, I could never understand why they just didn't confront these auditors instead of playing games with the timesheets. In fact, I think if headquarters knew what the managers did, I think they might have canned some of those managers. I find it hard to believe that any company would let itself be open to a labor relations lawsuit.
Misfit: Maybe drivenbywhat works in a district with good managers. It happens from time to time.
As for changing timesheets, I've only ever seen it done when the auditor signed the timesheet wrong: Inventory starts at 7 am, auditor walks in the front door at 7, takes 5 minutes to walk to the stockroom, 15 more to get equipment, and then still needs procedures repeated and isn't ready to count until 7:25. But they signed in at 7. Or sometimes they even walk in the front door at 7:15 and sign in at 7.
I started looking at it this way -- I have 10 auditors who showed up at 6:50 and were ready at 7 when I started giving procedures. Is it fair to them that they start counting at 7:02, while the people who walked in the door at 7 and started counting 20 minutes later all get signed in at the same time?
Sometimes the mistake is accidental. I have walked in and absent-mindedly signed the timesheet at the same time as the person above me. We used to have an account where we started at 6:30 pm. One day the first person signed 6 pm, and the next 7 people also signed 6:00 -- but I'm sure they weren't even thinking about it.
The other problem is people who leave and forget to sign out. Then managers have to guess what time they left, which is hard when you have 50, or 75, or 100 auditors.
As for adding time, bad idea. A lot of managers (not me) take the attitude that this only justifies changing hours in the company's favor because they're just getting back the falsified hours they've already paid.
Changing a timesheet is technically illegal, but if it it's a legitimate correction, I don't see how you can blame someone.
They won't be changing timesheets anymore in the very near future. We have been told that the timesheets will now be part of every store's download and will be transmitted along with the store.
So, no manager, DM, TL or anyone else will be able to do it. You will actually be scanning your badges when you arrive at the store and scanning them when you leave. So, if anyone comes in past the start time, they will be scanned in at that time. Guess the company has figured out that people do play with timesheets, especially managers, and they do not want labor issues. One practice that will definitely have to stop is the practice of having auditors sign out 1 half hour later than their actual time out.
Misfit, this is how my District has handled the lunch break issue since the California suit. If you work past the 6 hrs. that require you to give lunch, they have the auditors sign out later and then deduct lunch to make it appear like they gave it. So, if you leave at 2:00 p.m., they make you sign out at 2:30 p.m. and then deduct the lunch break. Their logic is that the auditor isn't losing anything because they signed out later and they are covering their butts from the Labor Board. But the issue of not giving the lunch break still exists. When we start scanning badges, they won't be able to do it because every auditor would have to leave their badges behind so the manager could scan it a half hour later. That certainly would become a problem if you need your badge for a store later in the same day. So, I guess, not only will the messing with timesheets end, the fake lunch breaks will too. And, the managers in my District all play the lunch break game.
Has anyone who reads this blog actually been reviewed yet under the 50 store policy? Just wondering. Many of the people in my District have reached their 50 since the date it supposedly started which was July 1st. One of the guys approached our DM wanting to know when he would be reviewed because he hit the 50 last week. Here is what our DM told him: you can't be reviewed till the end of the quarter, even if you hit 50 much before that. So the guy asked him what happens to the other 50 he has already started working on? Answer: those stores don't count. You start over at 50 every quarter. It doesn't accumulate. So anything over 50 in a quarter is lost. UH?? This isn't the way it was originally explained. So, technically, you could stop working for the rest of the quarter after you have hit 50 stores if you wanted to and since those stores don't count. Our DM didn't like that option at all. So the guy who was asking him said he wondered what the night teams would do. If the stores start over every quarter, those poor night team people will never hit 50 and never get a raise. But, our DM being a typical RGIS buffoon, responded this way: Well, the night teams stores will accumulate from quarter to quarter.
Say what?? The daytimers do not accumulate but the night teams do??
This is just his typical way of answering nonsense so that every one thinks they are getting a good deal. Gotta love these people.
They certainly know how their raises and bonuses work.
I'm surprised RGIS is still pushing the APH. When Impala first took over my DM told us they would be getting rid of the APH. He said RGIS would stop under bidding to beat Washington Inventory, and charge enough money up front so that it wouldn't matter how much money a person made per hour (this was used to determine scheduling in the district, and let me tell you, if you made more than $10 per hour, they practically threw you out of the inventory once the count was over). He said the goal was to get as many auditors in the store as possible, have quick and ACCURATE inventories, and to get to the point where no inventory went over four hours.... Guess they changed their minds.
anon. at 1:11 pm: The scanning of badges sounds like a good idea. Now no one can cheat someone out of some time on the time sheets. At least, not that I can think of. But trust a RGIS manager to figure out a way to do it!
The lunch break thing sounds fishy. Maybe because it is. What about the auditors that really wanted to take a lunch?
The scanning of badges will be great.
I can't think of how many times in the past week that several auditors were 10-15 minutes late, signed in on time, then squawked and yelled at the manager when they were confronted on this blatant dishonesty. They always bring up the labor board when they're trying to cheat money out of the company. It makes me sick that these people earn money from the time that I started counting, yet they were still smoking in the parking lot. Managers can't do that much about it because they're afraid of lawsuits. One of the best managers I've ever worked with is being sued by someone because he fired them for basically being a crapy auditor - showing up late, taking long breaks, etc. You can't fire anyone for just being a bad employee without the fear of being sued.
Misfit, we aren't given the option of taking the lunch break. They just do not give it or offer to give it. And...when you are signing out they tell you to sign out a half hour later to make it look like the break was taken. I've asked many times about the fact that maybe people would like the break and I always get the same answer. "I don't think they would want lunch. I think they would rather get out a half hour earlier." Duh...not really when you work for 8 hours and are starving.
Regarding the scanning of badges instead of timesheets:
What happens when the supervisor is a lazy POS who shows up for a 6:00 inventory at 6:10 and has no machines downloaded? Or the supervisor for whatever reason shows up really late and you have nothing to scan with for a half-hour? Or your audit machine craps out before you transmit? And how do you account for people who close out when the count is done but stay for another hour (or two hours, or more) to help with the range checks and tag-pulling?
And then there are the people (especially in January) who come for their first inventory, decide they don't like it, take the machine off, set it on a counter, and disappear, never to be seen again?
I've also seen some large stores that are counted during the day, and because of the length of the wrap-up and the size of the store, they just schedule a couple of night auditors to come in and pull tags. And then there are the non-equipment inventories.
My point is that there will HAVE to be some way to change the times.
Last I heard, the meal breaks were COMPANY POLICY. If you ask for it and are told no (if the inventory lasts more than 7 hours), complain to headquarters. And you can't be required to sign the meal break waiver, either.
In some states meal breaks also are required by law. However, contrary to popular belief, there is no federal law concerning breaks. People don't believe this, but check with the Department of Labor (http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/workhours/breaks.htm). Personally, I think people work better when they aren't hungry.
When the company policy was first put in place, a lot of auditors were really upset. They just wanted to get the inventory done and go home, and 30 minutes off the clock just meant going home 30 minutes later. And if you're doing a store late at night or in a remote location, you may not want to take the meal break because there is nowhere to get food and nothing to do but stare at the walls.
Refugee...we are aware that meal breaks are COMPANY POLICY. But, our District doesn't give them and have never even shown us a meal waiver. And meal waivers are State Law in Mass. They just do not give the break and cover their butts by making us sign out a half hour later. This is what is going on in our District regardless of COMPANY POLICY OR STATE LAW. Oh sure!!!! complain to HQ and they will get in trouble but the people who complain will have hell to pay for reporting them. Our District follows no company policy except if it is to their benefit.
Then don't report it to HQ -- tell the state. I would think there is a way to do this anonymously.
As for allowing modification of times in Oracle but no timesheet: uh oh. Now they can change the time in Oracle, but there is no paper trail. That's why I now ask for an absentee ballot instead of using touchscreen voting machines.
In my district (76) we have already started using the new timesheet program where you scan everyone's badge. I've already run a few inventories with this progam in place.
To answer some of the refugee's questions. There is one machine set aside solely for the purpose of clocking people in and out of an inventory. Once your badge gets scanned with that machine you're on the clock and you remain on the clock until they scan your badge again from that same machine. Closing out your 'counting machine' does not mean that you're clocked out.
Secondly the crew supervisor can alter the timesheet info on the portable the same way they would on a 'paper' timesheet. Also as rgistechy said, the managers will still be able to alter info on oracle. Also it is possible to key a person's badge number into the time card machine.
Still in the instance of those TLs who were signing each other in to their inventories. Those people could still pull that scam off, all they would have to do is to key each other's badge # in and out wihtout them actually being there.
The new system may stop dishonest auditors from clocking in too early or clocking out too late. But if you don't have honest TLs, AMs, DMs, or other such people, I'm skeptical that anything will really change regarding the timesheets.
RGIS Disorganized, I am presently employed with RGIS and have to say it's not really a bad job, it is more dignified since the pay rate is above a Sandwich Engineer, Cashier, Merchandiser, Gas-Pumper Etc. They just severly lack organization within some of their branches
I don't know if anyone's still checking this, but you can do a lot to the time sheets in the portable. You don't even need to know someone's badge number to clock them in, so long as they're in the portable's district employee list -- just search the name and add them in to the store. Of course, if they're not actually there, it will run a discrepancy check and I'm sure that shows up somewhere as "needing to be checked into".
But it'll document any changes to the times, that is true. Letters, such as E or A, will appear next to names that have been changed. The auditors and such will likely never see that, but someone does, and so long as the employee is keeping track of their hours, that'll be a record to check against and if they're getting schtupped minutes here and there that all happen to be E(dit)'s, then maybe something will happen.
Maybe not, though. Who knows. If anything, I think this is worse, really, because it makes things less transparent for the employees and they're less likely to know or notice when they've been screwed.
It also leads to auditors screwing themselves without even knowing it, due to the complicated nature of it. In the Time Collection Audit, you can clock in, clock out (in a travel vehicle or not), clock out for a 10 minute break, and/or clock in and out of a meal. Unfortunately, there's always confusion about the break versus the meal and how it's handled in the TCA. For the 10 minute breaks, you're only required to do one "punch" (what it's called) -- you don't need to use the TCA when coming back from the break. Meals, however, you do have to clock in and out of, just like the store. This usually leads to people either clocking out as they try to clock in from their 10 minute break, or not clocking back in from their meal until they clock out of the store. Which leads to the guesswork for when they got back from the meal and that's never at the advantage of the employee (unless they took a 3 hour meal and no one noticed).
I know all this because I'm a "grey shirt" (I don't even know if I'm a TL or an ATL, but I don't care -- I stopped running stores because I never got a raise for transitioning from maroon to grey) burdened with the portable at larger inventories and I *hate* the TCA. It's a waste of time and does nothing but add stress to the wrap-up. And that's not even when you have to deal with badges not on file. It's lame. Perhaps there were good intentions, originally, but it's not much better. They keep saying that we're getting rid of worksheets and all sorts of information will be stored in the audits -- maybe then there'll be a bit more checks and balances to the system, but I don't know, I think it'll make it a bit worse (i.e. if someone puts the wrong id into the audit and also isn't down on a worksheet log, they may not be found, especially in a large inventory).
Just a few thoughts from Oklahoma ...
Oklahoma: Thanks for the info. I can't stress enough how important it is for everyone to keep careful records of their hours worked, right down to the minute. DO NOT trust anyone else to do this. Whether by honest mistake or outright cheating, you will probably get screwed out of some time in your paychecks, so write down everything in your own records, like a calendar. That means exact times clocked in and out, and any rest or meal breaks, too. Again, DO NOT trust anyone else at RGIS to do this for you. Take care of yourself.
OK, that's terrible that they never gave you a raise, when you moved out of your burgundy shirt. I don't blame you one bit for not wanting to run stores. I was always turning down my district's requests to become a TL. Who needed the hassles that came with running a store? And for a lousy 25 cent raise?
You know, the TCA for me was a bit confusing at first, but once I got the hang of it, its no problem.
As long as the supervisor is on the ball with changing it accordingly and making people aware to look to see what function is on if they are in doubt, its fine.
My 2 cents.
One of the reasons that auditors do not want to promote to TL, or current TL's are demoting is because it is a thankless job. In addition to a miserly raise, you have to deal with attitude from the crew, especially when you expect them to follow procedures. You try to be professional in dealing with indifferent store managers who'd rather eat and gossip than assist with SKU checks or tidy the merchandise so that we can finish sooner. Then they complain that we take too long. Being a TL is like being a parent in a strange way because most auditors act like rotten brats.
Some new hires once asked me if smoking was a job requirement at RGIS because at least 60% of the people in our district smoke. My reply was that it is more of a survival skill or coping mechanism because of the stress encountered on a daily basis.
You are absolutely right about the smoking percentage. For us non-smokers the good thing was when we would encounter those RARE stores that would provide food and drink for us on a break we would have no problems actually getting some of it. Most auditors were outside smoking so us non-smokers loved it.
I have been with RGIS for about 3 months now. I could tell this job was a joke when my friend approached me in the hall of our high school and said "Hey man, I got you an interview at RGIS." I reply, "RGIS, what the hell is that??" At this point I have been out of a job for a few weeks. I had recently quit my job with QuikTrip. Very good company. Anyway, we go to the office for this "interview". This "office" is nothing but a hole in the wall...and it is disgusting and unorganized. Nothing about this place looked sanitary. How the hell was this place ACTUALLY making any money?? I automatically received the job...No questions asked. They handed me all the paper work - I filled it out - They made a copy of my DL and Soc. - Took my picture and received my ID Badge. No questions asked. No training, nothing. I did not see my very first store until 2 weeks later. It was an Office Depot. Nothing went right. Two auditors needed all their areas recounted - They were TOLD to leave and not come back. Anyway, I didn't see work for another 2 weeks. My next schedule I worked 6 days a week. 4 out of those 6 I did three stores each day. It's like...You get NO work...or you get ALL the work. Don't even try to ask if RGIS will schedule around your school schedule. They don't care if you are in school.
With all this said...I like my job. I aspire to be an accountant - so I like this kind of stuff. It's just...If the people were a little more friendly. Most people in District 322 are dicks. I tried saying "GOod morning" before a Fred's...I thought the TL was burning a hole through my face with his "eat shit and die look". I have noticed that I am one of the senior auditor's in my District...I am 19...I have been working for RGIS for 3 months. WTF?
Smiley: Welcome to my blog! I hope you'll continue to read, and to leave your comments as well. I guess you can take heart in the fact that your experiences with RGIS are very similar to a lot of us here. But is that a good thing or a bad thing? :-)
with the economy so poor people are being forced to look for work in the local newspaper employment ads. RGIS is hiring in the Buffalo NY area and I was wondering if anyone knows the skinny about SOP at any of these shops? What is the average educational level completed for the people they hire?
Hello, Misfit. I have recently discovered your blog, perhaps too late to see it while it was active. I cannot hold back from commenting on this one dated post.
"They won't be changing timesheets anymore in the very near future. We have been told that the timesheets will now be part of every store's download and will be transmitted along with the store.
So, no manager, DM, TL or anyone else will be able to do it."
THAT IS THE FUNNIEST THING I HAVE READ ALL YEAR. Bless you, poor, gullible, innocent Anonymous from 2006.
In fact, before I read this post it had not occurred to me that the whole purpose of machine-based time punches was to stop all the out of control time changings. I mean, to hear it from the AM who taught me the ropes, you'd think TCAs were invented to make all those illegal time adjustments neater and easier!
Some AM elsewhere got fired for regularly setting everyone's clock-in time to the hour when it was really a scattering of times from 5:52 to 6:04. (You can't work 30 people up to the last legal minute without a lunch unless you know when that last minute would be, so it helps to synchronize.) Fired for doing what they were all doing, and what they instructed us team leaders to do as well. But now we're cracking down on that sort of thing.
This blog is just priceless. I have to go to a store shortly, but will be contributing some stories and insights from here in Dist. 80
Supposedly, batching is a big no-no. But I see major batching by auditors left and right. especially in bookstores. I must bea fool to scan every piece which leads to a lesser APH than batchers. However, what happens to auditors who are caught batching their way through an inventory?
Anon, 04/25: Technically, auditors that batch are supposed to be reprimanded and/or dismissed, either from the inventory itself or from the job. But in my district that was an extremely rare event; only one time that I can recall was a person ever sent home for batching.
Once, on the way back to the office from a Long's Drugs inventory DM Kevin told a van full of auditors that Brenda had been sent home from the inventory because she batched the vitamins section. She simply entered in one price for the entire section (shelves and shelves full of bottles of vitamins!) and hit something like 99 on the keypad. Of course that section came out to a weird total, the store manager asked for it to be printed, DM Kevin found out what Brenda had done and supposedly sent her home. Since no one saw this happen we were doubtful. I figured Kevin just told us this story to "scare" us into counting legitimately (hah!), you know, as in "If you don't count the way you're supposed to I'll send you home." Yeah right, who cares? Even if he had the balls to send someone home it wouldn't have meant anything: knowing Kevin he would have waited until about 10 min. before the inventory was finished before he sent anyone home. Get as much out of them as he could before "dismissing" them from the inventory.
During my years working for RGIS I saw people batching constantly. Team leaders, AM's, DM's, all knew it was going on but didn't give a crap. All they cared about was getting the inventory done on time, or early, and if it had to be done by batching the shit out of the store then so be it. As long as they or their auditors weren't caught batching by the store's manager then no one cared.
At this past Saturday's pre inventory meeting, the AM pointed out that anyone who batched would be sent home. Penny for everyone's thought at that moment! Give ME a vacation by sending me home.
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