Friday, February 02, 2007
Comments And More Comments
Recently I've encountered some difficulties in publishing new comments at this blog. Blogger is going through some changes in their system (again!) and that's resulted in several of your comments not getting published. I'm hoping that situation has improved and it will be smooth sailing from now on (well, I can dream can't I?). Thank you for your patience and happy reading!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
30 comments:
OMG.
I just found your blog and spent the last half hour reading and laughing out loud.
Hysterically.
Manically, even.
I bookmarked it to come back to ... after I get my requisite three hours sleep before the next store.
anon. at 8:34 pm: Thanks! And welcome to my blog. I hope you'll continue to read it. And please share your comments; I'm always interested to know what other people think of my blog, especially fellow RGIS employees, both ex and current. I also like to hear about other people's experiences within their own district, both good and bad. Have fun scanning! "Buzz!" "Buzz!" "Hit Clear!"
This blog has been an instructive and funny read.
I work for an inventory company in Australia that has just been gobbled up by RGIS. Apparently they want our software (one simple programme, flexible enough for any/every client) and we want your scanners/pdts (because ours are cr@p).
From what I can tell RGIS now seems to be in the ownership of venture capital types whose usual modus operandi is to ruthlessly cut costs (ie. our pay/conditions) in order to on-sell the new lean model for a tidy profit.
Our conditions (travel pay, minimum job hours etc) seem to be better than those in the US, and we will be watching closely to guard against negative creeping.
Most of us say that we would be happy to walk rather than see our conditions deteriorate in order to line Impala's already bulging pockets.
lasramblas: Thanks! I hope you're enjoying this blog. Good luck with your new "employers". I hope RGIS will be better to Australians than they have been to us here in the States!
P.S. Your comments regarding the whole inventory business are dead on accurate.
Yes...RGIS acquired Lortons in Australia. I hope they will need to send people over there, because I will be first in line :)
Impala Partners? Well...they have a good track record from what I remember and consulting with other people about them.
I rather General Electric got to acquire RGIS when the had the chance (yes they had the chance) and do "rank & yank" on management.
Wow, I pretty much started working for RGIS the same time you started your blog. I’ve experienced pretty much the same things as you explained regarding RGIS policy. You're also quite popular at our district up here in Canada. I hear auditors talk about your stories all the time. I wish I had read your blog sooner, as its great advice for even regular auditors such as myself.
I think the craziest things I've ever witnessed was at a pharmaceutical company. We would open bottles and count pills among other medicines. Some pills were cancer pills, and costs around $75 per pill so I guess each pill was important. But of course, we were estimating, and the store paid by the hour.
Anyway, this inventory was a mess, and had gone for 6 hours, none stop. There was easily 2 hours left in the count, with not one person out of the 25 to even take a washroom break. All of a sudden, CRASH! An auditor on a step ladder counting pills collapsed and fell to the ground. He was a newbie, and in the beginning of the inventory had cleared 5-6 machines by pressing clear, then CRTL-F1. The AM in charge of the inventory Ryan, yelled at him, and insultingly demonstrated how to properly turn on an audit. Well back to the fall. The floor was tiled, so it was a hard landing for him. The guy beside him starts to call for the AM. “Ryan! Ryan! I was personally excited and wanted to yell, “Man down! Man down!” Then I surveyed the area, wondering how the hell could this possible happen? I finally rushed over to grab Ryan. After 6 hours of intense pill counting, and sniffing chemicals, any event that occurs is very amusing whether or not someone got hurt. The guy on the floor started to shake violently, and appeared to be having a seizure. His eyes were wide open but didn’t seem to be conscious. I now think he fell as a result of exhaustion and may have whiff in some powdered chemicals that you often get whenever you open up a bottle filled with strange pills. The AAM arrived to the scene along with the store manager and then they called 9-11. The store manager stayed by the fallen auditor’s side trying to comfort him. I guess he thought he was the most qualified seeing as how he was working at a place like that. The fallen guy would eventually stop shaking, but his eyes were still wide open and he wouldn’t respond. After 20 minutes, he would talk softly, but I couldn’t hear him because we were still counting around him! The noise was the typical keying of audits and when the paramedics arrived, and they seemed puzzled by what was going on around him.
Well that was the last I saw of that auditor and the AM eventually quit a few months later. He was a nice guy, but he couldn’t handle the stress.
Finger laser: Welcome to my blog! I hope you'll continue to read it, and to add your comments here. I also welcome anyone's stories and experiences about working for RGIS.
Wow, that's so gratifying to learn that other people are enjoying reading my blog! Thanks for letting me know about the others in your district who have read this blog. Believe me, you made my day by writing that! Thanks again.
That poor guy in the pharmaceutical company! I hope he was okay. You never saw him again? Ah, he was one of the fortunate ones who got away from RGIS in time, yes? :)
You wrote that no one was allowed a bathroom break for the last 2 hours. How can your managers do that? I mean, what if someone really REALLY has to go? What are they going to do, tell the auditor "I don't care if you damage your bladder and kidneys! You can't go to the bathroom!"
It wasn't like that. Auditors just encouraged each other to hold it. They all hoped/believed the count would end soon, so even going to the washroom would delay their freedom. When your mind is so set on one goal and you're desperate, you endure pain just to see it reached. You deceive yourself as a result, but I know I felt that way plenty of times working with RGIS.
I've got plenty more stories to tell, but I'll quit first or at least wait a month or so before I post them. I know a few people who read your blog, but I don't want them to know who I am.
finger laser: Sounds good. I'm looking forward to your stories.:)
I have actually ran into ONE person who recognized me from my comments here actually since I transfered out west.
laser: You by any chance from one of the Toronto area districts?
Hey agentkelly,
Yeah I'm in the area but I'm not from Toronto. I've been to Toronto last summer to do the HBC stores, and the year before we did a few Wal-Marts there too. Those stores can take between 5-20 hours, but the Bay is actually quite comfortable to work in.
Wal-Mart on the other hand, especially in Toronto is a complete mess. I'm surprised those Wal-Mart associates don't quit themselves. All you hear when you're in there is new people constantly yelling "sku-check!" I eventually started dreaming about inventories and people yelling sku-check during heavy weeks of inventories. I try to be more polite when I encounter missing skus by just waiting for one of those blue-shirts to be close and just hand them the item.
And those damn customers in Toronto can be such a pain. I now remember one time when I was working at one of these stores. I was simply counting then this woman approaches me and asks, "Do you know where the cords are?" I was exhausted and didn't want to deal with her, so I politely replied, I'm sorry I don't work here, you should ask one of the sales associates." She angrily replied, "so you've been here all day, in every section and you can't tell me where I can purchase cords?" I honestly didn't know what she meant by 'cords', so I told her simply "No I don't." She walked away all pissy, but honestly, when you're stomped with a question, you can't do anything to help, so just move on. But most of the time when a customer asks me where a certain item may be located, I usually try to help if I know what they're talking about and I've encountered seeing it. It's nice to stop counting every once in a while and talk with someone. The AMs can't do anything as it'll look bad on them, so sometimes polite customers are a refresher.
finger laser: I too used to dread the customers asking questions. I have to say that most of them were polite, but there would always be at least one in an inventory who would ask you where something was located, and you'd say, "I'm sorry I don't work here,I'm just doing the inventory. You should find a store clerk. They're dressed in blue coats or green polos, etc." The customer would become unreasonably irate and say something biting, just like what you described. "Well, if you're doing inventory then you should know where everything is!" Of course it's no use explaining to them that you haven't counted the entire store yourself, every single day for a month so that you've memorized all the merchandise. You just have to ignore them and go about your merry auditor's way.
I remember one old guy standing at the entrance to an aisle in OTC and screaming, "Tylenol!!!" Not "Where's the Tylenol", or "Can you tell me where the Tylenol is?" No, just at the top of his lungs, "Tylenol!" He must have had some headache.
When I did the Wal-Mart inventories back east, I loved doing them because they were so well run and I had no problem getting SKU checks. And there we just pointed customers to the people in blue that were always in the aisle with us if they have a question.
Oh god....I have noticed lately that I've been getting more customers asking where things are than last year alone...its crazy. Most of them are satisifed with the awnser of "I actually don't work for Store X, sorry". But there's a few where I have to say "Its over in the aisle over" to allow me to get back to counting.
Now, if I do where it is, I "I actually don't work for Store X, but I do know thats over in aisle Y".
Agent Skelly: I never minded helping customers who were polite. And if I knew where something was located I would tell them. But man! Some people would be so cranky! They would actually sound offended when I told them (always politely) that I didn't work at the store. That would always confuse the old people. They never seemed to be able to tell the difference between working IN the store and working FOR the store.
Misfit: Yeah...I have ran into a few of the cranky people.
Most recent is a upscale chain here in Portland called "Zupans". I was knocking out the coffee isle and the this woman comes up to me asking about some tea and I say I don't work here and all, and she goes "Your the 4th person to say that!"
She storms off and I see her go up to cashier and just my luck, its a loud cashier which I hear "Oh, those are the outside inventory people!" which the lady goes "Oh...I am sooooo sorry!"
Agent Skelly: Oh, how nice of her. She says "Sorry" to the store clerk but not to you. I hope people like that are the exception and not the rule.
They are the exception...but this was my first time happening to me :)
Now...back with D354, I heard a story of a customer who "didn't understand why all the red shirts didn't know where things are" and ended up getting kicked from the store for making a scene.
Agent Skelly: Yes! Score one for the red shirts! :)
I thought about putting a sign on my RGIS shirt when going to stores that would be open while we were doing the inventory. It would read I DON'T WORK HERE or NO TRABAJO AQUI since a lot of shoppers in this area only speak Spanish. One thing that annoyed me was when shoppers would bring their bratty, whiny children into the store, and of course, the children threw tantrums if their parents wouldn't buy something they wanted. Or shoppers nearly run us down with their carts. On a positive note, sometimes young children would watch us doing our job and be mesmerized by it. As long as they weren't screaming from across the store, I was happy.
Hahha...yes...kids like seeing the fingers flying on the keypad :)
Hi
Once upon a time in a land far way from the United States there was a country called England.
England was ruled by a Queen called Nicola (Operations Director)with 2 apprentices.One of these turned out to be a Court Jester(ops Manager) he created havoc wherever he went.Of course the Queen realised this and had to move him around the country to stop the bleeding.Until it came to pass that the blood ran dry and the auditors lived happily ever after.
I love reading all these stories. They are so funny. We have all been there. I have worked 8 years. I can relate to all these stories. I am so glad to hear that so many other people feel the same way as me. I hate most of the people I work with. There are a few of us that act so immature it's sickening but it is the only way to get through the day. We fart out loud, talk nasty as hell, make fun of each other all day long. Everyone hates us. But we can practically do anything we want because we are extremely fast. We miss work whenever we want, go smoke whenever we want, we tell our manager that he doesnt know it yet but he's really gay.
We have this couple in our district. The woman and the man are both bipolar. He is also totally gay. The guy is our assistant area manager. The girl is our team leader. THey fight constantly. He cannot handle stress. Whenever he gets stressed he yells at everyone and starts hitting store merchandise and the printer and portable, and throughs the machines. Whenever he has had a bad day at work he goes home and beats her. She misses about two weeks of work and comes back and tells us all about him beating her. She is always begging everyone for painers. Its just ridiculous. He smokes pot on the way to our jobs in the company van. He never gets in trouble because he is one of those idiots that thinks RGIS is his life. He would drive 20 hours straight to work 3 hours if they asked him to.
PAOPC: First off, you have selected a great nickname. I love it! Second, wow. Your district sounds even more "fun" than mine!
Mrs. Roboto: Welcome to my blog! I hope you'll continue to read and to leave your comments as well. I love hearing about other people's experiences with RGIS, both good and bad. (But of course the bad is much more entertaining! And more commonplace.).
RGIS ESTIMATE!!! I know this for a FACT I had the pleasure of working with RGIS for 8 months and the store supervisors informed all the staff of the areas that was going to be checked!! haha what a total joke!! Accurate HAHA!!! It was all about how best the auditors could GUESSTIMATE!!! Very few of the Staff & managers had much spark about them & the very few I met left!! They never sent enough people to stores, treated everyone like trash. Even the store managers thought the company was a joke!!!
LOVE THE WEBSITE MADE MY LAUGH THANKS A BUNCH!!
Anon at 2/19: Thanks so much for your kind words! I'm glad you've enjoyed reading my blog. It's been so much fun to write it and know that people are enjoying it too.
I have a question for the veteren RGIS auditors. Is there any kind of workman's comp while onthe job. The other day I was in a backroom atop a 15 foot ladder and almost lost my balance. I wonder what would happen if I plummeted to the concrete floor? I imagine the first thing that wold happen is for the team leader to figure out where I had left off in the area so that someone else could finsih up the area.
Also, is there anyway to adjust the volume of the beep on the RM1?
One of my pet peeves is to get a weak beeping device and spend the night trying to guess if an item was scanned properly or not. This on top of tryingto hear it over the chatter of the obnoxious store employees.
eyes of district 80:
I think the workers comp laws vary from state to state. You can check with your state.Also, when out on a job you might check the employee`s break room.At some stores they post the workers compensation government brochure on the employee bulletin board. I just saw one the other day at a store I was inventoring. If you are going to crash and burn, just make sure there are witnesses!( You actually need them to file a claim, according to the brochure I saw.)In other words,don`t have an accident in the back corner or offsite where no one else is around.
I don`t know of any way of adjusting the volume on the RM-1`s.There just like the old audits--some are louder than others. I had one at a Barnes and Noble the other night that was so irritating because it was so quiet;I could hear everone else`s beeps better than mine.
all jobs have their ups and downs, the problem with rgis recruits is for some reason they think they need no transportation, no skils and no abilities. they dont even think they need to know how to count. they get hired and then donot understand why they are let go. come on people for the simplest of jobs all you need is some common sense...you know what they want, u can simply turn down the job or show up without your attitude...noone said life as an adult would be easy..why not try pretending to be one..workin at rgis and lovin every minute of it!!!!!!!!!
Post a Comment