The Woolworths Thread (9 Viewers)

[iMatthew]

same here at my store...except i average 20-25 hours, which is good for an 18 year old casual. most of the 15 year old casuals get 5 hours a week and some get no shifts at all

Yeah, i'm more of a keen person though as it is. I like working at the moment (i'm young and stupid for that reason ).
But people know I'm keen and do my absolute best. My supervisors know they can count on me when they call me to come in.
The DM was like "who can you trust to come in really quickly", first person they said was "mat!" (told me this after i arrived).

I'm just trying to put in effort atm, thought i know it doesn't pay off. I want supervision, that's my goal for now.

BTW should be off probation next week! Well technically Wednesday last week i think, but i got that on probation wage ofcourse.....

 

[iMatthew]

Next Weeks Roster

MON - N/A?
TUE - 0630 - 1500 [SELFSRV]
WED - 1500 - 2230 [SELFSRV]
THU - 1500 - 2230 [SELFSRV]
FRI - 1500 - 2230 [SELFSRV]
SAT - 1500 - 2230 [SELFSRV]
SUN - N/A?

TOTAL (ex. breaks) = 35.5hrs

Child abuse
It's funny, come Australia Day Tuesday and I get the longer SCO open shift (i smell cost cutting, anything to save a few cents)

 

[BSammy]

My next weeks roster

MON - 0600 - 1600 cashoffice
TUE - 9 hours of PA
WED - off
THU - off
FRI - 9 hours of AA
SAT - 9 hours of AA
SUN - 5 hours of AA
(Minus 3 hours ordinary because it's my slightly big week.)


That should give me a chance to recover from Australia Day. Yeah!

Monday will be weird without all the payroll stuff, The head cashier is coming in today to deal with all that. And is having Monday off for it.

 

[lordtopcat]

Yeah, i'm more of a keen person though as it is. I like working at the moment (i'm young and stupid for that reason ).
But people know I'm keen and do my absolute best. My supervisors know they can count on me when they call me to come in.
The DM was like "who can you trust to come in really quickly", first person they said was "mat!" (told me this after i arrived).

I'm just trying to put in effort atm, thought i know it doesn't pay off. I want supervision, that's my goal for now.

BTW should be off probation next week! Well technically Wednesday last week i think, but i got that on probation wage ofcourse.....

You sound exactly the same as I was when I first started at Woolies. During the first 2 months when I was on Checkouts I was working 6 days a week, averaging 45-50 hours a week. (There's no 38 hour rule here) But that was spread over Checkouts, Grocery and Produce. I was top of the 'on call' register (I checked lol) so that meant I was the first person they called to replace a sickie. I think the longest week I ever done was 56, but that was when we had our refit and there were a few of us that worked through the night with the relay team.

However it did all catch up to me, I was sleeping sorta 3-4 hours a day, not eating properly etc etc and it got to the point where I almost broke down, so at that point I said nope, fuck off I'm having 2 consecutive days off all the time. Which I think you need to completely recharge your batteries - to this day I still make sure I have 2 days off in a row.

But those long hours certainly paid off..September last year I was offered the job of Produce 2IC at 16, and at the same time my CSM offered me Super. But at the time the 2IC job was full time, whereas the Sup job wasn't. Plus Produce is a lot more crusier

iMatthew - Have you made your goals clear to your CSM? S/he may not even know you want Sup, but if they do then just make sure you impress the pants off of him/her. You'll get it eventually. What you should also do, which is quite a risky tactic is pick up 1 or 2 shifts in another department, and this could open up your CSM's eyes and be like "Fuck their gonna steal him! Quick let's offer him super". As I said quite risky, but you never know it could pay off

 

[iMatthew]

You sound exactly the same as I was when I first started at Woolies. During the first 2 months when I was on Checkouts I was working 6 days a week, averaging 45-50 hours a week. (There's no 38 hour rule here) But that was spread over Checkouts, Grocery and Produce. I was top of the 'on call' register (I checked lol) so that meant I was the first person they called to replace a sickie. I think the longest week I ever done was 56, but that was when we had our refit and there were a few of us that worked through the night with the relay team.

However it did all catch up to me, I was sleeping sorta 3-4 hours a day, not eating properly etc etc and it got to the point where I almost broke down, so at that point I said nope, fuck off I'm having 2 consecutive days off all the time. Which I think you need to completely recharge your batteries - to this day I still make sure I have 2 days off in a row.

But those long hours certainly paid off..September last year I was offered the job of Produce 2IC at 16, and at the same time my CSM offered me Super. But at the time the 2IC job was full time, whereas the Sup job wasn't. Plus Produce is a lot more crusier

iMatthew - Have you made your goals clear to your CSM? S/he may not even know you want Sup, but if they do then just make sure you impress the pants off of him/her. You'll get it eventually. What you should also do, which is quite a risky tactic is pick up 1 or 2 shifts in another department, and this could open up your CSM's eyes and be like "Fuck their gonna steal him! Quick let's offer him super". As I said quite risky, but you never know it could pay off

Thanks mate, I don't really want to do any other departments though, as I feel service will leave me behind.
Also, how do you 'tell' your CSM that you want to become a supervisor, too me that sounds like telling someone something that you should only be offered, so hmm any advice?

I think I might have to though anyway, despite all the signs which she probably doesn't see (hard work/enthusiasm, etc)

 

[ytrbut]

What you should also do, which is quite a risky tactic is pick up 1 or 2 shifts in another department, and this could open up your CSM's eyes and be like "Fuck their gonna steal him! Quick let's offer him super". As I said quite risky, but you never know it could pay off

Having departments fighting over you, especially if you're often on near-full hours every week, can backfire spectacularly, especially if your original department(s) have a small group of staff, in that the DM/CSM can get fairly shitty if they go to call you in to cover a sickie only to find that you're already on 37.5+ hrs from working one or two shifts in another department, and hence can't call you in because of the overtime concerns.

The other solution is just to waive your overtime and agree to get paid at base rate/150 on Sundays, which is what I normally do. That way I keep everyone happy and management love me for sacrificing my overtime for the good of the store (even though it's not that much of a sacrifice on my part anyways, as I end up with more $$ because I got given that extra [often Sunday] shift, that overtime would have prevented me getting).

 

[iMatthew]

Having departments fighting over you, especially if you're often on near-full hours every week, can backfire spectacularly, especially if your original department(s) have a small group of staff, in that the DM/CSM can get fairly shitty if they go to call you in to cover a sickie only to find that you're already on 37.5+ hrs from working one or two shifts in another department, and hence can't call you in because of the overtime concerns.

The other solution is just to waive your overtime and agree to get paid at base rate/150 on Sundays, which is what I normally do. That way I keep everyone happy and management love me for sacrificing my overtime for the good of the store (even though it's not that much of a sacrifice on my part anyways, as I end up with more $$ because I got given that extra [often Sunday] shift, that overtime would have prevented me getting).

Didn't think you could waive your OT and agree to work :\
Hmm interesting

 

[lordtopcat]

Thanks mate, I don't really want to do any other departments though, as I feel service will leave me behind.
Also, how do you 'tell' your CSM that you want to become a supervisor, too me that sounds like telling someone something that you should only be offered, so hmm any advice?

I think I might have to though anyway, despite all the signs which she probably doesn't see (hard work/enthusiasm, etc)

Just casually drop it into conversation, something like "If you ever find yourself in need of another Super, I'm keen and am confident I'm up to the job"

Having departments fighting over you, especially if you're often on near-full hours every week, can backfire spectacularly, especially if your original department(s) have a small group of staff, in that the DM/CSM can get fairly shitty if they go to call you in to cover a sickie only to find that you're already on 37.5+ hrs from working one or two shifts in another department, and hence can't call you in because of the overtime concerns.

The other solution is just to waive your overtime and agree to get paid at base rate/150 on Sundays, which is what I normally do. That way I keep everyone happy and management love me for sacrificing my overtime for the good of the store (even though it's not that much of a sacrifice on my part anyways, as I end up with more $$ because I got given that extra [often Sunday] shift, that overtime would have prevented me getting).

As I said, it is risky business playing that game, and should only be done if you really know what you're doing. It could either work out really well for you, i.e with a full time job offer in one department, or completely back fire and you end up with no hours in any department.

 

[ytrbut]

Didn't think you could waive your OT and agree to work :\
Hmm interesting

I know my office cashier well. You probably can't officially waive it (I've only ever done it unofficially, so I'm not sure), and it's not a fact I publicise within the store that I do it (I only mentioned it here because I'm pretty sure I haven't divulged too much about myself to make me identifiable).

 

[iMatthew]

Having departments fighting over you, especially if you're often on near-full hours every week, can backfire spectacularly, especially if your original department(s) have a small group of staff, in that the DM/CSM can get fairly shitty if they go to call you in to cover a sickie only to find that you're already on 37.5+ hrs from working one or two shifts in another department, and hence can't call you in because of the overtime concerns.

Yeah exactly, because if I'm almost getting full time hours now, I don't want to go into another department and service to miss out on me and so forth..

Hmm, yeah I don't know if she'll take that as a "oh ok yeah no worries" kind of thing, as i'm still new in her eyes (even though I feel experienced from what i've done in the 4 months).... but you never know, I do casually talk to her so she might see through
Doesn't help that I am a nervous person when it comes to asking things

 

[wixxy2348]

I've noticed that they now seem to have a mgr's meeting every morning, but I thought this was just us, or are there now more than 1 a week? I always thought there was just one on Mondays.

At our store we have them every weekday.

 

[wixxy2348]

[youtube]OdkBkyVYDT4[/youtube]

 

[lordtopcat]

At our store we have them every weekday.

We used to have them every week day too, then they got cut to Monday and Thursday, and now they are only on Tuesday's. Although usually the SM will call another one on Thursday too.

ASR audit coming up in the next couple of weeks...It's funny the SM does an ASR check every week and last week Produce was the only department to pass 100% That's because, as I keep telling everyone at my store Produce is awesome

I even changed our store's intranet password to produce...Was going to do produceisawesome but thought that might be too lonhg.

 

[babikakez]

Having departments fighting over you, especially if you're often on near-full hours every week, can backfire spectacularly, especially if your original department(s) have a small group of staff, in that the DM/CSM can get fairly shitty if they go to call you in to cover a sickie only to find that you're already on 37.5+ hrs from working one or two shifts in another department, and hence can't call you in because of the overtime concerns.

In my experience, it does. I find it in nontrade, but not nearly as much as one of the bakery guys does. He transferred here interstate, and although he was a supervisor previously, he just took whatever department that was available. Now that checkouts want to roster him on (even just as an operator), both the bakery manager and SM are livid. So he's staying in bakery just to keep the peace.

So Mat, don't go and do it just to prove a point.

Hmm, yeah I don't know if she'll take that as a "oh ok yeah no worries" kind of thing, as i'm still new in her eyes (even though I feel experienced from what i've done in the 4 months).... but you never know, I do casually talk to her so she might see through
Doesn't help that I am a nervous person when it comes to asking things

You don't even have to ask directly, even a conversation just on how they choose supervisors is good enough. And four months is about what two of our supervisors had done before being promoted.

 

[jgibson0011]

i know exactly how you feel, iMathew.

i have been working for safeway for two years next april. i enjoy working for the company but realise that for me its not really a "career" as such. i actually want to get into film/television, and im doing a one year full time certificate 4 in screen and media this year.

my CSM is extremely difficult to talk to. i feel uncomfortable asking for supervision because i consider it to be kind of a promotion, something that is only offered to the deserving and never asked for. i was asked by my CSM if i wanted to do some sort of certificate 3, but for that i would have to be full time…personally, i don't think i could handle full time.

so im kind of in the same boat. i know what id like but don't know how to ask for it. its actually starting to piss me off because other supervisors have hinted at me being trained but nothing yet has materialised…i have only ever been backup once and that was a while ago now.

hopefully with one supervisor gone and two more to go soon i may get an offer

^^@wixxy2348: That guy, I swear…is retarded

 

[babikakez]

Put it this way - I asked and I got. I had a strong case and brilliant timing, but nevertheless, it worked.

Though I do think that it depends wholly on the relationship that you have with your CSM. I kind of didn't have one with our new CSM so she took a HUGE chance with me, but she looked the approachable type.

 

[wixxy2348]

^^@wixxy2348: That guy, I swear…is retarded

THAT'S A BIT HARSH..... to retarded people

 

[jgibson0011]

THAT'S A BIT HARSH..... to retarded people

haha have you seen his other posts? they're quite hilarious. i wonder if he still works for us? maybe he got fired for having too many sickies!

 

[wixxy2348]

Hahaha more likely he got fired

 

[PyroTek]

so im kind of in the same boat. i know what id like but don't know how to ask for it. its actually starting to piss me off because other supervisors have hinted at me being trained but nothing yet has materialised…i have only ever been backup once and that was a while ago now.

totally agree, i was in the same position, but now i'm going to be doing a managers relief in a different department for 4 weeks, go figure!