Monday 26th October 2020
Myer 10.30 am - 4.30 pm new shift added to Kronos 17th October 2020.
No shift changes to above in Kronos as of 20th October 2020.
Checked Kronos again on 24th October 2020 no changes to shift.
I just can't keep up with all the last minute shift changes. I write them in my hard copy diary and on my blog as my hardcopy diary is a mess from all the amendments to my shifts.
Another soaking wet cold day today so I leave home at 8.20 am a little earlier then normal and catch the first 143 bus to Chatswood that I just managed to get on. I will catch the first 280 bus to Warringah Mall rather then the B Line today to avoid having to walk ascross the outside car park to reach the mall entrance in the pouring rain.
Today everything happened at work but apparently we made budget according to the customer service manager .Do I care not really. Myer is still in the same shit position it has been in for the past 4 years or so since I started attending it's AGM.
So as soon as I arrived I am bombarded with things to do.
1. A demanding customer service manager who wants my help ( when does she ever not need my help). Get a cage move all the Wonderlust candles and diffusers off all the shelves and take it to the landing in the dock area to be displayed on the pink display unit going downstairs. " Yes ( customer service manager's name) Anything you say ( customer service's service manager's name!" I yell out to her ( rather sarcastically). Later she tells me how the other electrical team member that was with her says to her " I don't think she meant that!" and told me how he does thatt to her as well. (Of course I meant it with a flip of the bird too! )
2. I had a really nice customer today who asked if there was a gift wrapping service available so I said maybe down at The Hub they may offer it but you maybe charged a $7 fee for the service and I am unsure if it's Christmas wrapping or general wrapping. He said that was fine as long as he didn't have to do it. He had purchased a decanter as present for someone. I processed his purchase put some extra tissue in the box as he was posting it to Adelaide and he had discussed alternatives courier services to the postal service to get it safely there and put it in a bag although I had not removed the price sticker as mentioned ( it casn be done before being wrapped downstairs). I did the right thing by the customer without fuss.
3. The next incident that happened was a bit of a shocker. We have a few recruits that just started as Christmas casuals at Myer. Out job is to welcome them and give them some guidance until they find their feet but not lose them! So a team member I was working with instead of sending her customer down to get his gift wrapp ed at The Hub she advised him to come back and pick it up in 15 minutes She took the gift down to The Hub after he left and left it there to be picked up by the team member to return to the customer. After 15 minutes the custoner returns but no word or sign from The Hub downstairs that it's been wrapped so I tell the team member I was working with as I was serving 3 or 4 different customers at the same time all pounceing on me for my assistance with things and the new team member offers to go downstairs to find out why it's taking so long. After another 15 minutes she has not returned and by now tge customer is getting a little annoyed so I asked the team member I was working with if she was sure tge new team member knew where The Hub was. I was more concern that she was lost as there was no communication at all from her or The Hub. I go downstairs to find her but she is nowhere to be seen and ask The Hub team members if anyone had come down to pick up The gift wrapping a customer is still waiting for upstairs. They said it was still being done. It's a box how can it take so long? They said I could knock on the reserve door but I didn't thinking it should be finished soon so I wait thinking the new team member may have gone back upstairs as I still didn't know where she was and told the customer service manager when she bumped into me and gave me the "What are you doing?" look that I was looking for her "Lost team member I yelled out to her" She says "The Hub is just there where are you going?" I know where The Hub is that was not my concern! So the team member ring The Hub to find out why I was taking so long and in the end who gets into trouble from the customer service manager ME and who gives ME the lecture on what I should have done with the customer who wanted gift wrapping THE HUB and I had nothing to do with serving the customer I was just trying to find a possibly lost team member! Why was I again being falsely accused for something I was not even involved in? ( don't worry the story does not end there it goes right to past the time I punch out and leave through the staff exit to go home!). By the way I even served a customer purchasing a bra whilst waiting downstairs - see a customer serve them even if tgey are not purchasing something from the department you are working in - that's part of customer service 101.
4. Damn it I signed up another customer to the Myer One card today and forgot yet again to scan the barcode - that is now a total of 4 I forgot to scan the barcode for! You should see My Myer Metrics there is a sea of red on it but another 10/10 customer feedback both individual and overall scores. I have loist count of how many I have now!
5. I manage to do a till reconciliation today and a cash clearance with the Electricals department manager. Who also came over with another new team member to show her how to do a print test run of a personalised Toblerone chocolate bar. He manaaged to print it out sucessfully and had no problem sticking it on whereas all the team members I work with have had problems doing it. After the Electricals manager selected the team member's name and stuck the peronalised printed sticker onto the Toblerone bar like a pro, I asked him why didn't he print out his own name as we already had another personalised Toblerone bar printed with the same name ( there are now 4 team members with the same name!). Wait there is more to this story too. I think the Electricals department manager jinxed the printer. The team member I was working with had a customer who wanted a customised Toblerone. Unfortunately the connection from the Ipad to the printer was not working and she had to advise the customer of this. I asked her how many times she tried to print and she said about 7 times. So tomorrow when the customer service manager finds out...... it wasn't me!
6. I am serving a customer and assisting her in finding more MW expresso cups and saucers when not just 1 customer pounces on me but 2. My bags are beeping casn you have a look at them. What they should have done is gone back down to the Womens clothing department to get them to check - how rude can't they see I'm serving someone! wait your turn. Another customer was at the counter and I was alone so I had to juggle 3 customers at the same time. First go back to the original customer and quickly give her the information I found on a sticky note and let her continue looking. Then run back to the counter to try and find any security tags on the next customers clothing which I could not find and advise the customer to go back down to the Womens department to have a closer look before serving the 3rd customer still waiting to be served and apologising to her.
7. I'm in the staff lunch room and one of the team members on VMing today comes in and starts talking to me and somehow the conversation came up about the gift wrapping incident. When this team member start going on about the team member involved - I had to motion her with hand and head gestures to stop talking as that staff member was sitting behind her eating her lunch. I also had to motion her to stop asking me questions about what I am doing on my day off and to stop talking about the customer service manager as the operations manager was in the lunch room and probably listening in to everything she was saying. Sometimes you just have to be careful about what you mention to team members. This team member just didn't know when to shut her mouth.
8. Finally I just wanted to go home after punching out and not missing my bus at 5.30 pm however the team member I was working with and I were pulled aside and given yet another talking to outside the staff entrance about what hapoened today. The team member that was doing the gift wrapping apoarently was really upset and the customer service manager sure let us know about it. F*** customer service manager had to puff away at her cigarette while talking to us. Gee thanks a lot for triggering my asthma - you could have at least put it out before talking to us! So long story short tomorrow the other team member or I will get a roll of wrapping paper and ribbon and leave it at the Homewares department to do our own gift wrapping.
9. I made a boo boo today but it's not a big deal a customer wanted to use her $10 birthday voucher on a brand partner item and use ger reward card aa well to pay for the items. Birthday vouchers can't be used for brand partner items. Speaking of birthday vouchers , how I hate processing paper birthday vouchers. They should all be digital as I have had at least 2 customers who have come up to me with photographs of birthday vouchers and not the original paper one or digital ones which I did not accept.
10. More new staff members joining the team - messages popping up with welcomes constantly on What's app team group chat.
I think I have covered most things that happened today.
I have been so busy I am a little behind in my blog. Walked with a team member after another scarcastic " Yes ( customer service manager's name, No customer service manager's name anything you say customer service manager's name!" where the custoner service manager flipped me the bird in return.
A quick toilet stop and home on the 280 bus to Chatswood as I finished at 4.30 pm - damn it what happened I punched out after 5 pm today! I was wondering why I walked with a team mate to the bus stop this afternoon!
So because I know I am on VMing tomorrow from 8 am - 5 pm, I stopped off at Woolworths to purchase a roasted chicken ( Macro) to make my lunch for tomorrow with.
Home and preparation for the next 2 long days of so called VMing. I was told by tge customer service manager that one of the new team members will be working in VMing around the menswear giftorium area and that I would be around to help her if she needed help and that VM was having a meeting tomorrow. It was all quite vague what I was suppose to be doing tomorrow in VMing ( always is and it's not really VMing at all just moving cages full of excess stock around and tidying up displays , nothing "frufru" about it - it is so not VMing that I can hardly find containers or plate stands around) .
No time to watch anything on YouTube except I did wztch Have You Been Paying Attention.
Tuesday 27th October 2020
Day off as of 17th October 2020 on Kronos
Checked Kronos on 24th October shift added Myer VMing 8 am - 5 pm today.
Deadline to search for 2 more jobs as part of mutual obligation requirements of searching for 4 jobs a month as per my job plan as well as accepting any suitable employment in order to continue to receive JobSeeker payments.I applied for Brickfields Pies & Bloch Warringah Mall. Done & recorded on Job Active website.
I wake up extra early to catch the 144 bus to Neutral Bay to connect with the B line bus but it now comes at 6.20 am a little later then old time table and I just missed the 6 am bus. That's a 20 minute wait. I need to get to the staff entrance at work by 7.25 am otherwise I can't get in until 7.55 am when my shift starts at 8 am. The doors only open for 5 minutes every 30 minutes and there is no other way to get in as the store does not open until 10 am.
Caught the 144 bus to Neutral Bay Junction around 6 am today because it is raining again today and waited for the next B Line bus. I get to the staff entrance and wait for it to open at 7.25 am as I did not want to get locked out at 7.55 am. This is such a big hassle to get to work within a certain time before store opening times ie 7.25 am for exactly 5 mins 7.55 am for exactly 5 minutes ( miss these windows the staff entrance exit is open and you are late fir your shift start times). Aftermoons are a pain as well as you have to allow an extra 30 minutes to walk all the way back to the front of the mall and across the other side of tge main road to the bus stop which is up and over a pedestrian overpass bridge.
VMing all day nothing much happened just pushing pulling and lifting cage after cage of stock.
When I arrived it was total confusion no meeting extra staff joining via a text message to them, and instead of one team member I was suppose keep an eye on and assist if necessary I was paired up with another team member I hardly know ( and I hope I wasn't paired up with her just because she is also Asian). The original team member got to do some real visual merchandising and the team member I work with usually in Homewares was put back onto Christmas trim which I was suppose to do but was taken off and put back onto service on one of my last shifts.
I am finding it not much fun working at Myer. The team member that told me on my very first real shift at Myer and I cannot remember who she was, was 100 % accurate in regards to how bad communication was to team members and managers within Myer. There is none. She was correct in advising me how one person will tell you something and someone else will tell you something else..The left arm doesn't know what the right arm is doing. You can't run a company like that! If you can't get the little things correct how on earth would you get the bigger things correct?
So we all go off and start with stock but everyone except me is allocated jobs. Another new team member is allocated a job to fluff out Christmas tree branches ( which I helped her with for the llast 10 minutes of my shift) - she told me that was her job and apparently wasn'tt too good at it so they put her on something else for a while then she was back doing it again. Why can't I be doing something like that? The other team member waa on Christmas trims all the time - she is covered in glitter every time I see her head to toe in it!
Sometime during the morning before lunch the Kidswear manager isn't feeling well and has a sore throat. She said it's not the corona virus, her throat is sore and she is losing her voice so can't speak to customers. So she is going home and tge team leader asks if I have worked in Homewares and asks me to stop doing VMing and go over to Kidswear to cover service. So I do as she speaks to the store manager about the situation. The team members in Mens shoes were organising breaks asking me who is going to cover my break and not long after the team leader advises me that they have found someone to cover me in Kidswear from downstairs and she will be happy to come upstairs and work in Kidswear as it's quite downstairs and she won't mind a quite day today and that she is currently on a break.
There was a customer who had Westfield valet pickup her purchases from Myer Homewares Department today and when the guy from valet came to pick up the purchases you could not miss him. The team leader was present and I was just walking towards the counter when he was just leaving with the purchases. Only one word could describe " hot!" The team leader asks "Did you just see the guy from valet?" - yep you could not miss him - a team member described him as a "god" . Team team leader also says " if only team member's name was here." referring to another older team member around my age. I don't usually look at really attractive guys but you just could not miss his face and those bulging guns ( biceps) - his whole body was ripped ( you could see his muscles through his shirt. During lunch the team member (who also saw him) and I were having a discussion about him and the other team member who was doing the Christmas trim and covered in glitter was not present so asked "Why wasn't I there!?"
After lunch I continue with VMing. The cage full of Wunderlust candles and diffusers I emptied off the shelves yesterday to be placed on the huge ( I have no idea how that is going to fit in the goods lift) pink display unit finally left the landing in the dock area and went to the ground floor. I Apparently the VM manager mentioned to me it just fit in the lift with just 1 person.
Not too many changes to rostered shifts this week but I can see a storm coming towards the Christmas roster.I have already made 1 mistake on Monday when I was suppose to finish at 4.30 pm and punched off at 5 pm by mistake. That's what hapoens when you receive far too many cancelled additions or last minute amendments to shift starting and finishing times of rostered shifts.
I managed to have a proper lunch with 2 other team members I work with today at 1 pm but was delayed a little due to my little diversion mid morning before lunch. That's just poor organisation and planning by management with staffing requirements.
Such a tiring day today but tomorrow I am off by request not because I was given the day off. I had the rest of my lunch for dinner made my and went to sleep basically
Wednesday 28th October 2020
Day off as of 17th October 2020 on Kronos
Checked Kronos again on 24th October 2020 changes to shift added Myer VMing 8 am - 5 pm today.
Today I arrived early and caught my usual 6.17 am 144 bus connecting with the B line at Neutral Bay Junction but did not go to the staff entrance until close to 7.55 am for an 8 am start to see what happens.
Before I start blogging again I want to let all my readers know what a shit day I had at work! So shit I emailed an enquiry to HR @ Myer about whether I can transfer to another store. I have had enough. Such a disorganised store. It's not the people I work with ( well not most of them anyway) and it's not the customers but it's about stock, certain managers and other shit that has been and still happening at Myer. There is definitely a lot of gossip going around in the lunch room so you have to be careful of what you say and to whom.
I have so much to write about in this blog and I need to do it before tomorrows Myer AGM which I am still worried about not being able to log into.
At least 2 incidents happened today that made me see a side of Myer I have not seen before.
1. There was an elderly Italian lady that came in and enquired about items on sale. She wanted to purchase a full price dress from Womenswear and a diamonte enclustered photo frame also full price. She could not understand the concept of the purchase 2 items excluding specific brands and items ( within the same category ) and get 30% or 40% off therefore she approached the VM manager who advised her that he would honour her 2 purchases with the discount eventhough neither of the items qualified for the discount promotion. She then approached the team leader and she went through and explained the same discount poromotion to her again. After that she approached me at the counter to pay for her purchases which obviously would not show up on the POS system as discounted as the items she was purchasing did not qualify for the discount promotion, she did not accept that her purchases did not qualify for the discount promotion so I asked her to show me the discount promotion and it was clear neither of the items qualified and I pointed out to her the exclusions. She then advised me that she was told by a team member that he would honour the discount therefore not wanting to be accused of doing something wrong yet again, I took the issue to the team leader who had already gone through the same process with her but when I mentioned a team member had advised her that he would honour the discount, the team leader wanted to find out who had advised her of this and then there was a clash between the team leader and VM manager. I was also involved as I was the last person to serve her at the counter therefore I needed to know how to resolve the issue. The VM's view was to honour her discount promotion just to get her out of the store however the team leader's view was the items purchased were ineligible for the discount promotion. In the ended it was decided to honour the discount promotion. The elderly lady was willing to go to the nearest ATM to get some more cash to cover the purchases and for us to hold them until she returned but in the end she didn't need to after she was told the discount would be honoured. She did annoy me a little as she was paying with cash and didn't tell me so I had to move to the cash or card register , re enter the items and discount them again. I could not be bothered thinking of the correct way to enter the discount so just manually entered it as promo not loaded item discount % for each item. I put her receipt and purchases in a bag and tried to advise her the dress is non returnable however she advised me that the team members downstairs in Womenswear had advised her that she could. Gee great if she returns the 2 items that is -$113 or so off my sales figures even before I start my next shift!
2. Speaking of figures I still managed to serve customers and put quite a few sales through the POS system eventhough I was suppose to be VMing all day. I was trying to avoid doing so but there will always be customers that either approach you for assistance or are waiting to be served when there is no one at the counter. I was told that some of the team members used to done the fluoro VM safety vests from the dock on the flor to avoid customers approaching them whilst they were repenishing stock - I have found that not wearing your orange lanyard and name badge does not work ( I am unsure of the policy but for safety reasons to prevent getting my lanyard or name badge getting caught in the door or cage I put it in my back pocket with the lanyard slightly hanging out so it is still visible but not in the way). This the case in Homewares most of the time. Where do the other team members disappear to? If you need 2 people behind the counter a team leader and team member, why are they not rostered on? Why should I or any other team member be covering team members lunches when I or they have been allocated to VMing all day. That happens all the time. I end up spending more time serving behind the counter then putting stock on the floor. Then there is a shortage of cages and a backlog of stock that arrives in the dock. This results in what the customer service manager calls "dumping of stock" onto the floor instead of taking the excess down to the reserves to save time and get empty cages back to the dock to be refilled quicker. I admitted to dumping a few cages of stock onto shelves today ( mainly glassware) because everytime I tidy the shelves up someone messes them up again or puts glassware in the wrong area. I wasn't going to take the excess back to reserves I just fitted as much of it out as I could. The customer service manager thought the glassware shelves looked so bad - yes it did and I did it but I don't care a shit anymore. If people are going to dump stock everywhere and not in the correct place I am going to do so as well. She described the bulk stacking of stock as something like "looking like Kmart or Target and Myer is not a Kmart or Target, it's not Myers' style and looks cheap" - correction to the customer service manager according to me as a shareholder Myer might as well be a Kmart or Target even worse then a Target as it's per share price is hardly worth 27 cents - that's worth less then 50 cent ( the value of the (w)rapper - get it triple entendre!?) I mention how the glassware was everywhere at least twice to the customer service manager and I also mentioned to the VM manager how the Vue sheets, pillow cases, quilt sets & sheets sets were over stocked and needed to be re merchandised. I did the right thing and took the time to pick out 2 of every size and style of Vue quilt cover sets and put them on the display before taking the rest of the stock back down to reserves. I did the same with 2 cages of pillows and other things but could not be bothered with some things. Except for one other team member I was working with I don't think anyone else was putting stock back into the reserves. They were just dumping the cages full of excess stock back onto the dock if not overstocking the shelves with it. Speaking of which .....
3. A customer approached me and asked where a certain MW pattern crockery set display was. I knew exactly the range she was after. I did the display near the lift and it was recently taken down and replaced with the new Christmas range really nicely displayed. I got just as much of a shock as she did when it was removed and replaced with something new but that's Christmas. Anyway to assist the customer, I had to find out where the range went - I knew a team member I was working with that day was taking it all somewhere - so I texted the VM manager to ask if it went back into reserves. Shear laziness meant the stock was still in a cage and had been dumped in the dock. Lucky customer, I advised her that I had located it and will bring her back any pieces she might be interested in. I even put her sale through for her - a $60 oval platter ( which was previously on clearance down to $15 at one stage). Another happy customer! However I later had a look at my Myer metrics and because I was on VMing for 2 days any ses i do put through are not or don't seem to be counted hence the inaccuracy of my Myer metrics figures.
4. As I was leaving I witness the store manager call the VM manager into his office for a chat behind a closed door. It must have been serious and I hope it wasn't about me or the incident with the elderly Italian customer previously in the day.
5. It took a few trials of different methods to hang the lights on the Christmas trees but in the end when my method did mot work the team member i was working with devised a method he thought worked so i just followed it. I was allocated a job for the rest of the afternoon with another team member. We didn't finish the job and I didn't expect to finish the job as he finished his shift an hour before I did so I was on my own doing it for the last hour of my shift. It was a bit of fun and I do hope I didn't do a bad job of it. We had to light up as many VM Christmas trees as possible over the 2 floors of Myer! Apparently there is over 50 of them. Some were a little tricky as we had to use 1 ball of lights between the small and medium trees joined together with a large tree in the middle between them which had it's own ball of lights. I had heaps of trouble reaching the tops of the big trees even with a booster step as well as being able to get my arms around the trees. I did not use a ladder as it is too heavy to move around and too bulky and awkward to leave around. I managed to almost finish 1 of the 2 boxes of lights which I tested at the Homewares counter in between serving customers and before starting to hang them on the trees to ensure they all worked as there is nothing worse then hanging lights onto a tree only to find they don't light up when plugged in and have to be removed. That's where a double power point came in handy at the Homewares counter to test the box of lights out in between serving customers. After finishing with the other team member I estimated how many more trees I could complete in the last hour of my shift on my own before taking the box of any remaining lights and powerboards back to the VM room. It was really funny as there seemed to be a split second lack of communication when I left the trolley on the first floor near the menswear department to go and hang a set of lights. I had taken the box with the remainder of the lights to tge Homewares counter and left them there on the back counter temporarily and going back to get the trolley and take it back to the VM room. When i returned to get tge trolkey it had disappeared. I looked everywhere and even mentioned it to one of the VM team members. So I headed back to the Homewares counter to retrieve my box of remaining lights I would need to light the trees on the ground floor for the remainder of my shift and at the counter my little team member I had been working with lighting Christmas trees had taken the trolley with him and was about to take the box of remaining lights I had left on the back counter back down to the VM room. Just in time i retrieved my box off him and instructed him to return the trolley of the other full box of untested lights and power boards back dow n to the VM room as he was about to finish his shift. I continue with lighting up the trees downstairs on the ground floor but am worried about not doing a very good job. I just did it the way i was shown but had no idea how the power source was going to drop down from the ceiling. I had so much trouble reaching the tops of the trees, I was constantly going into the fulfillment department to borrow their booster step. About 10 mi utes before finishing my shift I leave enough time to return the booster step to fulfillment and take the al.ost empty box of lights and spare powerboards back to the VM room.
6. Definitely no customer orders today no Myer One sign ups and no asking customers if they wanted to round up their purchases to donate to the local charity.
5 pm time to go home - bus 280 to Chatswood and I can't remember if I stopped off to shop. 144 bus home. I can stay up later tonight as I am not working tomorrow - day off requested to atrend the myer AGM. I would not have been able to atrend if I was working and tgere was every chance l would have been rostered on to work with very little notice therefore to guarantee a day off I requested it weeks in advance.
Thursday 29th October 2020
Day off today - 2 First day of leave requested ages ago approvedby customer service manager and added to Kronos along with a 2nd day of leave requested for Wednesday 4th November (my birthday) also approved by customer service manager and added to Kronos.
Myer AGM @ 2 30 pm today . This is the first time the AGM will be held virtually online due to lockdown in Victoria the normal live Myer AGM and lunch afterwards in Melbourne or Sydney has been cancelled for 2020. I am hoping that I will not have any technical difficulties attending the meeting as it is quite important that I as a shareholder and now a team member attend it this year.
Great timing. It's 4 am in the morning and I'm up catching up on yesterday's blog. It thunder storming outside and REALLY pouring with rain! So glad I don't have to leave for work at 6 am again this morning! So glad I don't have to go to work today although I am back tomorrow!
By 4.30 am the rain has almost stopped and no more thunder storms but I still hear head the sloshing of cars driving pass. It's still quite wet outside and I'm still half asleep.
I checked Kronos again and maybe one or two more shifts have been added.
Next I checked Myer Metrics and I received no surprises here yet another customer feedback 10/10 score ( I think I have a total of 11 x 10/10s and 1 x 9/10 customer feedback scores to date and how long have I been an employee at Myer now? Only about 3 months) however Myer received another not so perfect overall customer feedback score of a 6/10 the lowest score yet and below the 8/10 acceptable score (which means Myer has received 7 x 10/10s, 3 x 9/10s, 1 x 8/10 & 1 x 6/10 overall customer feedback scores to date). What does this say about Myer ?
Well that was a disappointing and interesting virtual Myer AGM. A sudden "retirement" of the chairman Garry Hounsell. My question to the board was did he "retire" on his own terms or was he pressured into "retirement" . There was no notice given - the announcement was so sudden voting on resolution # 3 for Mr Hounsell for re election to the board was still appearing on the online voting card. I didn't have to ask this question myself another shareholder asked it before I did. This was just one of countless questions from shareholders - just as well this was a virtual AGM , online questions may not show emotion but I could just feel the share holders as if they wete present at a live meeting heckling and almost throwing items if not a punch or two at the remaining board members ( minus 2 that retired and not forwarded for re election)
OK so the meeting started on time at 2.30 pm but due to technical difficulties clicking on the link to attend the AGM on an email received , I had to phone up support after not receving a response to my email to them. Because I was garanteed to have technical difficulties, I started trying to register to attend the meeting at 1.30pm when registrations opened. I managed to log in and submit a vote before the meeting started but did not have enough time to submit my questions and had trouble submitting them because they were limited to 550 or so characters and my multiple questions went way over the limit. So I abandoned them all to listen to the meeting.
When I logged in, I could not get any visuals only audio thinking it is my technology not Myer. During question time, a shareholder made a comnent how he was disappointed how he could only hear but not see the meeting. It did have a button that said press to play video - when I pressed it, nothing happened so made do with audio only.
The meeting was chaired by an acting chair person and a search is on the way to find a new chair person after the departure of Mr Hounsell. No lost I did not warm to him like the previous chairman. Maybe Myer should bring him back out of retirement.
Anyway it was the same old story, I nearly fell asleep listening to the financials but woke up during question time - oh how I love question time! I ended up asking 3 of my own - the last one I submitted was the very ladt question before the meeting closed at 4.15 pm!
So what types of questions did share holders ask - one that quite a few shareholders asked an d one I ended up not submitting because it was answered was the return of a dividend to shareholders and why the Myer share price is still in decline down to 23 cents per share now.
There were all sorts of questions in relation to Solomon Lew and his involvement / communications with Myer, Online sales growth and integration of Myer Online with Myer Marketplace. In between there was an awful lot of the Customer First Plan - which I still don't understasnd! So I threw in my 3 questions ( yes I limited it to 3 questions although they were not my original ones and I had many more which quite a few were asked by other shareholders).
My 3 questions were:
1. What was Myer's point of difference? Why would I buy from a Myer brand partner concession when the brand partner has their own shop in the same shopping centre? The answer to this was extremely long! Basically it's a one stop shop and you accumulate Myer One points to get Myer reward vouchers which you would not get at the brand partner shop.
2. How is the Amazon Hub parcel pickup doing or is it too early to tell? Was it worth the investment? Too early to tell was the short and sweet answer.
3. My final question was technology - is anything being done to update the instore customer order technology - too slow delivery time, crashes and can't take large customer orders. Basically frustrating for me as a team member and me as a customer. Yes but not until 2021 as they don't want to trial it during peak Christmas trading season. of course not in case it is a total fail!)
Meeting concluded after that at 4.15 pm with no other questions coming through to the board. Mine was the very last question.
Trust Myer to do an audio only AGM - no free lunch this year and no hire out of venue fees to hold the meeting - audio technology only would have cost them far less then an audio visual poresentation ( they kept referring to power point or side presentations I could not actually see throughout the meeting) - Myer must have saved a bit this year with their virtual meeting or what were they trying to hide or from whom.
Time to pay my bills and prepare for another full day of work tomorrow. I am glad I at least took the rubbish out this morning!
Time for an early night in bed by 8 pm.
Friday 30th October 2020
Myer 10.30 - 5.00 pm new shift added to Kronos on 17th October 2020 which includes a scheduled 45 minute lunch time break between 1.30 and 2 15 pm details noted on Kronos.
No shift changes to above in Kronos as of 20th October 2020.
Checked Kronos on 24th October 2020 no changes to shift
Final check of Kronos on 28th October 20 no changes to shifts for this week.
Centrelink fortnightly reporting due. Done first thing tbis morning.
Still worried about whether I stuffed hanging up the lights on the christmas trees. The team member I was working with on Wednesday finished the job off on Thursday while I was away and I asked him if they had to fix the lights up and when the trees were actually lit up as they were lit up when I got in this morning and looked so pretty. I got the impression from him that a few had to be fixed up. I also asked the VM manager and got the same impression. I knew I would have trouble reaching the tops of the trees even with a booster step and I did mention this and not knowing which way the power source was going to go I just followed the trees that were already hung as shown by the team member from the VM department on Wednesday. I was so held up serving customers on Wednesday j even asked tge VM manager " Can't you get somone else to hang tge lights up on the trees?" - no he wanted me and another team member also on stock duty to hang them knowing thatvI am far to short to reach the trees. I hope I don't have to take the lights all down after christmas! That will have to be someone elses job. The Christmas trees are upto 2 meters tall - I'm hardly 153 cm tall.
Why do I not feel like going to work today? In fact why do I not feel like working for Myer anymore?
Maybe it's because of yesterday's AGM combined with yet another change to shift starting and finishing times and being rostered on for 4 hour shifts in the middle of days which are a total waste of time. Am I over working at Myer already? I only started about 3 months ago.
Thank goodness today is over! It's all happening at Myer. Today the general manager came to visit the store and spent a lot of time with the managers walking around the store.
Do I care no not really, it the board came to visit then yes I would but general manager - a fish in a big pond. Anyway is it by co incidence that he pops up right after the Myer AGM yesterday?
Today was a " Yes customer service manager no customer service manager anything you say customer service manager" morning. She is now on leave for a week yay!
She gave me a funny look when a customer wanted to pay cash and said to me we have other cash registers you know. Yes I know but the customers may not know - I had no idea which ones yet as the customer service manager had not even given me a moment to find out which ones are the cash registers now - she was actually standing in front of the other one at tge Homewares counter so tge customer and I had no other cash register option. We only had one cash register upto now due to COVID - now we have one in several departments.
The customer service manager had me running around right from when i started my shift this morning. She was busy making displays look "presentable" all the while keeping an eye on the GM who was in the cafe having a meeting with store management - operations manager, store manager & assistant store manager , she says to me not to be too obvious if I wanted to see who the GM was - I think I think I know who he is however I told the team member i was working with today that I wondered where he came from and hope not melbourne as i was more worried about him having COVID then anything else and hope he didn't have COVID.
So as instructed i went to the Homewares cupboard and found 2 Christmas gift tags but only managed to tag one as the price points were all either gifts for $10 or gifts for $50 or more. I only had 1 tag for gift for under $40. I tie tge tag onto a Robert Gordon item and move onto another task - one of many right to the end of my shift including asking the team member i was working with to see if there were any tickets to be printed and put up for the weekend, wheeling in the MW stand full of cards into the old click & collect reserve at the end of the day and putting a note on it do not put out as in a week's time they will become a free gift with purchase and getting the donation box out of the back cupboard and bringing it up to her desk as she kept forgetting to do so. By the end of my shift I had become " teacher's pet" and mentioned it to the team member I was working with - she used to be her "teacher's pet"- the customer service manager has moved on and soon she will find a new one amongst one of the new Christmas casuals.
According to Kronois my allocated lunch break was from 1.30 - 2.15 pm. At 1.30 pm a team member came up from downstairs to cover my lunch break. I told the team member working with me that I was going to lunch as that was what was on Kronos and asked her when her allocated lunch break was. She had not checked her Kronos and was supposed to have gone from 12.45 - 1.30 pm. Oops I said to her no lunch break for you - you missed it! So it wasn't too suspect I came back earlier and let her have lunch straight after me. After she cane back the team member that cane up to cover lunch went back downstairs. She said it's such a different vibe upstairs - downstairs the hub is so closed in. Yep we have it goid upstairs .
I can't even help the team member I am working with bag a heavy box of dinnerware without the customer service manager calling me over to go down to the reserve to get a mansion dinner set and plates for a slightly rude & vague customer (I don't think the customer service manager wanted to serve her). I also had to go down to the reserve again to get some bowls for another customer. Both times I went down there I bump into the same new team member putting excess MV stock back into hard reserves. Poor girl I think she was over doing the MW stock!
I had a customer who wanted to return a whole lot of MW Australiana plates and mugs with peacocks on them without a receipt. I had not seen them in store before so had to seek authorisation from the customer service manager as I didn't want to be accused of giving a refund to a customer without a receipt after the first false accusation. So I left it to the customer service manager to process while i served a customer waiting.
There were no tickets to print both the mean member and I both checked. However in the afternoon the Electricals manager turns up at the Homewares counter with some Green Pan tickets. I asked where they came from. There were no tickets on the system to print. He said they just come through. 4 pm they were to be put up. As the team member I worked with would say " Oh man!" and we could mot even find any stands for them around. I managed to find a small stand for the signage but the team member I was working with found a big frame and tried to pllace a large sign in it to be displayed on the top shelf as I arrived with a small frame and sign I had already planned to put up there . She then out the sign in the large standing frame next to it although there was already a different sign up for it - she just covered it up with the new sign. Speaking of which i spent quite a bit of time with a customer who wss thinking about buying a piece of this cookware range that was on sale (for 50% off according to the sign we just put up )but was trying to convince me that she saw an interview on Channel 10 today of a further 10% on top of the 50% on this cookware range only valid today if they mentioned channel 10 . I had not heard anything about it nor had the electrical department manager or the customer service manager.
No customer orders today - customers either want it now or the items they want are just unavailable. I asked every customer who did not have a myer one membership if they wanted to join and all said no. Still the majority of customers say no because they jave too many loyalty cards already and don't want another one. One thought it was a credit card and others don't shop enough at Myer to warrant joining for one. I did however start asking customers if they wanted to round up their purchases to donate to charity and most said yes - last look at my Myer metrics still no figures showing up.
The MW rep was in again today and was unimpressed by how the stock was being dumped everywhere. It was really disgraceful and i mentioned to her how i only finished the cage of MW stock last time she was here but did not get any further with the stock. There was apparently salt and pepper stock mixed in within the MW display - The salt and pepper rep won't be impressed either.
On my way home - a toliet stop and a stop off at Coles before heading to Chatswood on the 280 bus. So hungry so stop off at the Chatswood Mall markets as it is Friday night to get some takeaway hot food. What should I have? I could not decide so settle on a Turkish gozleme works - advised sorry we have run out of beef so I have a vegetarian ( spinach cheese and mushrooms) for $10 instead. I also purchase a seasame leaf fish cake from another food stall for $5. Why are people not purchasing the fish cakes on a stick but purchasing all the corn dogs and other sausages on a stick? I find out why the fish cakes have changed since I last had one when I last ate something from these markets pre COVID. They are not very nice anymore. I will not be eating them again.
Home on the 144 to wash my mask, wash my hands , catch up on YouTube videos and watch The Living Room on Channel 10 and eat the Turkish gozleme.
Bed by 8.30 pm.
Saturday 31st October 2020
Day off as of 17th October 2020 on Kronos
Checked Kronos again on 24th October 2020 no changes to shift.
Final check on Kronos on 28th October 2020 no changes to shifts this week.
Happy Halloween! Hopefully the weather will clear up later today so kids can go out & About for trick or treat-ing.
Both the team member I worked with yesterday and I have the next 3 days off. Maybe due to the new Christmas casuals taking on more shifts.
The stores opening and closing hours pre COVID return to normal from Monday 2nd November ie 9.30 am - 5.30 pm Mon, Tue, Wed & Fri, Late night shopping Thurs 9.30 am - 9 pm ( I hope I don't have to work until 9 pm as I won't get home until 11 pm !) , Sat 9 am - 6 pm and Sun 10 am - 5.30 pm ( hours sent from a what's app team group chat text by the team leader)
I am so glad I don't have to work at least today because it is really wet outside. I slept in until after 8 am this morning and had a great sleep for once. My skin is behaving itself although did scratch a little during the night due to the rain and I know my allergies hate rain.
No plans for my 3 days off due to so many changes to my rostered shifts on Kronos, last minutes shifts are always cancelled or added therefore I don't make any plans for Saturdays only Sundays as I put an unavailable on Sundays.
Today is a life admin day - so much to do, cooking cleaning filing etc no bills to pay yet but I have to force myself to go to my offsite storage facility to get my Christmas tree out for Christmas and empty my mail box( which is overflowing as I only empty it once when I casn which could be months - I think I haven't checked it since July/August! I still need to go back to my old work place and return the key. As well as more urgent matters such Telstra increasing my monthly plan again. I was on a $50 monthly casual plan and pay in advance however my last bill showed my monthly plan had increased back to $55 a month so I have to contact them once again. HFC just sent me a 2020 FY tax statement - I have alkready received one and have done my tax return already back in July. Problem is there is somone elses name showing up on my tax statement so i sent an email back to HCF who is Jenny Marie Shlfe? I certainly don't know her. No response as yet from HCF.
Mid day and I'm still in bed blogging. My vertigo has returned. It started yesterday.
Why am I watching Golden Eagle Day out at Rosehill Racecourse on Channel 7 ? I hardly celebrate Melbourne Cup Day ( coming up in Melbourne next week but with no crowds this year just the horses jockeys trainers strappers race callers and support staff required to run the races as Melbourne has just come out of 2nd wave COVID lockdown). I think this horse race is this year's replacement to the Melbourne Cup as "The race that stops the nation" eventhough it is only one of several races in the Spring Racing Carnival run in NSW with live crowds.
Really bad thunder storms outside the apartment block. So close! So many towers outside! I'm so scared even inside the apartment definitely not going out today! The sun had come out just for an hour or so this morning now it's pouring with rain not just light rain we had this morning.
I just asked about the signage on the staff entrance - unless my interpretation is wrong or there is a summer sign and winter sign - if you start at 9.30 am then you need to be at the staff entrance by 8.55 am when the door is open for 5 minutes only otherwise the staff entrance does not re open again until 9.30 am for 27 minutes.
The response via What's app group text is the doors will be open from 9 am - 9.28 am.
Still raining in between more thunderstorms and it's now 5 pm. Thank goodness I went to Q Station last weekend and not this weekend as there is very little shelter up there from thunderstorms and rain and it is a very long walk from the entrance of Q station to the Wharf as mention. You do not want to be stuck up there unless you are staying there in one of the accommodation buildings. Even if you have a car you have to leave it in the carpark at the entrance and walk or use the irregular shuttle around Q Station - no private vehicles allowed.
Made a Japanese chicken curry. Bed around 8.30 pm. Still awful outside - I guess there was no outdoor trick or treating - most would have been inside shopping centre where it was nice and dry and safe from the 2 bouts of severe thunder storms.
Sunday 1st November 2020
Day off today.
Rain and thunder storms again today. Shopping or venturing outside will have to wait until tomorrow.
Not a good end to the week especially a waste of 3 days off.
Today was a do nothing day except watch tv and YouTube videos as well as pay more bills and check my shifts for the next 2 weeks on Kronos.
It is really wet outside but thunderstorms are not as bad today and more in the distance.
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