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Monday 23rd November 2020
Manly ( wharf side) is so pretty in the evening. There are people going for a swim even when it started raining.Myer 8 am - 5.30 pm new shift added to Kronos 12th November 2020. Checked Kronos again no change 15th November 2020. Kronos checked again 19th & 22nd November 2020 no changes to shift
Has Myer gone mad! I just checked Kronos and I'm working Monday to Sat this week starting at 8 am today, Tuesday off which does not help me ( the border between NSW & Vic just reopened midnight and I maybe able to get a flight down and back however I prefer to train it and the XPT service Sydney Melbourne return does not restart until Wednesday so there goes my plan departing Wednesday night returning Thursday night arriving Friday morning as I didn't start work until 1 pm Friday originally) , Wed then Thursday & Fri & Saturday until late night close! Same with the following week! My Kronos is not working they've killed it. It won't refresh it won't let me log out it is just frozen!!!!!
6.20 am and I leave home a little later then usual don't know what the weather is like outside but as soon as I step out the door it's raining!
7 am and I have arrived at Warringah Mall - it is still raining outside. Time to update my shifts on my diary at least this one.
Checked Kronos yet again 23rd November 2020 no changes to shift today. I just spent 30 minutes checking Kronos and updating this blog of all my shift changes cancellations and additions. I still have to update my real hard copy and digital diaries!
My blog crashed yet again!!!!!
Yet another crap day at work!
How can Myer operate as a public company if it can't even organise the simpliest things! You know when there are too many chiefs and not enough Indians or a better example would be when the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing! There is never any organisation or plan. You only have to look at how many times I have to check my Kronos and all the last minute changes to my shifts there are to know how disorganised Myer is. I makes my life so difficult not to be able to even plan even 1 day ahead - not even an hour ahead ( refer previous blog when I had checked Kronos tge night before and I turned up at 11.30 am and my shift start time had changed to 12 noon whilst I was getting ready to go to work which takes me upto 2 hours one way! Not the first time this has happened to me refer my very early blogs when I first started working at Myer)
I was on restocking all day again today. Right from when I arrived things were already pear shaped. I gave myself the title of being the " RESERVE GIRL" as that is what I have been doing a lot of - I'm not even "VMing" anymore, it's running down to the reserves ( the dungeons of Myer) and restocking shelves constantly all day every day just like stocking supermarket shelves - I've been taken off the floor so not allowed to serve and I can't even restock from stock from the dock. I don't think the customer service manager realises how I feel about doing this but I find it's not only demoting and that I am being a total "slave" . I am being totally disrespected in a way. I've been told by the customer service manager that I'm the only one she trusts doing it which is total Bull Shit. On another note I don't think it is really good for my skin and allergies either - touch and breathing in all the dirt and dust and then having to wash hands constantly as well.
I am a bit annoyed and so was the team member I was working with who I've given the title of "TICKET GIRL" because she like me is constantly given the task by the customer service manager of just printing, taking down and putting up sales signs and tickets - that's all she ever is asked to do but at least she got to serve at the counter all day today and she also does restocking. Whenever I try to help her today I was pulled away to restock. She asked me to help her put up some of the tickets today before work and I did only to be pulked away and tge electricals department manager stepping in to take over. I think I only managed to put 2 signs up before being pulled away to restock.
The initial plan before work today when the customer service manager spoke to me was to go out to the dock and get the cage full of glassware which I found quite easily ( which had a hand witten note on it "please leave in dock"on it ) and an empty cage and to strip the existing Christmas table display and the stand next to it and fill it up with the glassware. I knew exactly what I was doing ( there was no need for me to be asked by the assistant store manager if I knew what I was doing when I was out on the dock looking for the cage full of glassware) but that plan went straight out the window with interference by the assistant store manager as soon as I had stripped the stand and started putting the boxes of glassware from the cage onto the stand, the glassware was removed and I was told to wait until something else was done. I think I filled a few shelves before I was asked to abandon what I was doing and the instructions I had been given . Just as well it was my plan to grab the empty cage and cage of glassware from the dock onto the floor first in preparation for what(ever ) had to be done. So the plan was changed having one of the guys set up two huge platforms (each the size of oversized palettes) next to the Christmas table I was to strip and in front of the stand where I was putting the glassware onto the floor. Even the guy who was instructed to do this thought it was ugly ( apoarently it is only for Black Friday - today is only Monday!) I had to agree with him and not only did it look ugly but I told him how I felt that it was sticking out and a real tripping hazard especially to kids who like to run up and down that aisle of Myer. Oh well not my problem if an accident occurs there Myer is totally liable. The decision was made to fill both platforms with all the MW dinner sets from the reserve which by the end of the day there was still a whole cage sitting in the corridor outside the hard reserve and still boxes of dinner sets scattered on various shelves inside the hard reserves which should have been emptied out of and placed onto the floor of the store.
So not exactly sure anymore what I was suppose to be doing as I had now been told don't worry about putting the cage of glassware out on the stand as the new VM manager would do it, I continued to strip the beautiful Christmas display table and placing the stock into the empty cage I had . Such a shame to have to strip such a beautiful display. Not only did I have to strip it but put all the stock back into their packs and boxes as well back onto the shelves where they belong. This took me a while but interference again by the assistant store manager yet again asking me to clean the table up so the stock could go onto it - is it below an assistant store manager to do this herself ( obviously). I put most things back where they belonged and anything I couldn't eg items missing labels etc I left for the other team members to label and put back.
So my next duty was to go down to the reserves and restock MW Cashmere and MW Marblesque. I restocked the MW Marblesque first but asked the guys where they put it first dock or reserve. Down I went to the reserve and by this time I didn't care a stuff what I bought up onto the floor or how I bought it up. It I broke it I didn't even care. I bought up 2 full trolleys worth of the Marblesque ( or whatever it's called) . This range is so old every man and his dog was doing this coloured swirly glass dinnerware range years ago - to me this is just a form of MW product "dumping" - either that or Myer has a very bad buying team. There is some still in the reserves but the shelves are filled so good enough.
There was a whole heap of Christmas food products on the dock but no I wasn't allowed to touch anything on the dock and I could not even bring the excess Christmas crockery and serving ware out onto the floor. But I had to get the reminder of the MW Christmas poinsettia range from the reserves up onto the floor. So I did but I didn't have much room and didn't dare move anything in case I got yelled at so I called the customer service manager over and all she did was move on hamper over and her attitude was " You want more room now you have more room" . I was trying to make the display as nice as possible and make it less disjointed so I used 2 red mats and laid them flat next to each other before bulk stacking the boxed items neatly on top ( the place mats were all folded in half and shockingly stacked on top of each other in a pile so I rolled them all up nicely and placed them in the large serving bowl in the Christmas poinsettia display) when she grabbed them off the ledge and removed them. I said to her "Hold on a minute!" before she realised and said to me " Are you trying to make it look pretty?" OF COURSE I WAS! As she was the one who said to me previously " This is Myer, we're not Target!" - May as well be the way the floor near the esculator looks at the moment! I hate to say it but since the previous VM manager transferred to another store recently Myer Warringah has become a little " unsophisticated" ( I'm being diplomatic as well). Only time will tell how the new VM manager will settle in but they did have a great VM team. ( I wish I had taken photos of the Christmas table and stand before stripping it).
It was suggested I take a break from the heavy stuff and do some bedding by the customer service manager. So I made about 3 trips down to the soft reserves to fill up pillows, quilts mattress and pillow protectors and give the area a but of a tidy up as I restocked bedding items. I did not touch the towels as they need too much attention.
Did I actually serve any customers today? - only a few that I can remember amongst all the chaos one with a whole heap of towels and one with some Toblerones that were to be customised. So many customers still approached me for assistance even without my lanyard or apron on ( strange thing was I had my apron on this morning folded in half around my waist meaning I was on stock duties not serving on the floor then I was told by the custoner service manager if I was going to put it on properly which I did but later she wanted to get me away from the counter and off the floor so it was my decision to take it off completely for the rest of the day). I am ok with that but I wasn't suppose to serve customers just get other team members to do so ( assist customers but not serve them ? what kind of customer service is that? that's right stuff up my metrics by giving my sales to another team member - by the way as an incentive for good customer service if a team member gets a 9/10 or 10/10 from a customer feedback they get 100 points towards a Myer $20 reward voucher - sounds like a great incentive doesn't it? Think again. Putting on my retired accounting analysis skills to use I need 2000 points to get the $20 reward voucher so 2000/100 = 20 9/10 or 10/10 customer feedbacks to achieve this. Say I got 1 9/10 or 10/10 customer feedback scores a week it would take me 20 weeks to get a measly $20 reward voucher ie 20/4 = 5 months + . So how many weeks have I now been employed at Myer now 4 months approximately so that means I still have 1 more month before I even reach my first $20 reward voucher and there is no guarantee that I will even get one because not many customers like to return customer feed back forms for a start and because I have not been on service recently other team members will get my potential 9/10 and 10/10 customer feedback scores - this is very unfair as I was the one who may have assisted the customers but not actually put through their purchases on the POS system . I hope this is making sense.
I forgot to write about one particular customer no team member wanted to serve. I was at the counter in the morning putting the stock away from the Christmas table I had stripped. There were 2 team members " borrowed" for an hour or so from other departments. I was wondering why neither one of them was serving a particular customer who had walked away from the counter - one was a newbie team member so maybe he wasn't able to help her in anyway and the other comes up to me and asks me to serve her because she was "angry" ? Angry about what? So I asked where the customer was and walked up behind her standing there for a few minutes but not disturbing her as she was yapping on her phone to someone rather loudly. I walked away intending to go back to her after she got off the phone but she walked upto the counter again. I asked could I assist her in anyway and she just pounced on me telling me how the other team members did not have a clue about anything, how they should be trained in what they sell etc etc. I waited for a break and advised her that the team members at the counter were borrowed from other departments for a few hours and hence are not from Homewares. I then asked what she was after and she was after linen sheets in a king size. I showed her where they were and said just look through them and also said that there maybe another brand so I will go and find it to show her. Before I could even say anything further she said to me " You mean I have to go through them all and find the sheets myself?" with an " Isn't that suppose to be your job?" attitude and adding " Zero for customer service!" several times before finally wondering away. Before wondered away I showed her the alternative linen/cotton sheets in a king size and she says to me " They are not pure linen they are cotton linen" with a "Don't you know the difference?" attitude. How rude! So that is why no team member wanted to serve her - the new team member though she was just being racist - no not racist just plain rude! No skin off my nose as I didn't put her sale through the POS system therefore no customer feedback score - besides I am not actually serving today.
Onto my next restocking job - well there wasn't one really so I just kept restocking whatever I found in MW white basics and Cashmere as well as bring up the remainder of the Manjoica range from the reserve.
I decided to have a lunch break - a proper 1 hour lunch break and waited to see when a team member at the counter " TICKET GIRL" was having her lunch break so I could have lunch with her. She had not stopped working all day and was waiting for the other team member ( the one who wants to be a team leader) to return from her lunch break. It was 3 pm before we had lunch together. She had forgotten her lunch so I had a comment why didn't your "Friday Favourite" (we still don't know how he became a Friday Favourite because he only had 1 shift) brother bring it for you? The story was it was her birthday yesterday and after that they abandoned her - I said to her so your family said "Happy Birthday now that you've turned 24 you're on your own now" as a joke - she had a bit of a giggle at that - she does have a close friendship with her little brother but even she can't believe how he became Friday Favourite. Everyone is joking about it even the person that works in the dock with the same name who never gets to be Friday Favourite as he isn't on the floor.
I continue with restocking the MW stock I had left on my trolkey before ku5nch but was told to ease off on restocking it by the custoner service manager as the MW rep was coming in again tomorrow - I said that I knew she was coming in as she mentioned it last week she was in. I won't be in as I have a day off and so does the other team member " TICKET GIRL". Apparently she wasn't coming in but texted the customer service manager in the morning to advise she was. Good luck with the stock, great effort was made to separate tge Cashmere range from the White Basics range last week but it has appeared that there has been dumping of dinner sets again onto the incorrect shelves.
Now let's discuss how one team member alkways seems to know all the gossip that goes around. The team member that wants to be a team leader always knows whos been banned from what jobs and whose been terminated. How she gets this information and tge stories behind tgem I have no idea. She was tge one who told me about why a team member that I started at Myer with had his employment terminated, why another team member I started with did not get many shifts and why another team member has been banned frtom stock duties. She seems to be very close and chummy with the customer service manager. Whatever she wants to do she gets to do. Maybe "RESERVE GIRL" and "TICKET GIRL" should not be so well behaved and be like "I WANT TO BE A TEAM LEADER GIRL" We both think she is a bit weird - clingy to be precise. She had to leave at 4.30 pm as it was the end of her shift but she asked first the other team member to cover the counter then me as she said she had to leave and nobody was at the counter - we both had our own allocated jobs to do - when I said she had to leave - she had to leave ie leave a mess for us to clean up after her on the back counter! There was stuff everywhere and it took the both of us 15 minutes after the store closed to clean up after her. If she wants to be a team leader she has to learn that you can't just abandon ship when times up - you need to stay behind and finish what needs to be done - poor time management skills and when asked if she was officially team leader when the real team leader is not on duty - the answer was and is no - whoever arrives first gets the headset - just wearing it does not make you team leader. ( the team member I was working with today and I hate wearing it anyway - yuk COVID!)
Last restock of today was kitchenware ( I give up I told the customer service manager tgat this area will be my restocking starting point when I arrive on Wednesday morning - why bother telling or planning anything it will all go out the window by then). Kid's cutlery, Bodum , coffee purculators and some Kitchenaid kitchen utensils restocked and tidied up.
End of a very long day of do this, no do that, no don't touch this, no don't do that etc etc.
Walked to the bus stop with 2 team members. Deciding whether to catch the 280 B line or Manly bus to connect with the 144 bus. The Electricals department manger who walked with the other team member and I to the bus stop likes to stop at Cokes and get groceries so we say bye then I get a text message saying he is catching the B Line not the Chatswood bus as it does not come for another 30 minutes - I decided to catch the first Manly bus as I did not stop for a toilet break or wash my hands but could do so at Manly.
I decided to take the first bus to Manly and connect with the 144 bus. It's 6.30 pm and it's raining again. I have toilet stop to wash my hands and a stop at Aldi at Manly for some bottled water as I was a little hot from running around refilling stock all day.
Thank goodness today is over and I have a day off tomorrow.
Tuesday 24th November 2020
Myer 10 am - 5.30 pm new shift added to Kronos 15th November 2020. Kronos checked again 19th & 22nd November 2020 no change to shift
Shift cancelled checked Kronos 23rd November 2020 - There seems to be a pattern Tuesday shifts are always being cancelled. This is the 3rd time a Tuesday shift has been cancelled on me!!!!!! This time not even with a full day's notice. Totally unacceptable.
So tired I woke up really early but went back to bed to sleep again.
Catch up on my blog and still checking and updating my diary of shifts. Briefly checked metrics.
No plans again today.
I ventured out in the afternoon to go essential grocery shopping and to recharge my Opal card which had almost no funds left on it which meant I would not have been able to get to work.
Damn it I forgot so recharged my Opal at the little convenience store I return my bottles for recycling at located next to the 144 bus stop and pay the extra 40 cent surcharge for the service.
Up really late catching up on stuff including preparing lunch for tomorrow.
Did I check Kronos again of course I did and updated my digital diaries & hard copy diaries.
I'm at work doing stock again all day and yer another Team Group Chat message comes to check Kronos yet again for shift changes at 9.21 am for Black Friday! Gee thanks for deducting an hour off on Friday - that's not an early mark makes no difference to me at that time of the night I still have to catch 2 buses to get home!
Wednesday 25th November 2020
Day Off. Not anymore!
Myer 8 am - 4 pm new shift added 23rd November 2020. Checked Kronos again 24th November 20
Oh no I sat on something wet this morning on my way to work ( probably the wet bus stop bench as it may have rained during the early hours) . This is why I always carry a spare set of clothes in my backpack. Did not use it today though - my pants weren't wet enough to have to change them and I didn't want to destroy them doing stock all day.
Checked my emails. Did I just see a Myer reward voucher from the store manager for great customer service? Will have a better look when I get home tonight. Yep I think I did receive one. No need to wait until I get 5 more 9/10 or 10/10 customer feedback scores ( I'll never get any more customer feedbacks now as I have spent so much time off the floor I told a team member that I've forgotten how to use the register! I had to ask for assistant from the Electrical department manager to process a paper birthday voucher ( non digital) from a customer! Was it just coincidence that I just wrote about how many months it would take me to get my first $20 Myer reward voucher just on Monday in my blog?
Today I probably assisted more customers that kept coming up to me asking for assistance then restocking ( dressed in all black with no name tag lanyard or apron) people still approached me asking me the most common question " Do you work here?" - everything was asked from Are there toilets? to Is this on sale? to Do you have any more of these in this colour out the back or is it all out on the floor? to How much is this? There's no price on it ( when there actually is) to Can I have this? ( where the item is really up high and I need to get a step ladder to reach it) to What's on sale on Black Friday? ( How am I suppose to know every item that is going to be on sale!) to I bought this at the City store can I return it at any counter or do I have to return it here? ( Do you have a receipt? When did you buy it and is it within the return period of 60 days? Is it bedding towelling underwear or swimwear - if so it is non refundable non returnable & non exchangeable due to NSW health regulations unless faulty) etc etc etc all day every day. "I'm sorry but I'm not suppose to be on the floor serving today as I am suppose to be on stock only"
I had lunch around 1.45 pm I think. I just stopped what I was doing and took a break. I was trying drag my stock buddy team member away to have lunch with me but everytime she tried to escape the customer service found something for her to do. I sent her a text ( not via group chat) that the customer service manager had her in a "headlock" and for herr to just "hide". She was so hungry she had eaten a Coles sandwich already on her way back to the staff lunch room! We did take a whole hour lunch break today ( to make up for some of all the other breaks we didn't actually take during our shifts!) She was doing Christmas trim- why am I never allowed to do Christmas trim?
A lot of gossip goes on in the staff lunch room but you also pick bits of information. Why is the look of Myer Chatswood so "flat" ? Myer Warringah is so much more appealing to look around at. The VM team members told me because Warringah is a "concept" store with it's black ceilings is a relately new addition whereas Chatswood like the city store is "old fashioned department store format".
During the conversation the VM team members thought I had been with Myer for years they were surprised when I told them that I have only been with Myer for basrely 4 months ie joining after the shut down ( COVID ) and reopening. I thought they were talking about after the refurbishment a few years ago . I said eventhough i've only been with Myer for barely 4 months it sure seems like 4 years!
The VM team members may have thought I had been with Myer for years but earlier on a team member from the Online department thought I was part of the VM team as she though I knew a lot - a lot about stock yes but not a lot about everything else! I had to tell her that I was actually from Homewares but have been & am doing stock.
Checked the Team Group Chat this morning. Saw a message from the customer service manager at 2.07 pm yesterday (my day off) shifts are being updated constantly and to please make sure you have checked kronos for shift changes. So what's new shifts are always changing so annoying.
There is always a team member in the Electricals department being yelled at by the customer service manager ( so loud you can't miss it) for not requesting leave and cancelling their shifts at the last minute. Always someone calling in sick over in that department or not showing up. I don't blame them - Myer makes it so difficult to take leave as a casual or plan anything even 1 day in advance. It should not be like that. I can't even get down to Melbourne to see the Myer windows ( not that they sound very appealing with all the negative comments i've read). Team members have been telking me how good the DJ's Christmas windows are this year - I hope I can get away tomorrow afternoon to finally see them. I am sure they are a winner if they are anything like their 182 year retrospective commercial which I really liked. The artist 's concept story behind the DJ's Christmas windows is pretty cool. The drawings of the lityle mouse character is so cute. At least their Christmas windows dont scare kids away and makes sense.
9.21 am today and yet another Team Group chat text message from the customer srrvice manasger to check Myer Metrics ( mine are stuffed anyway so why bother), Mcoms and Kronos yet again! No surprise my Friday shift has been changed - 1 hour shorter finishing time . Now working 1 pm - 8 pm and not 1 pm - 9 pm . Makes no difference when I finish on Friday night I still have to catch 2 buses home and get home really late with a morning start & late finish on Saturday. It would have made more sense to let me leave at 5 pm on Saturday night so I can for once catch the last 280 bus direct to Chatswood but I guess the managers at Myer are not that smart ( they do know that I do not live locally and it takes me forever to get to and from work). And this is what the customer service manager says to me " I thought you might like to go home an hour earlier instead of finishing later, I can change it back if you like" laughing on the outside I was already fuming on the inside - I just wish they would stop F***ing changing my shift starting and finishing times at the last minute on the day of my shifts right upto to when i'm on the bus on my way to work or at work . This is just unacceptable. ( please read on about what happens to the this particular Friday shift - remembering I'm at work all day today and tomorrow and hardly have time to check Kronos ).
It also said for Black Friday to wear a touch of orange. Why bother it's Black Friday every day at Myer and as for wearing a touch of orange I told the team member I had lunch with, I'll just wear my old Myer lanyard instead of the green Giftorium one - reduce reuse recycle and besides I don't have anything orange in my wardrobe and it's not in my culture to wear yellows and oranges as it clashes with our Asian yellow skin tones.
Thursday 26th November 2020
Day Off. Not anymore!
Myer 8 am - 4 pm new shift added 23rd November 2020. Kronos checked again 24th November 20
Another day of stock. Black skivvie black jeans no time to do laundry all week. I am also wearing gloves to further protect my skin today.
I started off doing stock today from 8 am before being told to stay on the floor from 9.30 am - 11am to serve customers by the Electricals manager until the team leader arrived at 11 am. By 11 am I was wondering where the team leader was as it was almost 11.30 am. I just went to grab a cage of stock and did not even have time to even park it somewhere say before the customer service asked me to stay and serve until 12 noon. So I didn't get very far with restocking as I was asked to stay on the floor.
I don't mind customers constantly requesting price checks but I wish customers would stop complaining about misleading signs on or above products on sale. if they have a complaint don't take it up or out on me as I'm just at the very botyom of the Myer food chain and don't have anything to do with it really - send your complaints to Myer on the feedback online!( I encourage it as it is part of good customer service and how to improve it)
What the f*** I checked Kronos whilst I was at work today and my shift has changed yet again for tomorrow! I now start at 10 am and finish at 8 pm. I will never be able to sleep in or return the keys and drop off the cards to my previous employer! I still need to go to the post office as well.
I made sure I had a full hour lunch break today and left as close to 4 pm as possible. By the way 2/3 mornings when I punched in before 8 am this week it came up with undefined but when I punched out it came up with my name. I must check and keep an eye out for my hours for last week and this week on my payslips as I suspect wage theft.
OK so I did not manage to finish emptying my cage of stock onto the floor as I again kept getting interrupted by the online team looking for stock and customers ( no name badge no lanyard, no apron or apron at half mast and still getting the do you work here? Correction they just approach me and don't ask if I work here anymore).
After work I did not stop except to go to the toilet and wash my hands. I walk across the road past the huge COVID testing centre open with a barricade outside - what are they expecting a flood of people queuing up to be tested? I hope not. It is located right next to the bus stops. ( B Line & Manly). I line up along with everyone else and catch the Bline into the city @ Wynyard and walk back to the David Jones Christmas windows. They are no longer a set of extravagant Christmas windows drawing huge crowds of people but a fairly low key set of smaller windows in the side street of David Jones. Still with moving characters though. This it is all about Claris the chicest mouse in Paris ( who bares a resemblance to Angelina Ballerina) and her adventures. Very cute. I actually watch the behind the scenes YouTube video of the artist and the character she created before seeing the DJs Christmas windows. I love the view from the street level looking down onto the ground floor of David Jones with it large screen playing Christmas scenes and the large Christmas tree below it. Photos below.
Friday 27th November 2020
Fortnightly centrelink reporting done early this morning as i will mot have any opportunity to do it at work today. I actually got locked out of the website so had to wait 2 hours before being allowed to log back in so job reporting is not complete.
Myer 1 pm - 9 pm new shift added to Kronos 15th November 2020. Kronos checked again 19th & 22nd November 2020 no change to shift. Checked Kronos 23rd November no changes to shift. Checked Kronos again a second time on 24th November now working from 1 pm - 8 pm - customer service manager deducted 1 hr from my shift ( she said she can add it back on if I wanted) and gave it to another new team member ( yes I know which team member had an extra hour added to her shift she told me and I told her how I lost an hour from my shift - it did not take us long to figure out -1 + 1 = 0! during our break)
See above shift changed yet again to 10 am - 8 pm on Kronos 26th November 2020 - a record in the number of changes for today's shift!
Today I am back on the floor and not on stock. It looks like a lot of effort has been made drawing up a chart of when team members take , which team members are at the registers and which team members are on the floor serving customers and which team member has been allocated to the Toblerone ( isolation) station located near the Woolworths and away from Myer . Good luck if you are stationed there - you are alone, it is really noisy, hot and if technology fails you have to ring someone to rescue you- you need to ring someone to rescue you for toilet breaks, lunch breaks etc you can't just leave. So far it has had tech gitches and had to be abandoned at times. Postscript Saturday it was unmanned when I walked past it during my lunch break. Has it been abandoned permanently? If so the all the time spent on Toblerone schedule chart was a total waste of time. I was told that individual metrics no longer apply and and more senior team members have been allocated to the floor to assist customers and find and retrieve stock for customers and newer Christmas casuals are put on the pOS to get some experience in service which makes sense or not - the logic being the senior team members know where to find the stock. Team member "Ticket Girl" does not agree 100% and i'm probably sitying on the fence with her. Shouldn't the new team members be on the floor serving so they get to learn the stock? Two sides to this argument. Postscript I asked a team member who had worked at Myer the previous Christmas " So was it like this last Christmas?" Her response was " No there was no schedule and utter chaos!" Was I surprised? Absolutely not!
I don't want to work for Myer anymore. I know after Christmas and New Year is over there won't be little if any work any way so I might as well start looking for another job. I still haven't quite worked out why people left Myer Warringah way back in June July and they needed to seek special permission from Head Office in Melbourne to recruit more team members ( the only store in NSW back then it seems ). Was it really due to the COVID shut down ? I don't think so - I never found out from my discussion with another team member a few months ago. There has got to be other reasons - is it how certain if not all managers behave and act towards team members? There must be some reason .
I won't talk anymore about what I was accused of doing today by the customer service manager and she should check her facts before accusing me and telling the Electrical department manager.
But I will mention a few things that happened that are just unacceptable
1. Lunch breaks I was told that a great deal of effort was made into scheduling lunch breaks and if you did not take them at the allocated times you missed out ( chart on the wall was printed out) . Since when did this start happening? Was it on Kronos? Was this done for last Christmas? Whoever scheduled the breaks did a very poor job at it. One of the team members missed her break completely, I started and finished before another team member did with the same amount of hours but she was scheduled to have her 3/4 hour lunch break before mine which does not make sense as it should be first to start first to have a break if doing full days shift ( in this case 10 shifts only 1 hour break total split into a 15 minute break and 3/4 lunch break - I have to check with fair work as this does not seem correct) and we both had a separate 15 minute break so I reminded her not to forget to have a break because on one previous shift she didn't have one. The team member "rebelled" ( her words) against this stupid schedule and took a full hour instead. My 15 minute break was hardly a break as I got rudely interrupted by a phone call during my break asking me where the ipad was. i had taken one ipad out of 4 ensuring i didn't take the main Toblerone ipad as i was not on the counter all day but on the floor serving and needed it.
2. I texted a message to a team member because there was a customer in a wheelchair that I served on 26th November 20 that wanted to leave a card for her and I said I'll leave it in the cupboard behind the Homewares counter for her. I had to check with the customer which team member it was for as there are 4 with the same name and got the customer to add the initial of their surname to the card so the other team members would not take it by mistake. Good old team member who wants to be a team leader is present when the team member finds and opens the card to read it and adds "Did you know it is illegal to accept gifts or anything from customers because it is considered a bribe?" We knew not to accept any form of money from customers but a card? So i added what harm can a card be from a customer who is in a wheelchair! She is just a lovely older lady going on a shopping trip.
I will talk about what another casual team member who has been banned from restocking duties because he was dumping stuff ( I am unconvinced it is actually him doing it as I was just told by the team member that wants to be a team leader and the customer service manager that they caught him doing it one day as I found someone is still dumping stuff today because they can't be bothered to go down to the reserves with the excess stock) . So back to this rather nsughty team member ( the one I put the christmas tree lights up with refer previous blog) who found a rather tacky novelty product Myer sells called a "Bum Plug". It is the most tackiest and stupid thing I have ever seen . It is not even a sink plug shaped into a bum, it is a normal sink plug attached by some chain to a cheap and nasty looking plastic float shaped as a bum. So what did this team member do, he randomly placed one hidden on a shelf in the menswear department to see how long a female team member would take to find it. I said to him a blob of fake poo like the emoji poo would have been better. I hope that's not his version of a game we used to play at my p revious job when i was working at Bondi Junction called "Hide the duck" where there was this plastic duck team members used to hide in strange places and other team members had to find it.
I was still serving a customer by 8 pm and therefore did not punch out until 8.18 pm. I made sure I left straight away. I am not doing any unpaid overtime whilst employed by Myer. I think being rostered to do a 10 hour shift at the last minute is already stretching it especially changing today's shift at least 3 times. One team member even asked me is doing a 10 hour shift with a 1 hour break even legal? ( especially at the last minute).
Home on the 1st Manly bus to arrive rather then the next B line which was 12 minutes away as i just missed one getting across tge main road by a minute or 2. I ask the driver how long it takes to get to Manly and he said it takes the scenic route so I get on the manly bus just behind him as he recommended an alternative Manly bus. Another passenger had already tapped on to the first manly bus but untapped and also got onto the manly bus behind when they overheard my enquiry.
It takes about 15 minutes to get to Manly and it is the end of the line so if I fall asleep I can't miss the connecting 144 which does not run very frequently after 6 pm it seems. I walked across the road to Manly wharf no stopping for a break and waited with a whole lot of other people for the next 144 bus home ( including a very pissed lady who plonked herself next to me before staggering to the opposite seat a lityle unsteady bear footed holding what seemed to be only one shoe - I am surprised she even knew where she was suppose to get off).
Home before 10 pm. Straight to bed. I woke up at around 12.30 am as I was a bit itchy mainly on my hands and arms. Did not sleep well after what happened at work yesterday and every other day.
Saturday 28th November 2020
Myer 10.30 am - 7 pm new shift added to Kronos 15th November 2020. Checked Kronos again 19th 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 26th & 27th November 20 no change to shift. Checked Kronos 23rd November 2020 no changes to shift.
I have stopped checking kronos for any further last minute changed to my shift and allowing myself only 1 hour today to get to work. If I am late 15 minutes I don't really care as it will make up for working until 8.18 pm last night ( and all the other times I've worked over my finishing time or the time I turned up and my shift start time had changed to 30 minutes later between the day before and arriving and which the customer service manage put me to work immediately as soon as I artived). Lunch breaks have been randomly put into Kronos for a few of my past shifts and when I asked about it and showed other team members they did not bother about them or even check if and when they were suppose to take their breaks and I was told it was "only a suggested break time". Whoever is using Kronos to enter everyon's shifts should be banned from using it.
I'm going to have no legs left by the time I get to work. Any other person on the bus want to lose their footing and fall on top of me. First it was an old man on the 144 bus who lose his footing and landed awkwardly on his hand around my top left knee with his entire body weight on it then on the Bline bus a rather tall solid younger guy lost his footing slid and land with his body weight stepping on my right foot.
It's going to be a bad day I should have called in sick.
So I was a little late for work wasn't feeling the best and stopped at the nearest toilet to check if my leg actually had a bruise on it from the guy that fell on me. No all good but still a little throbbing. It should be fine after today. I punch in a little late but nobody wil notice as there are team members punching in and out at all times of the day. As long as I don't come up as undefined again after Wednesday & Thursday ( it only comes up undefined before 8 am shift starts). This time I checked that my location setting was not left on my phone or switched itself back on when punching in and out of Kronos from my own phone.
So first incident today was a lady that received a gash to her leg from a poorly positioned wooden Christmas tree display near the esculator that had socks hanging on it. She was apparently walking around the corner when one of the pointed branches cut into her leg. The customer came to me to report it and yes it was poorly positioned so I tried to push it back a little so no one else would get injured by it. I asked if she was ok and if she needed a bandaid and told her to stay put and I'd get the first aid kit and find a few bandaids for her. After that I needed to call a manager to come down asnd lodge an incident report. So I called one manager but my customer had wondered off and she told me to find her and call her back. After finding her one of the team members stayed with her until I went back over to her. The manager wasn't answering the phone so I went to the top by calling the store manager who said he woud send a manager down. After that we made sure she was ok and explained to her that it is all protocol that a manager is called.. The customer was ok with that and I asked if she needed anything. She wanted some water and the first thing i did was grab a bottle off the shelf for her. I wasn't going to charge her for it ( if I had to I will pay for it myself). Manager arrives and the offending tree and its location is recorded for the incident report and the tree moved back against the wall. The customer was fine with it and continued shopping. She told us she was a former nurse but currently having some sort of treatment hence she bled more easily then normal. I hope I handle the incident ok. The irony is i went back past this wooden Christmas tree again and it had been moved back to the same angle by the afternoon! I wait for another accident to happen.
Second incident of the day. Since when is it ever ok for any manager to yell at a team member either in front of other team members or in front of customers. It's not and one team member was apparently yelled at by the assistant store manager in front of not just team members but very likely customers as well. By the end of the day I think she was not feeling the best from the experience. She disappeared for a while and a team member thought she may have gone to the bathroom so I went looking for her to see if she was ok. I said to her that the assistant store manager said that she didn't have to help me and another team member with restocking and she could return to the counter after asking her if she was ok and to take her time. I hope she didn't get told off by the assistant store manager a second time for disappearing off the floor. I wonder if she went to check if she was ok or went to yell at her again in the bathroom. I guess that I won't find out until I see her next.
Having mentioned this incident on my blog, I am now going to tell you what happened the previous night. I actually was yelled at by the customer service manager. So as you have probably read about the team member I ( nicknamed "TICKET GIRL" ) was working with that night , was told to take all the old Black Friday sale signs down and put up new sale signs for the weekend, so I asked if I could help her by taking down all the expired sale signs so she can concentrate on putting up the new sale signs. So I grabbed a trolley and started taking all the signs down however I only took the larger and smaller signs in their stands down in the area closest and directly in the bedding towels and bathroom accessories area. The rest of the signs I removed but left them in their holders that had the new sale signs behind them. I was yelled at for doing so and told how much time I had wasted doing so as she had told someone ( anyone actually no body else bothered to help out) to just remove the front signs to reveal the back signs and not take the stands off. Was I aware of this yep. There was a logical reason for this and that was some lazy person ( probably the assistant manager herself) could not be bothered removing multiple older expired signs before putting up new ones so most of the stands had multiple expired sale signs behind the new sale signs and I'm taking upto 4 stacked up behind per stand. She also told me not to let the store manager see I had used a black wheelie trolley to go around and dump all the expired sale signs in to be taken to the dock, binned and recycled. It was the most efficient way I could think of to collect all the expired sale signs to be recycled and it isn't doing anyone any harm. The customer service manager was just being petty but more likely it was something else. She accused me of pulling all the signs down to the Electrical manager - she should have checked her facts before accusing me yet again for something I didn't do. It didn't take me long to put the stands all back up after removing all the expired signs in each of the stands and some sale signs were even advertising sales for products we didn't even have on the shelves because they were out of stock of that particular product or it had not been restocked. So I had had enough and said "I don't want to work for Myer anymore". It's true I don't, not at the Warringah store at anyway hence my transfer enquiry mentioned in a previous blog. Maybe they do things differently at the Chatswood store and other bigger Myer stores. The moral of the story is a few expired signs were missed one in particular by the customer service manager who went beserk I was told after I finished my shift last night taking the remaining expired signs down. A customer spotted a sale sign for a box of specific MW wine glasses on a shelf and was going to come back and buy a box of the 6 white wine for $15. She could not believe her eyes when she saw the sale sign and asked me when it ended. When I took a look at the sale sign which expired yesterday I said the offer had actually expired yesterday but since she spotted it Myer had to honour it so I took the sign down and told a team member at the counter to honour the sale for $15.
A third incident was where a new team member who has her nanny working downstairs in cosmetics was yet another victim of the assistant manager's " abuse of power" which is the only way I could describe it. She told me how she did not like her and I said to this new team member " The feeling is mutal" and not to worry about it after she told me the story of how she got in the lift and saw her coming so pressed the close door button so she could not get into the elevator with her. Smart thinking! I would have done the same. I think she may have started a trend - see a manager coming quickly close the door on them. Not on all managers though. So that's what the gossip I overheard previously was about to never get into the lift with the assistant manager when some team members were talking about the assistant manager and said "quick close the door" . The rumour is quite a few team members don't like her and a team member even said to me " she never smiles" and even " I swear she is bipolar or there us something going on with her mentally" . So you maybe thinking - that may be what other team members think of her but has she ever " abused her power" on me. The answer is yes remember back to previous blog just before the addition & cancelled shift same day on a Monday. I asked her for assistance with which label printer and battery pack to go with the scanner gun and she yelled at me and said that I didn't need one and rang the customer service manager about what is going on with the repricing. That was not the first time I was yelled at that day by her.
Sunday 29th November 2020
Day Off
No new shifts added to Kronos after this date as at 15th November 2020.
Another virtual AGM to attend ( this time overseas) via Zoom ( my first attendance and my first audio visual one I hope it works!). Due to the time difference it is scheduled for 5am Australian Eastern Daylight Time on Sunday ( it's actually scheduled for 10 am the previous day ). Fingers crossed that I don't have any technical difficulties. ( scheduled for next Saturday 5th December 20 @ 10 am their time)
I have checked Kronos again and no new shifts have been added as at 21st November 2020 and no changes to shifts above ast at Saturday 21st November 2020. Checked again on 27th November and new shifts have been added and it looks like a few shifts have changed ( after 29th yet again.)
Every page (of what used to be my financial year diary is now solely used as my "Myer" diary) looks like the pages above. ( which is just 3 weeks out of months of entries) If you can't read it either can I. This is what I spend most of my time outside of work doing - checking and updating my shifts on Kronos and recording it all. We are also required to check Metrics read mcoms look at group chat messages and respond to them and I also check my payslips for wage theft ( it's the big companies that get caught out).
It was 43 degrees celcius yesterday (a team member pointed out last night "What about all the chocolate at Myer - they didn't think about that did they with the heat?" so I added "Would you like your melted Toblerone block personalised?") and a minimum of 26 degrees celcius over night with temperatures over 40 degrees celcius all day again today.
By 11 am this morning it is not only stinking hot but extremely windy outside.
Still far too hot to venture outside and it is almost 1 pm. i have the ceiling fan on high now but will turn it down back to medium in an hour or so. I have has the fan on on medium since early this morning. I am waiting for the cool change before venturing out but it is not forcast until 5 pm this afternoon.
It's now 6 pm and it's getting darker but not any cooler. I have basically been a zombie all day today laying in bed keeping as still as possible under the ceiling fan which I turned back down to medium. It still feels like 30 degrees celcius. Will it ever cool down?
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