Monday 8th March 2021
Myer stock 8 am - 4 pm today. New shift added to Kronos 28th February 2021. Checked Kronos 3rd , 5th & 6th March no changes to shift.
Today I was alone doing stock but it didn't start off that way. It think there is only one person doing stock each day probably due to Myer's poor budgeting skills ie they can't afford to roster more team members on to do stock yet there are 2 or 3 team members rostered on at a time on service in each department which also doesn't make sense as I was serving customers most of the morning before lunch at 2.28 pm today ( yes that late!). I did not put most of the sales through but gave them all to 4 different team members in 2 different departments. I did put one sale through though just to help out at the register and wrap some plates up for team member " ticket girl" to help her out as she had quite a few plates and an order for a customer she was serving.
Back to my stock duties today. A few very significant things happened today worth noting which just did not make sense and illustrates how poorly Myer operates.
1. I was early this morning and the dock manager let me in as she had a key at around 7.45 pm. I punched in put my stuff in a staff locker and my lunch in the staff fridge. As I was doing so I saw the team member from Electricals who usually is rostered on to do stock with me about to exit the staff entrance/exit. Catching him I asked where he was going and he said "Home" as he just reported to the operations manager and he was told that he wasn't rostered on to do stock today so was going home - he just arrived!, his phone was not working so he could not check Kronos. ( Kronos is part of your life if you work for Myer - so annoying that you have to check your roster every single day as it constantly changes - I will be coming back to Kronos again later in my blog). Later I find out that there is another truck arriving today so the dock will be filling up with cages of stock again in the afternoon - there is no way I can do all of this on my own especially the heavy stuff. I am leaving this - my little body is suffering already from constantly doing stock
2. Last week one of the guys was suppose to help me put the heavy cookware sets out onto the floor from the tv reserve which were too high up to reach and too heavy for me to lift. I had cleared a space on the floor for the stock to be displayed and even left the empty cage in the reserve ready for them. What do I find today? the space on the floor is still empty! No one bothered to complete the task last week. OK so the team member from Electricals who was suppose to help me did not end up working last week but the team leader from Electricals was suppose to and he didn't. This is why things don't get done at Myer! The managers have no one to blame except themselves for this incomplete task! I often hear complaints and advisednot to ask the guys for help doing a task - they tell you they will do it but they are useless and the task never gets done by them ( I think back to scan count prep when I asked a team member from Electricals to help me move some grey totes full of drink bottles into the reserve - I return and what do you know they are still where they are and have not moved - the excuse I was distracted with a customer - yeh right!) That team member just has a reputation for being lazy and being described as a "wet rag" behind the counter and having an " I don't care " attitude by team member " I want to be a team leader".
3. Finally I will come back to constantly having to check Kronos for shift changes ( refer my previous blog and photo of an example of a page in my work diary dedicated to Myer and not much else). I had applied for leave on Friday to attend another virtual AGM which is from 11.30 am - 12.30 pm which I wanted to attend as it is apparently the first one for this particular company. After this I have planned to try and organise a video conference with another aged care facility resident to converse in Cantonese as part of my remote volunteer work. I thought great I now have 3 days off in a row Wednesday Thursday & Friday which also meant that I got out of the 8 am - 4 pm stock duties for the Friday 12th I was rostered on for. How wrong I was, checking Kronos again today and a new shift had been added on Thursday 11th March 2021 to do stock from 8 am - 4 pm. No rest for my little body and just as well I didn't book any appointments or go away for a few days.
The virgin bed & The Brothel Bed - I walked onto the floor this morning and the first things I saw one of the VM team members working on were the bed displays. There are 2 queen beds next to each other divided by some display shelves of bedding manchester and decorator items. The first bed is all in pure whites - not a speck of colour on it just different textures of white. So I nick named this bed "The Virgin Bed" however it was not the first bed I spotted the VM team member working on, the more dramatic queen bed display was next to it - full of textured deep crimson reds and contrasting deep navy blues it was all in rich velvets and textured velvet and velveteens. It looked very much like a bed you would find in a brothel ( not that I have ever seen an actual bedroom inside a brothel but have seen the front page of a past local newspaper advertising an interior designer's new fitout of one) I told the VM team member therefore I nick named this bed "The Brothel Bed". I asked the other team members what they thought of the bed and they all agreed it did look like a bed in a brothel, one even adding "Do we have a mirror, all it needs is a mirror on the wall or hanging from the ceiling to complete the look!" I added there is ( a large circular) one around the corner underneath the throws). It was in the wrong place, it should be with the brothel bed. How low can Myer go? Who knows maybe sales will now go up in bedding as a result! Lay on the virgin bed and wake up in the brothel Bed! (I should have taken photos!) I also added that the bedding would not be the only distraction on the bed to the VM team member.
So glad I'm not working on the floor serving tomorrow - Wednesday's Myer One Exclusive sales will mean team members will get slammed and it's just a one day preview sale! The real sale starts on Thursday when I'm on stock.
Home on the 280 bus to Chatswood. Need to prepare for work tomorrow although I can sleep in a little more and leave home at 8 am instead of 6 am.
Tuesday 9th March 2021
Myer service 10 am - 5.30 pm new shift added 28th February 2021. Checked Kronos 3rd 4th 5th & 6th March 2021 no changes to shift.
Surprise I am not on stock today and don't start work until 10 am but am already asked by customer service manager for favour to get a trestle table from the landing on the dock and bring it up to her. It's 9.45 am and I haven't even punched in yet. After punching in, putting my stuff in a staff locker and my lunch in the staff refrigerator, I grab the empty trestle table from the landing in the dock area and bring it down to the soft reserve where the customer service manager was filling up another trestle table full of towels. I swap the empty trestle table I bought to her with with the full of towels trestle table. I drag it all the way to the goods lift at the other end of of the floor as we are not allowed to use the passenger lift around the corner for transporting cages and trestle tables full or empty - trolleys are ok) and up in the goods lift onto the floor via the landing on the dock full of towels . It was extrenely heavy and very hard to drag and it was not the breajs on the wheels as they were not locked as I cjecked them several times . The wherls got caught serveral times in the gap between the sliding lift door and landing on the dock therefore I had to stop and leave the trestle table on the landing in the dock area. I go onto the floor to check where the space was to put this trestle table before returning to the landing on the dock to retrieve the extremely heavy trestle table full of towels I still had to get through a swinging door with a security combination lock with a handle that keeps getting caught in cages ( why is the security combination lock even on the door- it is never even used! it should be removed and replaced with a normal key hole lock). I managed to fet the trestle table through the door and partly onto the store floor. I got up there way after customer service manager got her tressle table full of towels up there onto floor How did she get up there so fast with her trestle table? Did she take a shortcut around the corner with it in the passenger lift up one floor and out the lift and around the corner onto the shop floor where it was meant to go ( which is a big no no during shop opening hours as the tressel tables take up the entire passenger lift meant for customers only within Myer's 2 floors ) instead of dragging it all the way back to the goods lift through the dock and stopping to find something to keep the double doors open from the dock to the floor then dragging it all the way to the other side of the shop floor? She saw me struggling and says to me "There you are!" It makes me so angry that she can break the company's policies because she is a manager and I can't and get told off if do the wrong thing. I could not even get my trestle table past hers outside the soft reserve therefore could not even take the passenger lift around tge corner as a shortcut so had to take the long way around.
I hardly ever get asked to start when the store opens and I always wonder why as there is always a team huddle 10 - 15 minutes downstairs before opening where the managers and team talk about the budgets for the day, push Myer One sign ups, sales figures and how well Myer is always doing, nominations for weekly customer service star and discuss customer service feedback and scores of team members. So why don't I get invited to team huddles? Simple - management don't want me to hear any of the bad stuff that happens at Myer due to the fact that I am a shareholder I suspect, only the good stuff - bad stuff like Sunday's theft which I found out about from several other team members anyway! It was quite a problem on Sunday apparently not just petty theft.
There is a reason why team member " ticket girl" and I hate doing orders on the ipad especially large orders for customers - they always stuff up. We don't stuff up, the order system does. Team member "ticket girl" 's customer order fiasco from Monday is still being rectified by the team leader from Electricals and customer service manager . It took 2 days for herself, 2 managers and the electricals team leaderr to "fix". It was actually not team "ticket girl's fault but head office as they could not be bothered processing the large order therefore it had to be processed at store level. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it she checked it and I witnessed her check it and so did team member "I want to be team leader" All barcodes were scanned yet head office said they had not been. In the end to balance the transaction team member had to purchase and return a set of towels under hee name to the value of the customer's order.
Today I was told by the Electricals team leader that I had to take my lunch break straight after team member "ticket girl"'s lunch scheduled at 1 pm for 1 hour. We both complained how it was a bit early but the electricals team leader had to cover I think 3 lunch breaks one after the other that day for both the Homewares and Electricals department which meant he did not have his lunch until I think 3 pm ie last.
I received a free green pan from the customer service manager - however I had to sign my life awsy for it and forgot to pick up from customer service manager's desk - who cares not important and I will pick it up if I remember to on Thursday my next shift.
Finally this always happens to me. I could not ask yeam member ticket girl fir assistance as the customer service manager pull her away as she did not want to stay back to finish putting up the tickets. I was assisting team member "ticket girl" put up new sale signs and tickets when a lady needed assistance with purchasing approximately $350 worth of crockery around 4.30 pm therefore I had to stop what I was doing to assist her. It took me forever to process her purchase including getting grabbing her an abandoned shopping trolley from the carpark, finding a box to place the loose MW crockery pieces in, entering into the POS system and wrapping all the individual pieces. In the end she grabbed a trolley and she asked me if it was OK if she went to get some fish from the fish market downstairs and return - no not really however because it would take me so long to process her purchases I said yes and it turned out to be great timing - I was just finishing the processing wrapping and boxing of the last pieces of her crockery purchase when she returned. The large sale was put through and she paid for it all before the store was about to close. I even took time to explain to her how she purchased odd numbers of each pieces of crockery but it is all itemised on her receipt in quantities.
Home on the bus and end of another work day.
Hard to believe that it's now been about 2 years now since I moved into the rental apartment I am currently living in half of it during COVID. Time flies.
Wednesday 10th March 2021
Day off.
Offsite storage unit monthly rental paid today first thing.
Apologies I'm not feeling well today and did not end up venturing out.
Just rested watched tv and caught up on my blog. Hopefully ok to work tomorrow on stock.
Thursday 11th March 2021
Day off - not anymore, new shift added to Kronos 8th March 2021? or around that date. So I was having 3 days off straight but now I have to work from 8 am - 4 pm today doing stock because I am unavailable to work this Friday. This is what Myer does - adds and deletes shifts all the time. Come on I am just getting over my severe allergies last week from doing too much stock and my back and knees are hurting. I need time to recover my little body.
My blog crashed again so I have to rewrite the paragraph above. It always seems to crash if I write something negative.
So much to do today. Cage after cage of stock. So much stock I actually didn't get to have lunch until 2.30 pm today.
Finally something is being done and someone is bringing up the boxes of Circulon and Analon cookware sets from the tv reserve that was suppose to be displayed under the Stub display table I had made a space for last Thursday. I repeat again - things get done very slowly at Myer - the hard reserve is now full and all the top shelves have been emptied and no stock is allowed to be put on the top shelves anymore for safety reasons and nothing has been done about the split in the door still. I get stuck because the code did not work on the glassware reserve as well the other day.
They are not very smart at Myer in terms of merchandising. The cake decorating display table is full to the brim because someone has just dumped the rolling pins, cupcake carriers, cardboard cake stands and boxes where ever they will fit. Do anyone ever think of using a few display cubes to contain all the rolling pins to stop them rolling off and stand the cardboard cake stand up instead of just dumping them non top of the rolling pins? Nope so I decided to do it. I took photos ( on my other phone) of what I did in terms of merchandising today as I am just sick of whoever is dumping stock. The other VM team member I was doing stock with today suspects it is one of the guys and so do I eventhough the customer service manager suspects it's me - I confronted her and told her that we think it is the team member from Electricals- he maybe fast but we are both finding that stuff is being dumped in the wrong areas. Today I had to take all the heavy wooden carving boards back down to the hard reserve. I was really angry as it was really heavy so I dumped them on any shelf I could find down there. There is just no room. I also had to move the excess horrible Jamie Oliver range of bakeware down to the old luggage reserve. It is horrible stuff! Another copy of a cheap spiraliser, mezzaluna, a salad spinner, a few wooden boards and a truck load of cheap ceramic bakeware. What a waste of cash flow.
I told the team leader of Homewares who just returned from her holidays about the virgin bed and the brothel bed - she loved my description of them. We also went through what stock was on sale and available at this Myer and what was not
Speaking of which after the big partnership with Australia Post - the partnership is no longer as the store no longer has an online department only click & collect - total waste of resources and very few people have used Myer as an Amazon pick up hub according to a team member who works down at The Hub - another total waste of resources.
Why on earth did Myer purchase 2 cartons of various sized bread proofing baskets and lames? I bet customers are going to shoplift the bread lames!
I usually try to have lunch around 1.30 or 2 pm at the latest with a team member from VM that does stick on Wednesdays Thursdays and Fridays as it does get lonely doing stock especially if you are on stock duties on your own on the other days.
I got so caught up I missed having lunch with her altogether as she had lunch at 1 30 pm. She saw me at around 2.30 pm when she had finished her lunch and was about to go back to the dock and onto the floir to continue merchandising and asked where I was. I had to apologise as I got caught up with not only stock but a customer. I ended up eating my sad vegemite cheese and lettuce wrap , 2 figs and a museli bar on my own in the staff lunch room.
3.30 pm and my lunch is over but I did take a walk outside to Woolworths to get a few things before returning to my stock duties - I only had 30 minutes more before my shift ended so grabbed a half filled easy cage of stock to merchandise on the floor, saying good bye to the team member from VM doing stock ( S & P again!) before washing my hands and punching out.
I forgot to mention that I went to the office and looked on the customer service manager's desk for the frypan she gave to me. I found it but did not take it as she was using it for her in/out tray so I did not take it. It wasn't even worth taking - a cheap Cooks Collective stone coated frypan so small it could only be used to fry an egg. One of the team members from Homewares got one and said they were probably giving then away because nobody wants them because they were cheap and not very good and that everyone got one - not everyone I believe. I was last on the list to get one. That fry pan would have been donated to a charity or put straight into my storage - never to be used. I have got too many better quality fry pans already.
End of another tiring day. Being Thursday night shopping I took my time doing some grocery shopping at Coles Warringah before catching the 280 bus to Chatswood to continue my grocery shopping.
Home & Sleep.
Friday 12th March 2021
Leave requested back in January 2021 Day in advance however have been rostered on in Kronos 8 am - 4 pm today for stock although it indicates as unavailable under schedule in Kronos.
Plans for today - another virtual AGM from 11.30 am - 12.30 pm . First virtual meeting attend however not without problems with the link. Was not able to connect after registration. Meetings through link services unavailable on your phone. You had to use a laptop computer or tablet and after trouble connecting using Internet Explorer Google Chrome worked first time. Because I sucessfully registered to attend the meeting previously I had to create a fake email address to reregister agsin in order to log in to view the meeting. I had to phone support and stay on the phone with them until I could actually see the virtual meeting on screen as you could not just listen to the audio of the meeting. It was an interesting but short AGM - loads of members but very few general questions. Most questions were not answered online due to privacy reseaons as they were personal questions relating to members individual superannuation funds. I must stay in touch and keep my details updated with this organisation since this particular superannuation fund of mine has now been taken over ( managed ) by them.
Lunch of oven baked turkey marinated in garlic chilli flakes soya sauce vegetable stock fig jam seasame oil fried shallots and pepper with pasta and blanched brocollini. Yum!
Did not get a chance to do my remote volunteering this afternoon.
Still recovering from my day of stock duties yesterday.
Rubbish still needs to be taken out and laundry still needs to be done but is sorted ready to wash.
So tired so did not venture out after the virtual AGM and lunch today.
I was telling everyone at Myer how my stock days may be numbered - how wrong I was, I have hardly any time serving the week after next week according to Kronos when I checked it today.
Saturday 13th March 2021
Yes I have to work today but it's not stock. Myer 9 am - 5 pm service. New shift added to Kronos 28th February 2021 and Kronos checked 3rd 5th & 6th March 2021 (at the least).
So busy today. I did not have lunch until 3.30 pm after team member "ticket girl" had hers at 2.30 pm. By the time I finished lunch it was 4.30 pm and my shift finishes at 5 pm today.
I walk out to the dock and it is clear! First time I have seen it clear in weeks even months. Wow whoever was on stock on Friday must have worked really hard to get all of the stock cleared as there was no way the other girl from the VM team and I could have done it all ourselves on Thursday especially as there was a new truck full of stock coming in the afternoon.
I was about to sign a customer up for the Myer One membership but as soon as I hit "create new membership" on the POS system, the customer was showing up as already in the system. There goes my one Myer One sign up for the day! So no Myer One sign ups for today and I've asked every customer that was not a Myer One member if they wanted to sign up and they all said "NO" straight away - you cannot force customers to sign up just to build up your customer base. Myer has to offer something in their current Myer One loyalty program to entice and encourage customers to join as it is currently not value for money - again I ask what is Myer's point of difference? - there just isn't any with the current Myer One loyalty program. No affiliations, no birthday vouchers and only a $10 reward voucher for every 1000 points earned accumulated at 2 points for every $ spent - not exactly value for money and asking customers to join up on a busy Saturday not a good idea - customers just don't have time.
Another customer had 4 Myer One membership cards each with a different card # against her name. Same first name last name and postcode however each with different phone numbers, email addresses and even different additional card holders and names. None of them were hers according to the email addresses or phone numbers.
I was asked to pick up the fry pan from the customer service manager's desk again today which I did - I explained to her how I didn't take it the other day because she had stuff in it and was using it as her in/out tray.
Team member "ticket girl" was pulled away for her monthly one on one with the customer service manager ( I suspected this and confirmed this with her afterwards - uh oh it means I'm next). So the first attempt to pull me away for this failed - I was getting something from the soft reserve ( a few sets of sheets or quilt covers for a customer of mine) and was walking past the customer service manager's office when she spotted me and she was having a one on one with the electricals team leader and asked if she could see me and I said no as I was actually with a customer. So I escaped my one on one with her for now. She had a second attempt whilst on the floor later on but this time she just asked me to just sign her iPad and said she wasn't going to do a one on one with me because she know I work hard and see it every time so just said sign here and so I just scribbled my initials on her iPad and that was it.
When I went for my walk to Woolworths during my late lunch break I purchased the following 2 new products to try.
Product review # 1 The Natural Confectionery Company has new Kombucha flavoured jellies. Rating 7/10. I don't love them but I don't hate them either - 3 flavours of Kombucha original, Strawberry Hibiscus and Ginger Peach in a packet. It is a strange taste but but unpleasant. On special at Woolworths at The moment for $2 a packet. Not exactly like the real drink.
Product review # 2 The Natural confection Company now has new Vegan Fruit Flavoured Jellies. Rating 9/10 I am far from being a vegan but absolutely love these jellies. I would normally buy the normal jellies in their range but why do these vegan jellies taste so much better then the other jellies in the range. So addictive I could eat the entire packet whereas I would not be able to eat more then a few of the normal jellies in the range. Even if you are not vegan I recommend these over the normal jellies in their range as they taste nicer ( especially the berry, current & banaana flavoured ones which I always hated and left in the packet whenever I purchased the jellies in the normal range as they had this horrible artifical aftertaste) & don't have that hard chewy rubbery texture or surface the normal jellies in their range have. They are much softer and smoother in texture. I think I will be buying these again!
On my way home I stopped off at Woolworths Metro but could not make up my mind what to get for dinner therefore made a decision I regret at stopping at KFC to get a Zinger burger. It was the worse Zinger burger I have ever had - the worst burger I have ever had at KFC! Never again. What was I thinking ? I was tired and could not be bothered cooking but all I could think of was I hope I don't get sick eating this Zinger burger! I do not recommend getting any snacks from either the McDonald's or KFC at Chatswood Station. Everything I have eaten from them has not been very nice and I don't eat much from them preferring the market food stalls, Gomez and Woolworths Metro ( Japanese rice bowls ).
Sunday 14th March 2021
Day off.
I checked Kronos today and my only lunch cover shift serving on the floor on Thursday 25th March 2021 11 am - 5 pm has been cancelled which means all my 3 shifts for that week are on stock. It looks like my days at Myer are numbered as the JobKeeper government supplement ends and casuals are going to be terminated pretty ironic as the following text message was just posted on the Whats App Group Chat by the customer service manager yesterday and I was asked if I needed one and said yes so I have a spare and don't loose mine in the fry pans again!
"Hi does any one need a name badge ? Please let me know asap as we are ordering some this Wednesday."
It's quite dark and wet today therefore it is a stay at home or shopping day today.
Was texting team member "ticket girl" today - she won the recycling challenge yesterday that the customer service manager came up with which was I think to sell as many $2 reusable Myer bags as possible - I think I sold double the amount of 15 cent plastic shopping bags then I sold reusable $2 ones which goes to show customers will still use plastic shopping bags even if they have to pay for them! The proceeds from selling the bags ( unsure plastic or reusuable) are suppose to go towards charity. I am a unconvinced about this as sale proceeds are not recorded anywhere.
It rained all day but I still ventured out after lunch to return 7 bottles for recycling before taking the Metro to Macquarie Shopping Centre do some grocery shopping first at Aldi followed by Coles then finally Woolworths - it's a lot easier if all 3 supermarket chains are in the same shopping centre and close to each other. Only poroblem is all 3 supermarkets did not have quite a few of the grocery items I wanted on my shopping list - Aldi had no bottled sparkling mineral water left so I had to settle on trying 1 bottle of soda water and no turkey mince or chicken left as well. At Coles there was no brocollini left only really large chunks of brocoli , there was no punnet of basil or corriander so I had to make do with bunches of them that don't last as long and go yo waste - the last few punnets of dill were still available - even bottles of green juice were difficult to find. I spoent so long there looking for items I forgot to pick up a bottle of sparkling mineral water. Finally onto Woolworths which also had no brocollini or corriander or basil punnets. I managed to include a limited edition dairy farmers rhubarb and vanilla single serve tub of yoghart which is unavailable at Woolworths Metro. It's pink and a little sweet but quite nice as it is thick and creamy - more like lumpy due to the rhubarb. Not my favourite as plain vanilla or caramelized fig are my favourite flavours in their range. Rating 8/10 worth a try at $1 a single serve tub at the moment. Photo below
Whilst at Macquarie Shopping Centre, free mini samples of Munchme were given out. I had no idea what samples were being handed out - someone just jumped out in front of me as I was making my way to Aldi and handed me 4 packets of something which I didn't even look at and just stuffed in my backpack. It wasn't until after I finished my shopping at Woolworths did I actually take one of the packets of the samples out and actually tasted the contents of one of that packet. It wasn't bad and I read the ingredients on the pack and trying to find the origins of the product. After tasting the contents of the packet, I read that the contents of the packet are Made in China in tiny writing. I am a little worried about what I had just accidently eaten. I won't rate this product. I am extremely careful not to purchase any edible product that is Made in China or has ingredients originating from China not only due to safety reasons but also I would rather support most other countries imported edible products after Australian Made then China. I can't stand Chinese Made products. If I need to buy Asian products such soya sauce I won't touch any other brands except Kikkoman which is made in Japan for example. Photo of the sample product below.
Home late as I spent too much time grocery shopping. Prepared for work tomorrow.
End of another week.
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