Any current or former retail workers here? I need help!

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve been working at a grocery store for a little over a year now; mostly stocking shelves. A couple weeks ago I was promoted to “Grocery Manager” which involves running the stock crew and occasionally having to close the store at night.

I’m comfortable with the grocery (stocking) part, but I have near zero experience in management and working on the front end. I’m especially having trouble getting into the “boss” role of having to order people around and in dealing with weird/irate customers.

If anyone here has any experience with this kind of situation and could give some helpful advice, I’d love to hear it. I’m supposed to be getting (some) training sometime in the near future, but until then I’m pretty much on my own.

2

When I was younger, I worked in several retail establishments. The best advice I can offer when it comes to weird/irate customers is that it often helps if your manner is sympathetic, as if you see their side of the situation. Even whackaloons appreciate a little understanding. It’s sometimes possible to be sympathetic, yet point out that “the rules” prevent you from granting their wish. Once when I was working in a bookstore, I had a customer who wanted to return a whole sack full of books that had been purchased from the store months earlier. The books had obviously been read. They had grease stains on the pages. The customer went on and on about how an honorable business should accept returned merchandise. I nodded and tried to look supportive, but told the customer that my hard-nosed manager had a strict policy of only accepting returns that were brought back within 24 hours of purchase. When it became apparent that the books were not going to be accepted by us, and that the reason was beyond my control, since it was a policy of the Mean Old Boss (who was not on the premises), the customer shrugged and walked away.

3

I think your “boss others around” conundrum can be answered by anyone who has had management experience.
It doesn’t sound like you are the type who will just bark out orders willynilly, and that’s good. Asking people to do their jobs, or specific tasks associated with their jobs, is good management. Being disrespectful when you ask the same is not. Doing everything yourself is also not, and that is what I had trouble with when I was the assistant manager of a retail store. I was very young and felt uncomfortable asking peers or older coworkers to do the sweeping and cleaning up, so I ended up doing things myself. Didn’t make things get done effeciently or quickly, and didn’t garner me respect. A polite, “I have to count the drawer money now. Could you please sweep the floors in front” would have done nicely.

I have advice on irate customers as well, but my three-year-old is bossing me around right now, so I gotta go. (But quickly—the goal is always to end the encounter with both customer and worker as close to satisfied with the interaction as possible)>

4

Half of dealing with employees is confidence. Go in assuming the underlings will give you crap and disrespect you, chances are they will. Go in with confidence, show that you can help them do their job easier and faster, and they will respect you.

I have five people who report to me. I’m a laissez-faire manager, I don’t micromanage. I’m gentle with pointing out errors and loud with my praise. My policy is I will drop what I am doing to help them. After all, I hate not being able to do my job because I’m waiting on something from someone, and I don’t want to hold them up, so they (and their work product) get first priority.

I stand up for them. We work in a department that is subject to the whims and decisions of other departments. These decisions sometimes adversely affect my employees. If I can’t stop it, I will let the other departments know what an inconvenience/hardship it is so hopefully they will consider it next time. After all, if I don’t let someone know they’ve submitted something after deadline, how will they know in the future? If I don’t stick up for my department, who will?

I do little perks. I have a bowl of candy on my desk and every Friday I switch out the hard candy for chocolate. I also use chocolate to “apologize”. If one of my employees has to do something over and over and over again because of other departments, I will throw a couple extra Hershey miniatures on their desk. Usually it’s no big deal, but they know I know how hard they work.

Don’t be smarmy and fake, but be efficient, professional, and helpful. Basically, have their back and they’ll go the extra mile for you.

5

I spent several years as a Floor Manager at a Grand Auto Supply store. I was the so-called “second in command”. I was a hard ass. We had huge amounts of shrink due to shoplifting and I tended to irrationally take it personal. We had a couple of big guy employees who would run down the street after someone stealing a car stereo. Foolish, I know, and I never encouraged it.

Something that I tried to keep in mind was to reinforce how much you appreciate the employees. Don’t make them look bad so you can shine. Thank them every day for a job well done (unless it wasn’t). If it wasn’t, try to figure out a different approach for the individual. I had a surly Snoop Dogg, who just wasn’t gonna take orders from some small young blonde woman. I made an extra effort to make friends with David and would get a smile out of him once in awhile.

It’s a lot easier to do your job if people have similar priorities. On my closing nights I wanted OUT. Fast. Started facing the store about an hour before closing and had a cashier closing out and one other emp stocking oil and sweeping. If everyone knows what’s expected of them, they’ll tend to comply.

Good luck! Don’t let it go to your head!

6

A tip from a guy who worked at the bottom level of many jobs (including retail) for years, and now (by virtue of age and experience) has been the boss of others for years:

Think of the managers/supervisors you’ve liked. Think of why you liked them. Then go, my son, and do likewise. The big one, at least from my POV:

I always like to know where I stand. Nobody liked being disciplined, corrected or chewed out, but it’s a damn site better than a boss who bottles things up and then blows up once every two months. And when I first started being “over” other people, I was that boss. In the interest of being nice and nonconfrontational, I would let things slide, and slide, and slide, and I would cover for other people’s mistakes, and then finally…BOOOOM!!! I’d let them have it about stuff that happened weeks before. And their (fully justified response): “What the hell do you want me to do about it NOW?!?” So when you spot one of your charges being lazy, or doing something wrong, or whatever, let them know RIGHT AWAY, in a way that conveys that you’re correcting the behavior rather than criticizing the person.

7

It is very important for you to remember that you must have legitimacy. Without it, no one will listen to you. For most people this would mean that you have to act authoritative. Speak with confidence and never let people see you do not know what you are doing (even if you don’t).

Never submit to any proposal that will make the store run worst. For both customers and workers, every time you have to make an unfavorable decision make sure they know that you had no choice in making it.

Always be available to help people learn new tasks and lead by example. It will be much more difficult to get people to work hard for you if you consistently slack off.

Remember, if you let workers slide management will hate you, but if you always side with management, your workers will hate you. So doing one or the other will make your life difficult. It is best to do both. Have a clear reason for everything you do and less people will question you or disobey you. The best reason for doing anything for management is always to help the store make money. The best reason for workers is that it will make their life much easier. Find a way to do both and you will have it made.

And from time to time tell workers that it unnecessary to do a certain task. It will let them know you do not want them to do too much work. If they do it anyway praise them, if not do not get upset. You do not need an army of super laborers. Even though it would make management happy to see that their employees are doing more work than expected (more than they paid for) it is still morally wrong. Don’t feel like you have to get your employees to put out 110; you don’t work in a hospital. You work in a grocery store, so no one will die and you will earn your workers’ respect if you stay content when they do an average job.

8

When I was a Front End manager, I actually created a check list that was copied for each evening’s closing, and each morning’s opening, with a list of the specific tasks that had to be done. I then wrote the name of the employee that was expected to complete each task, making sure that I rotated them so that no one always had to sweep or collect the trash bags. It also made things go smoothly since the list was posted at least the day before, and everyone knew what they were supposed to do before or after counting their drawer. If something wasn’t done, I knew exactly who to blame, too.

9

I have a few recommendations:
Best thing is to never let yourself get upset/excited/loud, at least in front of the employee. Keep it slow and calm and quiet. If he is totally wrong, and lost you a lot of money, getting upset, etc… with him won’t help. If he shot your favorite dog, it won’t help. Call the cops, or shoot him :D, but don’t get upset. Being calm does three things: First, helps keep him calm, ergo, less violence prone. Second, it helps let him and other employees know that they can’t jerk your chain easily. Third, your bosses will know that you are one smooth operator (In the work context, at least.)
If you have to chew him out, do it in a matter of fact voice, similar to that you use when telling him that there’s a new shipment coming in. That way, he won’t get defensive or embarrassed. Then, forget it.

If you don’t like something that an employee is doing, you can always pass it
off as a complaint from “higher ups,” or say “somebody said,” and then fall back on the old confidentiality dodge if they ask who complained. Works like magic!

If a bunch of subordinates complain about one of their coworkers, don’t fall into the trap of believing them. I had an excellent employee that was at odds with many of my other subordinates, and I was getting the most lurid tales about him. Sadly, I started to believe them. By force of bizarre circumstances, I moved him to the area that I worked in, and I found him to be a quite superior employee. His energy level was several times higher than most of the other employees (he was a hormone laden 21 year old), and this is what set everybody against him in the other area. However, if a bunch of customer/clients complain about him, he probably needs quick remedial action.

Don’t carry a clipboard, or legal pad unless you did it before your promotion, or the person in that position did it before you. As **ivylass **said,confidence is a major key. Don’t apologize for giving an order, just give it as a matter of fact thing: Here’s your assignment, Smythe, that’s a good lad! Carrothers! how’s the wife? Where’s my pipe? Has anyone seen the blasted thing?

Hang with the bosses, but remember that your new employees are “your people,” meaning that you don’t allow others to downgrade them, and *you *definitely don’t. Be liberal in praising them before your bosses, then let the subordinates know that you did that. This works like magic, too. Plus, when you see the looks on their faces when you tell them that, it makes *you *feel good.

Don’t worry about how you will look to your superiors. Do the right thing, and you’ll look great. (Did I just say that!?!?)
That’s it for now!
hh