Question for Any One over Assistant Manager Postions

Updated on October 07, 2011
D.S. asks from Katy, TX
5 answers

ok so I am an assistant manager for a store. My district manager is having issues with me. Last week we got in atruck with 1100 plus pieces. our average truck is 6-700 pieces. so a week later we still had half of the freight in the back. It is all christmas stuff. so we put out as much as possible to make room for the next truck. Dm comes in the next day and my recovery wasn't 100%. I got in trouble. I thought making room for the next truck which was a large truck was a priority. Ok so the next week we get in a 900 plus piece truck. with half of the 1100 plus piece truck still not put out because we arent allowed enough hours to do the work. This store has never ever had more than an 800 piece truck since it opened. Needless to say we have stuff stacked to the cieling on the shelves in the back. we have stuff in the floor stacked to the cieling so thick you can't walk through the back room. so wednesday after truck we have 5 uboats on the floor all overstock that wouldn't go in the back room. so loss prevention comes in and says recovery was bad.

edit you all have the logical answers. we are getting our hours cut in the christmas season go figure. that makes so much sense to me. We only have 6 staff.only 2 when I work. She works 4 during the truck but not long enough to really make a dent in it. I don't know it is such a screwed up situation. I am thinking of doing the premis of making him eat his words. Do a beautiful recovery every night and let the freight stack up. and if boxes are on the floor do a beautiful recovery and when he asks why they are on the floor say "but at least I have a perfect recovery just like you wanted." this is just so fustrating.

besides the 5 uboats on the floor we had about 40 boxes on the floor that needed to be put up. So I spent most of my night getting out as much of the frieght boxes on the floor I could. NOt the uboats the floor freight. I though if it wasn't put up since you couldn't walk down the isles it was a danger to customers. so I cleared the floor the best I could sticking the over stock boxes on the uboats which took rearranging the uboats so they wouldn't fall. So I got my recovery started late. It wasn't as good as it usually was due to this major overstock I felt like was a priority. But my floor was clear. So the dm calls me tonight I heard your recovery was sucky. So I explained the situation to him. I explained why I made the decision I made. I can't have a perfect recovery if I have to clear the floors. Or I can have a perfect recovery and leave all this stuff on the floor for poeple to trip over and sue him. So which should I have done?

How should I handle this not worry about safety over beauty. And by the time we even start to make a dent in this we didn't get the whole first truck put up in a week before next truck. So we had about 500 pieces off of that truck left. plus the 900 that just come in which leaves us 1500 or so pieces to put up. Now logically if we can't get out 1100 in a week we are not going to get 1500 in a week. and god only knows how big our next truck is going to be. I could do my perfect recovery every night which won't leave enough time to put up freight. Or I can spend time getting the freight cleared out and do a descent recovery so we will have room for our next truck. This is a no win situation so how do I handle this.

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So What Happened?

well he finally sent us some help. he sent another person and helped unload the truck himself too. the manager is going to get in trouble for giving us more hours to get the stuff done but she is the same attitude I am. I don't care we can't win for losing so what does it matter. so maybe he will get the point now.

More Answers

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S.B.

answers from Dallas on

Do you have a manager that is assigned to your store or do you report directly to the district manager? It seems like there is a staffing problem (you don't have enough help to get to the stock unpacked and to the sales floor) OR there is an inventory problem (you are getting more product than your store can sell) Do you have the authority to bring in extra help to help get the inventory unpacked? Can you transfer any inventory to another store?
You asked for help in dealing with your district manager. Deal with him on a very professional basis-tell him you need to have additional help to get the trucks unloaded based on the numbers. Have you talked to any of the other store mgrs/asst mgrs in your chain? How are they handling the inventory and what kind of feedback are they getting from the DM? This may help you deal with him better. As a DM, he is walking your store and seeing fire hazard in the back, while you are more concerned with the clutter issue in the front --both are big problems and potential liabilities. Good Luck!

1 mom found this helpful

L.A.

answers from Austin on

This is considered the "Holiday Season" in most stores. Usually they are trying to slowly add the staff (seasonal) they will need during the actual Holidays. As they add these people, this is where you should start having a few workers to help unload and start stocking the floor.

You beef up on people in the stocking areas now.. the (seasonal) sales staff and service staff starts being hired towards the end of this month so they can be trained in time for the Holidays to work the floor.

You need more staff right now. It will be temporary for a few months..
Ask how can you either, be allowed to authorize overtime for your people. Or hire extra people to help catch up and get through the holiday season.

Your dm needs to either send in some help or figure out how to get it to you so you all can catch up.

To tell you the truth. I was an actual Buyer, DM and a Store manager at different times in my career. Almost EVERY year, I switched out of my heels and hose and put on jeans to help unload, check in merchandise and lay it out on the floor myself.. also with my other staff, secretaries, Book keepers, ect.. . We just made it a priority. Because if it is not on the floor, it cannot sell. Retail is too dependent on what happens on the floor, we work as a company wide team to make it happen.

The people on Salary just knew that at any time they may be asked to go out there and get the work done. They were given comp time later.

G.T.

answers from Redding on

Sounds like a scheduling issue to me in order to make it all work. Holiday overstock is always a challenge. You are being challenged to come up with a way to make it all work in the best way you can, and with most companies SAFETY comes first. Making space for the "anticipated" overstock should be priority one. Scheduling your BEST workers for the task by KNOWING who those workers are is the best way to try to execute. Have a brainstorming sesion with your stockers and someone will have a great idea. Bosses WILL try to intimidate in order to get things done, many of them manage in that fashion. Dont take it real seriously or personally. The best thing to do is NEVER give excuses but always say "I'll make it work" and then gitterdone. Even your DM has to answer to someone. I find the best thing to do is always give your immediate supervisor the tools he/she needs to answer to his/her boss, that's really all they want. "Hey John/Joan, how much OT can we get away with this month? If I can add a couple of extra crew members to this weeks schedule we can clear a spot in the warehouse and get this accomplished..." Always THROW THE BALL INTO THEIR COURT.

T.K.

answers from Dallas on

My husband is in this situation often. Try to see the place through the eyes of the 1st customer walking in the door in the morning. What are they going to see? When the manager walks in the door 1st thing in the morning, he has a certain checklist of things he's looking for. Make sure that is what he sees. Work smart and work clean for 7 hours of your shift. By work smart, I mean put out the biggest items 1st. If you have bins of dog food or toilet paper they're going to go out much faster than bins of jewelry or canned goods. Divide and conquer. Assign someone 3 aisles and you take 3 aisles, now you both have a clear goal to meet. By work clean, I mean break down your boxes as you go, put one box at the end of the aisle to stack the boxes in. Then around the 7th hour, stop what you're doing. Begin cleanup and recovery. Your mgr is going to understand that you didn't finish all the stocking in one night. They are not going to understand why you left the store dirty.

C.B.

answers from Kansas City on

you said you told your boss, but you didn't say what he said. sounds like he needs to step up and provide a solution, or work with you to find one, OR zip it. and a good boss would help fix the problem. i'm sorry if that's not the case. but in the end, all you can do is all you can do. if you're stressed because you feel like you're not doing your job, relax..you're doing all you can do. that HAS to be enough for you. if you're worried about your job, talk to your boss and tell him that. ask him if he can spare some time to pow-wow about this subject, as you feel like there has to be a better solution that you're just not seeing. good luck....it sounds like a no-win situation, in which case, your best is all you can give.

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