Universal Chat Thread

[Maniakkid25]

I got f***ing promoted to cashier!

So, I've actually been waiting on this for several months, now, but it got forgotten about somehow? Anyway, I finally bitched about it because I was getting frustrated. Oh, no, not because they weren't promoting me when other people were getting promoted; believe it or not, I didn't care about that. What I did care about is that I was in the literal ONLY job class that could not use the inventory app, meaning every time someone asks me if we have anything in stock, I have to search in the back like a blind man, hoping I stumble into it! Hilariously, that's probably what finally pushed me over the edge into getting promoted! So, yeah, it finally happened. It's not full time, but they are working with me with trying to keep my hours up with them so I can apply for health care through them, so there's that, at least.

[Mr EliteL]

Aye, congrats Manual, finally. Although dang what use is the inventory app while you're at the counter serving? I suppose if someone forgot something and asks or when you're walking to and from places where a customer catches you then yeah. Hopefully in that app you can search for an item using words instead of having to find the shelf barcode or even memorising a number, bah. I only know of some short ones but I have memorised a full one, just isn't a product at our store. Anyway, hope it's better than what you've had deal with so far.

[Maniakkid25]

Yeah, you can search; it's mainly used upfront for price checking, but I keep passing by customers asking me to find stuff, and I don't have the actual tools to help them. But now I do! Took them f***ing long enough!

[Moonface]

Stupid bug, leave Moony alone. Hoping weather wasn't the cause because if you were here, the weather would likely be the reason because frick it's cold. Ah, Winter you're here even if the date is supposedly the 22nd which is absolute bollocks. My bet is Winter will linger mostly through Spring too again. I remember one year when Spring basically didn't happen, it was just cold the whole time until late April or something like that. I know I wore my thermals for ages that time and not just at work.

It's a little cooler here but I don't know where I caught this cold from. Most of it has been a sore throat that is killing me and slight congestion, but otherwise I don't have anything like a fever or whatever. I'm just glad it hasn't gotten so bad to need to call out of work sick because I really can't afford to do that when I'm the only frozen colleague in this week and calling out sick will mean nothing gets done until I go back in which means more workload.

I got f***ing promoted to cashier!

So, I've actually been waiting on this for several months, now, but it got forgotten about somehow? Anyway, I finally bitched about it because I was getting frustrated. Oh, no, not because they weren't promoting me when other people were getting promoted; believe it or not, I didn't care about that. What I did care about is that I was in the literal ONLY job class that could not use the inventory app, meaning every time someone asks me if we have anything in stock, I have to search in the back like a blind man, hoping I stumble into it! Hilariously, that's probably what finally pushed me over the edge into getting promoted! So, yeah, it finally happened. It's not full time, but they are working with me with trying to keep my hours up with them so I can apply for health care through them, so there's that, at least.

Ooh, congrats! And not only did you get a promotion, but also a name change!

Aye, congrats Manual, finally.

My only advice with Publix Pro is to never tell customers that we absolutely have it in the back if the app says we have anything on hand, just in case the count is off. In my experience it's always best to say the app says we should have some so you're going to see if it's in the back, since it leaves enough ambiguity to come back and say the count is incorrect should that be the case as the customer didn't get given an expectation that the product is 100% without doubt in the back.
I'd also advise to try and get an idea of what departments opt to split cases too. For example in my store dairy will never put out part of a case of yogurt; unless the shelf is low enough to take the entire case they won't fill it, so if the app tells me the count is say, 6 but a case is 12, I know it won't be in the back if none is on the shelf because dairy doesn't split cases. I however split cases on my frozen food department so the same approach can't work when it comes to checking inventory on the app.
Oh, and don't tell customers that an item will be guaranteed to come in on the date the app says the next delivery is. It took a while for the front end in my store to stop telling customers during the height of the pandemic that x item would come in on y date as if it was guaranteed because customers would come in expecting it to be in stock only for it to have been cut from the invoice for whatever reason and thus not delivered. Better to just always say our warehouse will aim to send some in on the date specified so it leaves that bit of wiggle room to avoid a customer blowing up when they come back.

On the healthcare side, I'd just say watch your average weekly hours going into any year where you have health insurance currently active because if corporate determines your average weekly hours aren't going to be enough to get you to the minimum needed to keep health insurance, they'll cancel it and when that happened to me they didn't tell me for months after the fact, so all of the medical stuff I had gotten done thinking I had that health insurance suddenly started sending me bills for the full amounts because my insurance was declining due to being inactive without my knowledge (I bitched about this a lot in the health insurance thread I made a while ago).

Although dang what use is the inventory app while you're at the counter serving? I suppose if someone forgot something and asks or when you're walking to and from places where a customer catches you then yeah. Hopefully in that app you can search for an item using words instead of having to find the shelf barcode or even memorising a number, bah. I only know of some short ones but I have memorised a full one, just isn't a product at our store. Anyway, hope it's better than what you've had deal with so far.

Yeah the app lets you search by word, although some products like to be named in the system by something that isn't the actual product name so you'll never find it. Also, searching for a term like "chopped spinach" will get you every result containing the words "chopped" and/or "spinach" which is horrible if you're looking for a product in grocery due to the number of items that will fall under that. If you search that in sub-departments like frozen or produce it'll have less to pick from so it isn't as bad but it can still be a ball ache from time to time.

[Mr EliteL]

What the actual f, I swear I was typing in Maniak when I did the post, I distinctively remember saying his username in my mind while doing so, how the hell did I type in "Manual"?! I didn't stop to check because I assumed that's what I put. Huh, well the u and l are next to the letters in the places where the i and k are...darn it.

...I l...which one is the--ah. IlIlIlIlIlI

Anyway, yeah I'm not surprised your inventory's supposed stock isn't always accurate as well, mine sure as hell isn't despite counting something yet the next day it will likely be incorrect again, and I don't mean the odd item that could've been in a customer's trolley before I counted because we/I take that into account too for a rough estimate on how popular the item is, I mean cases somehow. Also can iterate the supposed delivery date being wrong, the other day I was expecting 5 large potato "bins" we call them that holds like 90 sacks but never did turn up the next day. Granted we already had another 5 bins the day previous which is already abnormal which is why I bothered to check what's going on and see the current count is roughly correct anyway, so why did the system tell me we're expecting them, then have none come in?! Now pretend it's a different item that's low/no stock, with the expected delivery then nothing shows up, it happens yay. I made that drag on a bit. Nyeh.

Ah, you guys do get to use words, nice. Still would be good to have because it's fun to have customer come up to you for an unrelated product to your department say alcohol or beauty or health items when I'm clearly working the veg, I'd be able to type in the word, check the shelf location and the list of items around it for a more clear direction to the item if they really wanted that much help that doesn't involve me having to walk across almost the entire store with them. I know that's a standard we offer, but still.

[Moonface]

Anyway, yeah I'm not surprised your inventory's supposed stock isn't always accurate as well, mine sure as hell isn't despite counting something yet the next day it will likely be incorrect again, and I don't mean the odd item that could've been in a customer's trolley before I counted because we/I take that into account too for a rough estimate on how popular the item is, I mean cases somehow. Also can iterate the supposed delivery date being wrong, the other day I was expecting 5 large potato "bins" we call them that holds like 90 sacks but never did turn up the next day. Granted we already had another 5 bins the day previous which is already abnormal which is why I bothered to check what's going on and see the current count is roughly correct anyway, so why did the system tell me we're expecting them, then have none come in?! Now pretend it's a different item that's low/no stock, with the expected delivery then nothing shows up, it happens yay. I made that drag on a bit. Nyeh.

For my store, counts will be off because people stole the item, the warehouse sent less/more than what we should have received but the invoice doesn't reflect it and no one catches it before closing said invoice, or someone counted the stock and miscounted it. Grocery is always horrifically off with counts where I've seen the system say we have 80+ of something and we have zero, and it makes me so happy I work frozen instead of dry grocery so I don't have to deal with that nightmare because nobody over that side ever wants to check their inventory but proceeds to bitch the back stock is out of control.

Ah, you guys do get to use words, nice. Still would be good to have because it's fun to have customer come up to you for an unrelated product to your department say alcohol or beauty or health items when I'm clearly working the veg, I'd be able to type in the word, check the shelf location and the list of items around it for a more clear direction to the item if they really wanted that much help that doesn't involve me having to walk across almost the entire store with them. I know that's a standard we offer, but still.

We get told the aisle and general category section within that aisle most items live (some will not tell you which is fun), but we don't get anything that tells us what should be either side of that item. Which means if a tag is missing but the count on that item isn't low enough to send us more stock but we also lack any of that stock in the store, we will never know something is missing from a section for incredibly long periods of time. Being able to see what is either side of a product is the one thing I miss about the system Asda uses for inventory when it comes to location data.
What I miss most though is the way the system in Asda will let you scan cases and tell you how many should be in the back so you know how much stuff to take out to the floor. My store has nothing like that so you either guess what you need, or just take everything out to see what goes.


Also, turns out saying I wasn't feeling too rough cursed me because yesterday I felt so ill I had to call out of work, and this morning wasn't much better either. Hopefully I'm good enough to go to work tomorrow otherwise my coworker is going to be incredibly screwed.

[Karo]

@ShiraNoMai I've been keeping up with my classes mostly and now that graduation is next term slightly nervous, but I do got this term all set I believe! I miss you all too and I'll try to not be so quiet.

Congrats on the step up the corporate ladder Cricket! I wonder what the next step on the corporate ladder would be? Though I do think past this point they'd be having you do non-cashier/bagger duties.

@Moonface I'm sorry that the sickness is still being mean Moony D: I do feel like it kinda bullshit that stores literally have to play stupid games to give people the hours they need for health insurance....like what the hell? If you don't schedule everyone properly your literally screwing them out health care?

[ShiraNoMai]

Yo, next semester is it?? Let's fucking go???? That's so exciting! I'm so happy for you! You're getting a Studio Art BA right?

Also yeah, gg Maniak on the promotion! The pay increase is super worth. Hopefully full-time soon

[Karo]

Thank you I'm relived to be done, but then the next thing is finding a job and correct!

When you get full time are you like automatically guaranteed insurance? Cause it'd be nice to know as long as you continue to be working full time you don't have to worry about no longer being able to get help if you need it. 

[Maniakkid25]

In order to qualify for insurance, I need to work 1500 hours in a full calendar year. This comes out to about 29 hours a week, so full-time (40 hours a week) is basically guaranteeing me getting that. So, while it doesn't directly guarantee it, it de facto does.

[Moonface]

Congrats on the step up the corporate ladder Cricket! I wonder what the next step on the corporate ladder would be? Though I do think past this point they'd be having you do non-cashier/bagger duties.

For front end the next step up from cashier would be Customer Service Staff, and then it would go into team leader >> assistant manager >> manager for front end. The one thing that really sucks with the last three positions is you're likely to be moved to another store upon taking one of those positions, and you'll be moved to another store every year or two as well. My current grocery manager has to drive almost an hour to get to my store because corporate does not care about moving someone to a store that isn't close to them.

I do feel like it kinda bullshit that stores literally have to play stupid games to give people the hours they need for health insurance....like what the hell? If you don't schedule everyone properly your literally screwing them out health care?

Because it has happened to me, yes, you can get screwed out of health care if you don't get scheduled enough hours. When my job determined I could not work enough hours in what remained of the year to hit the hour requirement for health insurance, they cancelled my health insurance immediately rather than just letting me keep it until the end of the current year. I think most jobs ask people to pick a healthcare plan around October time for the upcoming year, but when my insurance got cancelled it was June so I didn't even get a full year of insurance for the year of hours I had worked to qualify for it.

When you get full time are you like automatically guaranteed insurance? Cause it'd be nice to know as long as you continue to be working full time you don't have to worry about no longer being able to get help if you need it. 

As @Maniakkid25 said, full time will pretty much guarantee health insurance in any job so long as the job provides health insurance plans in the first place. They'll usually offer a few choices and also ask if you really to put a spouse or other family member on the plan too but doing that will really push the price up. I don't have the exact numbers but @ShiraNoMai had an option to have me on her health plan for next year from her job but it would be like a few hundred dollars per paycheck whereas just her on the plan comes out to like less than $10. So even though jobs will offer the ability to add a family member to your plan it isn't always guaranteed to actually be worth the cost increase.

[ShiraNoMai]

It depends on the employer, cuz some employers do pay for spouse and/or children's insurance, but my company notably does not, which sucks cuz I'm at the mercy of whatever marketprice they wanna offer for the kind of insurance I want.

Healthcare is such a joke in this country, god.

[Maniakkid25]

B-but we can't let the Commies win! We have to have this ridiculous system, otherwise the Commies will win.

If there's anything I hate the Soviet Union for, it's turning "Socialism" into a dirty word...

So I just did all my Christmas shopping in one fell swoop. It cost me a hundred bucks, which is actually the most I've spent on. It might have been a little cheaper, but then I happened upon this, and I knew I had to get one of my sisters two gifts this year. I was originally gonna get her a cute kitty light, but... she is someone who needs this.

[Moonface]

If there's anything I hate the Soviet Union for, it's turning "Socialism" into a dirty word...

I was under the impression it became a dirty word in the last ten years or so of US politics but maybe it was because people didn't bring it up as much pre-2010's or living outside the US just caused me to naturally avoid hearing it tossed about.

So I just did all my Christmas shopping in one fell swoop. It cost me a hundred bucks, which is actually the most I've spent on. It might have been a little cheaper, but then I happened upon this, and I knew I had to get one of my sisters two gifts this year. I was originally gonna get her a cute kitty light, but... she is someone who needs this.

I haven't even started any of my Christmas shopping yet really, which is largely down to just not really being used to doing it still yet. When I lived with my parents it wasn't really a thing any of us did together nor something that I ever felt enticed to do.

And that's a really nice gift, and if you were to still consider that kitty light or something else kitty related I'd suggest maybe having that keychain attached to a collar that you put around the kitty's neck.

---

Had a very long day at work today. Went in at 5am and didn't leave until just after 3pm because we had a 1100 piece truck (that means we had to work through that many cases of stock) because of the Christmas ad running for two weeks instead of the usual one week all our other ads run for. I'm just glad I have no classes now so I can spend the next two days being a vegetable and recovering physically before my next shift on Friday. x.x

[Mr EliteL]

I've done some of my Christmas shopping...still need to get some but have no idea what to do for them except one maybe. Ugh.

The 1,100 is that all related to some type of Xmas promotions or something? Plus I guess other necessities. Wondering when our Produce stock comes in, all the 20p veg, masses of potatoes and what have you. This weekend I guess, but I'll see if it has begun tomorrow or if not, check delivery for Friday for certain lines.