Complaint Review: Kmart - Troy Michigan

Contact the National labor relations Board. http://www.nlrb.gov/nlrb/home/default.asp

Contact the National Labor Relations Board http://www.nlrb.gov/nlrb/home/default.asp Keep us posted!

This message is in reponse to the message posted regarding vindictive treatment at Kmart. It's totally true without any exageration that Kmart over works their employees and cares very little about customer satisfaction. The store is always very understaffed. Let's see, on average we are considered very lucky to have ten-twelve employees scheduled to close on an average night. Sounds sufficient? OK, let's break it down. On average it is very safe to assume that two or three people will call in sick and or tired, but for the sake of example we will use twelve employees. We have a mens clothing department, womens clothing, childrens, infants, shoes, lingerie, hardware, electronics, sporting goods, automotive, garden, health and beauty, celebrations, pharmacy, one hour photo, pantry, kithen corner, jewelry, accesories, luggage, home fashions, furniture, customer service desk, lay away and home and office. Twenty five departments listed and only twelve employees. And again, that's if we are lucky enough to have no call ins. Don't forget the fact that two or three out of the twelve scheduled employees are cashiers and one is the closing manager. That leaves us with a head count of eight. One employee must be in the electronics department at all times and another in jewelry. Now you are down to only six. I don't know about you, but I'd say that's spreading ones recources very thin. Only six employees to cover the rest of the twenty three departments is a lot to ask of any $7.00 an hour employee. And I still haven't mentioned the part about having to cover others when they go on their breaks lunch or dinner. We as associates are expected to greet the customers, assist them in finding merchandise, stock shelves, straighten, retrieve carts, clean (no janitors after 5:00 P.M or so) and perform customer carry outs. Believe it or not, there were a few times my manager even wanted me to stand near an entrance and play security guard. Now I am 5'2" and weigh no more than a buck forty. I would make a better waste basket than I would a security guard. Believe me, I hate to complain, but I can totally relate and understand where the other gentleman is coming from, because it's the absolute truth. If anyone disagrees with anything that I've written, I invite them to visit the Kmart where I work in attempt to seek assistance and they will see exaclty what it is I'm talking about and just how difficult it is to get any kind of service. They will totally understand the mistreatment and lack of appreciation we face on a daily basis. The managers often tell us that the shortage on staff is mainly due to necesssary budget cuts but I must disagree with that. It has been this way since day one. I don't think it made much sense for the company to have spent all that money renovating the store adding more departments and adding twenty plus cashier stations, when they knew darn well from the beginning that they could'nt and would'nt staff all of the stations and additional departments in the store. This would make any company look bad. This shows the general public (paying customers) that the company is far more interested in turning huge profits than the customers themselves. The customers are the main reason why any company is in business in the first place and should never be put second to anything. Companies like to preach things like "the customer is always right" and other things of that nature but often blatanly fails to practice what they preach. The store managers @ Kmart are probably paid a percentage of the stores profits and that is why they choose to do business in this manner. It is unprofessional and shows a tremendous disinterest in their customers and employees needs and well being. A company is never short on employee payroll budget but rather pay people in certain positions far too much money for far too little. While on the other end expects far too much out of their hard working employees for far too little. Think about it, even if there was an ounce of truth to being short on employee payroll budget, whose fault is it? This is just a case of having too many chiefs and not enough indians. Corporate needs to realize that It's all the hard working $7.00 an hour employees that do the hard work and will ultimately determine whether a business succeeds or fails. The whip cracking store managers that make fifty thousand plus a year can't do it by themselves. I think corporate forgets this fact far too often and that's the reason why they are continuously trying to squeeze $14.00-$21.00 worth of work out of each and every $7.00 an hour employee. I am a true believer that there is a reason for everything in life and there is a reason why Kmart is in the position their in now and believe me it's no fault of all the hard working employees but rather very poor management. Until next time, Take Care and God Bless.