Thread regarding Sears layoffs

@4enj Not really. Our sales s..k. Our utility costs are high too. Oh well, it is what it is.

@4rgx So I guess that means congratulations, your store's sales are still good enough to be allowed to keep the store clean.

@2odz We are still scheduled to come in at 8:00 am during the week at our Sears store with the cleaning crew. Our DM and Store Manager said that will not change. The DM said It is on a store by store basis controlled by the DM. Some stores in our district will be coming in at 9:00 am but not ours.

@3rfh as their motto goes

To serve, delight our members while they shop their way!

Giving a wow experience in dirty restrooms without any tissue paper, no hand soap, no paper towels and no hot or warm water

They must be cutting back on the hours that they allotted for the cleaners then. Maybe they are eliminating them? Who needs clean stores to shop or work in?

@2now no employees in building during week until 9am including cleaning crew. We currently open during the week at 10am

So if you were previously working 8-12 your new hours are 9-1

Sunday we open at 11 and ad setters can come in at 8 to set the ad

Regular, non-management associates in many stores, including my own, now have access to the cash room and are the ones to open and close the store. They have access to the alarms. They have access to several other things, including the store manager's office, the former HR office where all the files are located and who knows what else.

They also run the store and are the actual "manager on duty" whenever the store manager, zone supervisors or backroom lead are not scheduled, sometimes for several hours at a time. They even do interviews! AFAIK they are not paid extra for their extra duties nor does their job title change.

This all started when they laid off extra managers, like the hardlines MCA lead, the softlines lead and ASM, the hardlines ASM, the leads in appliances and tools, the APM, and the HR lead. Back then, there was at least two managers on shift.

20 years ago my store followed the rules for who is alone in store, has access to the cash room, the 909 register, employee files, etc. All of that eroded over the years with the biggest downside being during the last 4 years. Of course the people who can be trusted the most even without the rules, still follow the rulees. The employees that these rules were designed to stop have taken with both hands. AP has been powerless to stop most of the theft because the multiple SGMs have been in on it.

Our Sears store has been opening at 11:00 am Sunday through Thursday for a number of years and we go in at 8:00 am. On Friday and Saturday we open at 10:00 am and we go in at 7:00 am. All store openings and closing are on a store by store basis as all other stores in our district all open at 10:00 am every day.

Some stores have already cut back to opening at 11am some days of the week. Mine was like that for months last year, then went back to 10am, go figure.

@TOzylYC-1nfx: We usually have a few lined up at the door at opening. I remember the very first day we moved our opening hours from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. People were rattling the doors wanting to get in and around 9:00 that morning the local newspaper actually called us up asking if we were closed for good because they had gotten a "tip" from someone who walked up to the doors and saw employees walking around while the doors were still locked and most of the lights were off even though the store was scheduled to open an hour ago, per the hours posted on the doors. This was all because the hours were not changed on the doors.

It's pretty sad that there was a death watch on us too (actually there still is), so the paper seemed eager to report on our demise that morning. Every time store closures are publicized the paper always says we were "spared" but they are always sure to say that they are not sure for how long.

@1cef that would make sense to have the stores open at 11 instead of 10am. There is no customers in the store first couple of hours anyway but I doubt the wd do anything that makes sense at this point in time

Interesting post are they trying to save hours like that maybe opening later? I remember when we use to go at 6:00 a.m. than they pushed it to 7:00 a.m. now its 8:00 a.m. I wonder if they will also set the time to open later now if they start opening at 9:00 a.m. till 11:00 a.m. to open the store.

Some of the managers at my store don't even bother going in with another person, whether it's a Sears employee or not. They just go in by themselves or leave the building by themselves. I heard it is against the rules but apparently AP doesn't care because they still do it.

seems there is no set rules on who went in in my store it was one associate and the cleaning crew never a second store person. HMM

@1bqt you wd think it would be a consistent rule throughout the company

moping or cleaning the restrooms is not in my job description and if sears stoops that low I will have to flat out refuse

I’m sure the micro managers are behind this scheme.. they don’t care about the employees, they are only devising ways to ensure their jobs last alittle longer, and get kudos from Eddie for a brilliant idea

Interesting that this policy isn't the same everywhere. Maybe it varies by district, at the DM's discretion?

At our store, the key holder can go in with the cleaning crew..

@1ktm I'd like to know how a manager would be able to arrive earlier than 9AM to let the cleaning person in when the opening manager needs to have an associate or another manager to accompany them when they enter the store, and if associates arrive later than a 7AM/8AM open, who is going to accompany the opening manager? It's not possible to schedule two managers/leads to open every single day of the week because there's not enough coverage to do that. Per policy, the cleaning contractor does not count as the second person to enter the building, so what would happen then?

I know this because as a former supervisor with opening/closing responsibilities, I had to wait 45 minutes for another associate or manager to show up before I could enter the store. The associate who was scheduled to accompany me apparently called out, so the cleaning guy and I had to sit in our cars wait until I had that "second person" arrive to walk in with. The only person who answered my call and was able to come in lived a ways away so we waited. I couldn't just walk in with the cleaning guy since he wasn't eligible as the second person.

@1sbh Maybe they will end the contract, but I don't think that has anything to do with the hours change - whether the store employees are the ones mopping during that hour before opening or the contracted cleaners are the ones doing it, the floors still won't be dry in time.

I’m wondering if management will be able to come in early for the cleaning crew because like other posts have said it takes awhile for bathroom floors to dry after they mop them

So the new clock in hour of 9 will be for employees that are not in management?

They cut back the hours for Triple S and it seems they're cutting back their hours again, unless they are okay with the Triple S people cleaning during store hours.

I don't know how they would deal with restrooms, since our Triple S guy mops them every morning and it takes an hour to dry. If we come in an hour before opening, either the floors would still be wet or the bathrooms won't get mopped.

I have the feeling that corporate will cancel their contract with Triple S and have the associates do the cleaning. Our QMT seems to think that this will happen.

Our store always opened for employees three hours before opening for customers....This was for the cleaning crew to be able to mop and clean the store before opening for business each day.....Ad sets would see MCA's in 3 hrs before opening as well.

They’re just poking themselves in the eye

Back when they eliminated the softlines ASM and replaced them with two softlines leads, one of the leads loved opening at 7AM and could always be counted on to open the store whenever the other managers and keyholders didn't want to open. Everyone though it was strange because nobody really liked 7AM open shifts.

I started to piece together "why" she liked 7AM opening shifts. After she unlocked the doors, turned the lights on and got the opening crew their SNCs, she would always disappear. One time I went into the softlines stockroom to get a couple of sign holders and she was sitting between some shelves, in the dark, on her phone.

Caught her again another morning when I went in to the storeroom of the old hearing center looking for some SYW sidekick signs I wasn't able to find in the sign room. I opened the door and flipped on the light. She jumped up from sitting on the floor and knocked over her iced coffee. Never saw someone so surprised in my life as she blurted "Do you need any help?" and was as wide-eyed as can be. Why, yes, there's an adset and stuff to do and we're all wondering where you went!

I caught her eating snacks and candy in the store manager's office too. She had the door closed and the lights off. Saw her through the little window on the door. Those snacks were given away for prizes and she was eating it all at the manager's desk. This was after the store manager couldn't figure out why the prize box was mysteriously depleted of its snacks and candy even though the door was locked (she had a key).

Thankfully she only lasted eight months after it was consistently obvious that she never did anything and the other lead and the rest of the softlines crew had to shoulder all of the work. She had to have been 19 or 20 years old and was clearly not mature enough for a supervisory position, let alone any other kind of job.

Oh but day of inventory they will want everyone in early.. screw that

@bap I think we have a person like that too..maybe that’s why they are doing this

I know some come in early to leave early

Interesting. Although there is someone in my store that has been milking the system for years now coming in at 7 AM to sell jewelry. I know. The store doesn't open until 10. You figure it out.