The good, the bad, and the ugly - Department Management Harris Teeter Employee Review

Unrealistic expectations vers. man hours. To many cooks in the kitchen: dept managers, store managers, training specialists, HR, LP, DMs, corp. seriously... I mean seriously... You have your dept mgrs who try to work within the system. But, get road blocked by store management who wants to line their pockets so they "manage labor" or whatever else they can do to save money. You have the training specialists that are in charge of individual departments for around 20 or more stores who have a rough idea about what's going on in their stores. Whom appear to have more power then the store management cause they spend more time with HR, LP, DMs, and corp so they can override store management by going to 1 of the 4 fore mentioned groups. And that might make the problem better or worse cause the store management might ignore what the specialist wants done because their pulling numbers and making money for the company. Great idea on paper doesn't work with egos and numbers. It's not what you know it's who you know: I know dept mgrs who are friends with people in corp. that for a better term get away with murder. I have witnessed managers say things on the front end in front of customers to other asso./managers that are so morally bankrupt and ethically immoral get customer complaints for their actions and instead of being terminated get transferred to higher column stores closer to their homes... All because it's who they know. Constant fear of LP/dept audits, "corp/DM visits", being documented for poor job performance while performing within or above company policies. Store directors: most don't care about anything but their pockets. Yearly bonus... With Kroger taking over they lost around 2/3 of it until next year. Only work the opening shift (6am-4pm) so they don't experience what is happening in their stores in the late afternoons evens. Spend their full shift in their office behind their desk doing "paper work" and not sticking their heads out of their office to know what's going on in their store. This all being said there are a few that make working for this company worth working for. Co-managers that play favorite and treating everyone else like they are less then human second class citizens. Customers: most know the policies better then the employees. When you adhere to policy you're expected to break policy to go above and beyond to keep the customers happy because you're fearful that if you don't you'll get a customer complaint that corp. wants to know why you didn't break established policy. Which in turns you get written up for. Only salary management can tell the customer NO: while in theory this is a great practice. In reality this isn't what's done. Store management expects the department managers to handle customers so they have very little to no contact with them. HR is a joke. You are expected to talk to your dept manager or store manager if you have an issue, no matter the issue. However if the store management or dept manager is the issue HR still wants you to talk to them and if you haven't they don't want to hear about it. Corp/DMs unapproachable... Literally, if they don't start a conversation with you, you're expected not to talk to them. If you do talk to them out of turn you might be written up or terminated for being disrespectful. Bonuses: Two annual bonuses that amount to around a pay check and a half unless you're a dept manager(not ast dept mgr mind you) or salary manager who get a couple thousand after taxes for very little customer interaction.