The new manager at our store wants me to leave at 10 when the store closed but also wants me to serve customers until 10

[Goldbob]

I work in the deli so there's a significant amount of work that can't even be started until you stop serving customers, I have to clean the slicers thoroughly, sweep, mop, do dishes, make three trips across the store to the back room with the mop, cart with dishes/trash and a cart with products to put in the meat cooler overnight.

Normally i just stop serving customers at 9:45 and I'm out by 10 or 10:05 and other managers seem fine with that but yesterday this new manager tracked me down yelling my name in the back room then made me stand at attention until 10 to help customers, so today I just waited until 10 to start closing and she came back three separate times between 10:05 and 10:20 to ask when I'd be clocking out...

Looking back I should have stuck up for myself and told her she can't have things both ways but I'm too passive for that.

 

[Nateo]

malicious compliance time. Get it all written in an email and just drop everything and leave at 10.

 

[mrmickfran]

Looking back I should have stuck up for myself and told her she can't have things both ways but I'm too passive for that.

Click to shrink...

I mean what she's demanding is literally impossible so I think you're justified in standing up for yourself

 

[whytemyke]

Yeah that's ridiculous. Time to clock out at 10 and tell her the area still needs to be shut down. Wish her luck and go on home

Nobody in retail or service industry jobs these days should be taking an inch of shit from their bosses.

 

[Fat4all]

this shit is so common in retail its ridiculous

they book you to a certain time, they expect you to clock out on time, but they dont give you enough of a window to do important shit that needs fucking doing either at the beginning or end of a shift

it was so common for me to get scheduled to closing, and multiple times i'd go to clock out and the manager would complain that i left without clearing down fully

and if i DID stay to clear down fully, i'd get chewed out for getting overtime

fucking bullshit

 

[Adam_Roman]

Tell her you need one or the other in writing. You either stop serving customers before 10 and leave around 10, or help customers until 10 and leave when you leave.

Maybe (if you're feeling ballsy) ask if she's suggesting you commit time card fraud, because that's the only way you could help customers until 10 and also punch out at 10. You need time to close your department and you deserve to close down without feeling harassed.

 

[Android Sophia]

Sounds like this new manager simultaneously wants you to make as much potential sales from customers, while not paying you for the overtime.

Make it clear that this is impossible and that the previous managers understood this. Get it in writing which one she wants.

 

[The Real Abed]

Yup. Was the same way at the deli I worked at. Never made any sense.

 

[Mocha Joe]

OhI know that feeling all too well.

I worked bakery in college and had to do same thing. 1230-9 shift, by myself from 5-9. When I was by myself, I had to close up shop, clean and serve customer. Several nights I stayed past 9, more so on weekends. The store managers were very greatful and always thanked me if I had to stay late. Usually it was a customer strolling in right at 9 as I was leaving (don't be this person please).

But my bakery manager always gave me a hard time about literally staying 15 min extra (bruh it's an extra 2.50 on my paycheck stfu). So I told her, "maybe you shouldn't do your shift so early so you can help closers. Then we wouldn't need to stay late."

I have so many stories about how my coworkers got fucked by the curse of working retail. I still don't know why I did it and i fully regret wasting several years of my life doing it.

Reason I quit? I found out new hires in my department were getting hired for the same amount as me or even more even though I was there for three years (this is why they say don't share your wages). I lost all of my raises I earned due to minimum wage increase. So I requested minimum wage + all my lost raises + $2.00. Got denied, so I quit.

My recommendation is find another job if at all possible, working retail food is fucking hell. I'll never forget a dad yelling at me because we didn't have Spider-Man toy cakes at the store and I had to call the store manager to get the guy out.

 

[Freezasaurus]

And they wonder why no one wants to work retail anymore lmao

 

[DeathPeak]

As someone that closes in a service area (not deli though), I feel your pain. A lot of dumb bullshit falls on closers.

 

[Carnby]

When I worked in food service, we would prepare for closing as much as possible, serve until closing, and leave 15 to 30 minutes after closing. It worked well for us.

 

[echoshifting]

I'll never forget when I worked in a similar sort of position as a shift lead and sent everyone else home exactly when I was supposed to one night and then stayed for over an hour and a half to also get the store cleaned to spec by myself, and as a result was chewed the hell out and demoted

You really just have to stick up for yourself, it's the only way. Enjoy the employee-friendly economy while it lasts, tell her you left your magic wand at home.

 

[Zoe]

There are multiple r/MaliciousCompliance posts with deli settings.

 

[VariantX]

One of the things I can honestly say I've been lucky during my time in retail is I was allowed to leave 15-20 minutes early if all closing tasks were completed ahead of time. If I was forced to serve every customer to the last second you'd never leave on time because every machine you used that day would have to be fully broken down and all the indiviual parts cleaned in an 3 step process. Then you clean and sanitize the room afterwards. All that shit takes about 45 minutes to an hour. The process starts over if a customer wants something that requires you to use that machine.

 

[gilded_Pb]

I used to work for a big Australian super market chain and you wouldnt believe how often I stayed behind and worked unpaid. They expect you to get out on time but also saddle you with way too much stuff to do without enough staff. Then you get shit if stuff remains unfinished.

 

[FinFunnels]

This used to happen all the time when I worked in retail. We were essentially expected to clock out and then clean/close off the clock. I regret not fighting it.

 

[The Smoking Man]

That's basically retail-speak for "just work super hard and if it keeps being a problem then you need to clock out and then finish your cleaning." It's a pretty regular thing from spineless management who push their problems downwards.

 

[Goldbob]

this shit is so common in retail its ridiculous

they book you to a certain time, they expect you to clock out on time, but they dont give you enough of a window to do important shit that needs fucking doing either at the beginning or end of a shift

it was so common for me to get scheduled to closing, and multiple times i'd go to clock out and the manager would complain that i left without clearing down fully

and if i DID stay to clear down fully, i'd get chewed out for getting overtime

fucking bullshit

Click to shrink...

At this point they're so greedy with hours that we don't get any overlap and it's just an opener and a closer alone for 8 hour shifts and barely keeping up with customers.

Funny thing is it's actually losing them tons of money because we're supposed to do up presliced packs of lunchmeat to put out
in coolers but we just straight up don't have the time to make any so a hundred people a day walk up to the coolers, see nothing in there and leave without buying anything.

 

[jdmc13]

That's basically retail-speak for "just work super hard and if it keeps being a problem then you need to clock out and then finish your cleaning." It's a pretty regular thing from spineless management who push their problems downwards.

Click to shrink...

This, but it's worse. The can't say it because asking people to work unpaid off the clock is illegal in most countries. Instead, they are trying to create the conditions and pressure that makes you do it of your own accord so the store can't be held liable or have to pay those wages. Best you can do is the malicious compliance route, ask if customers keep coming during the time you need to begin closing which takes priority. Make it their problem; not yours.

 

[sbenji]

I worked at a deli inside Walmart for one month in 2011. It is really difficult for people to comprehend how awful employees can be treated by middle management at those type of places.

On the bright side, there are now hiring songs everywhere. I found bestbuy to be a fun place to work.

 

[Unicorn]

Yeah that's ridiculous. Time to clock out at 10 and tell her the area still needs to be shut down. Wish her luck and go on home

Nobody in retail or service industry jobs these days should be taking an inch of shit from their bosses.

Click to shrink...

yup, workers rise up

 

[VariantX]

At this point they're so greedy with hours that we don't get any overlap and it's just an opener and a closer alone for 8 hour shifts and barely keeping up with customers.

Funny thing is it's actually losing them tons of money because we're supposed to do up presliced packs of lunchmeat to put out
in coolers but we just straight up don't have the time to make any so a hundred people a day walk up to the coolers, see nothing in there and leave without buying anything.

Click to shrink...

They're so afraid paying people during the slow periods of the week they forget about the lost sales during peak sales hours. I think constantly about how much more we could have sold had we just had another person to split tasks off with.

 

[IDreamOfHime]

Just a little manager trying to bully those below them to make them feel powerful.
One of our shift managers had a melt down last week and declared no one was allowed to leave even 1 minute before they are paid to.
The clown forgot that due to major building work going on we only have access to the small car park as the construction crews are using the big one, so the last shifts have been getting away 30mims early to avoid traffic chaos....and chaos is what he brought down.
He created a jam that lasted over an hour, no one going in or out. All deliveries delayed too.
I heard he got absolutely eviscerated by the national manager the next day.

 

[gozu]

At this point they're so greedy with hours that we don't get any overlap and it's just an opener and a closer alone for 8 hour shifts and barely keeping up with customers.

Click to shrink...

I suggest you just put up with it and work for free, OP. Your sense of duty and honor demands it.

Surely you don't want to disgrace your family by losing this amazing and prestigious job because you have been too lazy to learn how to stop time?

Blah blah bootstraps blah blah work ethic blah! Think about it! If people didn't let others take advantage of them, how would those taking advantage live their best lives? Some of us have to take one for the team, and by us I mean you. Just think about your manager's happiness and power through!

 

[Gaius Cassius]

I worked retail for a while (Best Buy among them), and I fucking HATED the closing shift. You'd always get that asshole motherfucker that decides to show up 5 minutes before close and then shop and ask questions trying to decide to make a purpose which keeps you there another god damn half an hour.

 

[The Smoking Man]

This, but it's worse. The can't say it because asking people to work unpaid off the clock is illegal in most countries. Instead, they are trying to create the conditions and pressure that makes you do it of your own accord so the store can't be held liable or have to pay those wages. Best you can do is the malicious compliance route, ask if customers keep coming during the time you need to begin closing which takes priority. Make it their problem; not yours.

Click to shrink...

Definitely. That's what I meant to imply with "retail-speak." Saying it without saying it. And yeah, unfortunately it works a lot of the time, because people in that position are usually young or desperate or both.

 

[TaySan]

I worked in Deli and fortunately for me my manager worked during the day shift and I worked evenings so i didn't have to worry about that. Only the customers that would arrive at the last second wanted us to cook stuff for them when our fryers were filtered and shut down already.

 

[krae_man]

I have never had a single co-worker when I was at the bottom of the ladder, or staff member who was higher up ever take their sweet ass time during closing to milk and extra 20 minutes on the clock.

They have all either knew what to do and how to do it as quickly as possible and try their best to do it(customers allowing) or tried to leave without doing things they are supposed to.

It's a completely pointless thing to harp on. Never encountered work off the clock pressure. Lots of other BS, just never that.

 

[Gespenst MKIV]

Reminds me of my old boss at the local radio station, that didn't want to pay me an extra hour for sports transmission, he only wanted to pay for the event itself not the hour for preparation we normally have, you don't just start a transmission like that when the match starts.
Stand up for your self, you don't need to be combative but let them know that either they pay you the time you work, if they want to only pay you until 10 they need to give you time to finish before then.

 

[AllThingsPurple]

Reminds me of the the last few months I worked at blockbuster where our store closed at 10pm but we were told we had to be clocked out by 10:15 pm.

Was bullshit but whenever I was the manager on duty I'd do my best to cash up in 15 minutes and run the paper work then we'd dip regardless of the state of the store.

I'd get shit from the store manager but fuck it, we ain't working for free.

 

[Deleted member 36578]

There's some bullshit op. You should definitely tell them what the reality of the situation is.

 

[bigosc]

Your store has a deli department open till 10 pm?

 

[Goldbob]

Your store has a deli department open till 10 pm?

Click to shrink...

It's open until whatever time the store closes so 10 or 8 on Sunday, and they want us out when the store closes.

 

[PHOENIXZERO]

Yep, at my work we use to start the money side of our end of night closing 10-15 minutes before we locked our doors, so we could get out when scheduled or have at least some room for if there was an issue then we got a new RD and it was mandated that we couldn't do anything safe related until after we close (for "safety" reasons) so now it's almost impossible to get everything done before the 15 minutes after close we're scheduled so we have to use the seven minute leeway we have before our clocks go into the next quarter hour but if there's any issue we're going into the next quarter. It's not been so bad over the last year with our new DM not raising issues over it (because I'm sure most of the other stores in our district have the same issue) but it's still a pain having to try and rush through everything. That's not even including the other pain in the ass they added a couple months ago that if not started early enough can lead to us being stuck there way late and that's assuming the piece of shit doesn't crash.

 

[cyrribrae]

Is it possible that the new manager just doesn't realize? Or do they know better and are still asking the impossible anyway? If they just don't actually know, perhaps asking in a "Sorry, I'm not sure what I should do?" way might be ok. But if they know better, then you can stand up for yourself! (Even though it's hard..)

 

[Kreim]

Make sure you've communicated your problems, and if that doesn't work (spoilers, it wont) escalate it above their head.

9 times out of 10 these junior managers don't know what they're doing. They either delegate too little or too much and your store manager needs to know. Protect yourself from their incompetence.

 

[jelly]

Yeah, I would just stick to what your doing, everyone in that situation cleans up a bit before to get out on time or just after and customers that walk in at the end, read the room, that's what annoyed me most, staff have to clean the machines and wind down, you are never ever getting full service at the end of the day, people want to go home and it takes time to wrap up.

 

[Symphony]

Having worked retail, what they are really telling you is "clock out at 10 and then continue cleaning up for free", which they know can land the company in trouble but they don't care because all they want to do is point and say "look how amazing I am, in 6 months I increased sales X amount, give me a promotion" before bouncing for a cushy higher paid role and leaving the store as a wreck behind the curtain.

 

[Advance.Wars.Sgt.]

Leave at 10. If they want to keep serving customers they can do it themselves.

 

[Soap]

This was a thing where I worked, and it was especially bad at Christmas.

 

[Hoggle]

Ahh. Reminds me of the days when I was a kitchen hand and my boss would ask me to clean up the kitchen and leave by 9pm on the night if a wedding that finished at midnight with 125 customers.

I think I left around 3am.

 

[BFIB]

When I worked at GameStop as the closer, the new boss pulled this shit on me too. Brought up the concerns because the totals had to be submitted by a certain time. New boss told me to find a way to "get it all.done". Per the employee handbook I read that if the store cannot be secured by a certain time, the store manager needs to be notified. Did just that, he's pissed at me for doing it, threatened to fire me and I referred to the written documentation.

 

[NekoNeko]

she wants you to clock out at 10 and then finish up.

Having worked retail, what they are really telling you is "clock out at 10 and then continue cleaning up for free",

Click to shrink...

this

 

[Dyno]

We had this at a Burger King I worked at when I was 16. We made a point of starting to close at six giving us 4 hours to clean at our leisure. Manager might have actually noticed if he showed up for more than 20 minutes a month. Ended up being shut down anyway

 

[Deleted member 14518]

Work to rule.

Get it in writing what she'd like the end of the day to look like. And follow it to the letter. On the day if things are unfinished after 15 minutes ask if she'd like you to clock out and leave or stay x minutes to finish.

Always be politely don't overly argue, say you are just looking for clarification. If she does send back unreasonably mad email then forward them privately to hr or her boss and ask for clarification on the madness.

Dealing with crappy managers is a minefield.

 

[pioneer]

Really poor management (obviously). I've been in food service my whole working life and it's standard to schedule people until an hour after close so they can clean up, restock, etc.

 

[machtia]

She's trying to commit a Wage and Hour violation by making you stay past your shift to clean up. Too bad the law requires her to pay you for that extra time, even if you "volunteer" to do it.

 

[Chaos2Frozen]

I know that feeling of being too passive for your own good.

But I also know at some point where you'll be too pissed and annoyed to hold back anymore.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

Tell her you need one or the other in writing. You either stop serving customers before 10 and leave around 10, or help customers until 10 and leave when you leave.

Maybe (if you're feeling ballsy) ask if she's suggesting you commit time card fraud, because that's the only way you could help customers until 10 and also punch out at 10. You need time to close your department and you deserve to close down without feeling harassed.

Click to shrink...

I think this is it. I used to have managers at my old dining hall job in college that expected you to do prep work before your scheduled clock in time, but then would get upset if you clocked in ahead of schedule. Can't have it both ways.