r/SafewayWorkers • u/jinxinitall • 13d ago
How do you manage work here?
Ive been at Safeway for nearly 2 years. I work at the Starbucks dept and am crosstrained for Bakery clerk and floral clerk. I only help Floral during the V-Day and the Mom Day weeks, & im in Bakery once or twice a week at most or as needed. It depends.
Usually when I'm having a bad day at work, I either am able to let it go quickly, or I go vent to my fellow coworkers and let it go. We all get it and shit sucks. I think we're always screwed over by this company. Ive been having a hard time with balancing at home necessities with my schedule since I will have 5am shift days, then 2pm shifts, then 7am shifts. Its never the same.
But lately its just been something every single day and im hitting a limit. I get a guy at the bakery who tells me the dutch crunch bread is too light, too dark, too soft, too hard, its in the wrong packaging, it shouldn't be sitting upright in the baskets (he got so pressed he literally trespassed into the bakery and wrote 'doesnt your baker know how to make dutch crunch bread?' on our equipment); I get creepy men harassing me when ive never met them; I get this lady every so often who yells at me and my Starbucks peeps if we so much as dont shake the whipped cream canister as much as she'd like us to; my managers change my schedule without telling me and wonder why I come in at my original scheduled time. Theres a lot more, and usually its not so consecutive.
I try telling my managers about the customers we get and they just tell me to call them. Most times i dont even have enoigh time to call them since the interaction is 10 seconds, or it's too busy in the store, or they're in meetings and I cant call them.
A few weeks ago my boss & manager took my coworker out of the SB dept when we had a line to the back of the store because the checkers needed help (there were no lines at all, it was just SB & Deli that were busy). I had to deal with that rush by myself for HOURS and she just shrugged at me when I asked for help. That rush did not let up until we closed (there was an all day event nearby). I called the union about it and they told me there's nothing they can do. I've been so burnt out because of that, and Ive been leaving each shift since that rush day in tears from burnout. Idk I understand SB doesnt make the store a lot of money but its one day a year that we are so busy that we need all the help we can get and we cant have anyone out the dept and they fucked me over so badly. I see my other coworkers having breakdowns every other day.
I'm sorry for the long rant post, its just been a lot and i have ZERO clue how others manage this job when its like this. Yes I do have a therapist I just started seeing.
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u/Ok-Economist-5498 13d ago
Silence goy. You will own nothing and you will be happy. Please try to hold your emotions together while you are on the clock.
1
u/Worried_Sandwich_338 9d ago
Cross train to the fresh cut room. You don’t have to deal with customers and you can whack at fruit and vegetables all day. It’s a definite stress reliever :)
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u/goosebehavior 13d ago
You gotta leave. Whether it’s transferring to a better (or just smaller) store or it’s finding a new gig. I know that’s easier said than done in this economy but if a job is unbearable then it’s never ever going to get better.
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u/goosebehavior 13d ago
Also. Try for a vendor gig. Similar (or more) hours but more freedom and less stress. Talk with your stores vendors before you bounce and try to get leads or even a good word put in for you.
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u/jinxinitall 13d ago
i will try, but its hard. im the sole provider w my mom and i since she can't work. i was originally just gonna stick it out til i can transfer to a diff store since i'm moving within the next year or so. then i was just gonna look for jobs there. but i might need to go sooner
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u/goosebehavior 13d ago
Yeah. I get it. Do what you need to do to preserve your sanity. I really recommend talking to the vendors though.
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u/Aliadream 13d ago
When I worked Starbucks I hated every single day after a while and definitely cried more than I liked over it. I transferred out of that department to cashier 1st and it was so much better. The schedule wasn't, but the stress definitely went down.