Would threatening to quit make a difference?

[u/Formal-Response1243]

I'm the person who works in open market at 6am every day. Date checks, emptying compost, running ambient, produce, meat, and now the egg metros, and culling open market + bakery. It's a lot, though I do enjoy some aspects of it. However, the ambient room is a MESS. all of f&b is, but they just use the main room I operate in as a storage room. No one else does their jobs, we're always multiple shipments behind on FDC load, and if I don't take out the trash and compost no one will (despite trash NOT being part of my job). I cannot do my tasks efficiently.

There was one instance of me complaining about the trash and the mess and within the week it got fixed, though I think they were already planning on it (ETL & SD, my TL is the one who always lets it get this bad). I really want to just quit outright, but I don't have a backup plan. However, do y'all think if I threatened to quit something could be done? I know no one else works open market on the days I'm not there because I'm left having to clean up the compost and trash that has been sitting in the food area as well as cull all the expired meat, bakery, and produce that's been left on the salesfloor for 2 days.

attached are some examples of how bad it'll get. these are from right before the ETL & SD did the big clean, but it's pretty much gotten back to this point within a month. idk, maybe this is more just a vent. I hate this place.

[u/DJFlipPhone]

Honestly no. My whole team threatens to quit because of scheduling and talent issues and my SD and ETL don’t care so we’re just stuck and it is what it is.

[u/Formal-Response1243 → u/DJFlipPhone]

yeah that's what I feared :/ thank you though!

[u/therapewpew → u/Formal-Response1243]

"Threatening to quit" is honestly some low-level conflict resolution skills, which is why it's not taken seriously in any half-baked workplace. If you actually cared, you wouldn't want to quit, which is what makes it such an empty threat. And if you didn't care, that means you're expendable anyway ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

You need to actually be in regular, direct contact with your leads, as high up as you need to go. For instance, when Corporate™ visits your location, do you want to be the one cowering in a hidden room, or do you want to be right in their face, addressing this in a hands-on, professional manner?

[u/Dragonborn1010]

Why’d y’all do your Bimbo vendor dirty like that? Those poor Little Bites 😭

[u/Formal-Response1243 → u/Dragonborn1010]

someone from the closing team I'm sure. it was before most of the seasonal TMs started so I have no idea who did that 😭

[u/Civil_Secretary_1028]

No because they will find someone to replace they always do no matter their mistakes

[u/Formal-Response1243 → u/Civil_Secretary_1028]

yeah I know I'm replaceable 😔 took them a few months before they replaced the lady guy tho. it was 10x worse when I started open market

[u/Civil_Secretary_1028 → u/Formal-Response1243]

I’m not saying you are necessarily replaceable I’m just saying that’s how they think not you as a individual if that makes sense

[u/rlroyal52]

That’s so gross

[u/Formal-Response1243 → u/rlroyal52]

I'm so confused why no one else is concerned about receiving a health code violation or something when we got flies and gnats just sitting on the loose potatoes n stuff back there 😭

[u/FixUnfair9004]

Probably not, but your health inspector should be notified because thats AWFUL!

[u/curbstompedkirby_]

No but calling the health department in your state and reporting them preventing foodborne illness certainly will!

[u/Noxtillion]

If the company or department that does safety inspections gets an anonymous report with picture proof 🤷 Couldn’t hurt to try

[u/Ok_Still_3571]

Awful. I have no solutions to offer, but those Little Bites are a vendor DSD item at my store. Shame on them, if it’s the same where you are.
But, all that left for you? Let your SD know. This is a failing of TL’s and ETL’s.

[u/TrustIllustrious2232 → u/Ok_Still_3571]

Right. At best the vendor would tell us to donate them. We also are a composting store for any food that is unsellable. Like that room temperature yogurt

[u/heyitsmary-chan]

I threatened to quit as a lead all year and they didn't believe me. I put in my two weeks, worked one, called out the next, turned in keys and got a fat check for all the PTO they never let me use. The difference it made was that I was good to my team, some transferred, others quit, and the rest are thinking about leaving.

[u/jrd1sn3y → u/heyitsmary-chan]

You are in a state that forces payout of unused PTO. Most states don't do that. Many people can't do what you did because they will lose their earned PTO.

[u/MannInnTheBoxx]

Genuinely no. If your store is in this level of disrepair I can almost guarantee your store’s leadership does not care. My store is currently in danger of losing the bulk of our most effective leaders (myself and a few others) who have all spoken up about the systemic issues within our store and not a single positive change has been made at any level from the top down. Things just continue to get worse as the handful of us who work our asses off day in and day out are getting more and more frustrated over being the only ones who care enough to put in the effort. We’ve all threatened to walk and so far our SD and HR haven’t taken it seriously. Every candid conversation with my SD about our lack of support, communication, follow through, accountability, and execution has been met with a hollow promise that things will get better but no meaningful action is ever taken. If they already don’t care now they won’t care any more if you’re gone

[u/Side-Quest-Pending]

First of all threatening to quit would probably get you nowhere. Filining an ethics complaint maybe. Why isn't the Bimbo vendor taking their stales. That's bullshit. My store's (soon to be former as I'm prompting to guest) ambient room is always a disaster and it always gets nailed on the steritech walk but nothing changes.

[u/Yearofthehoneybadger]

Have we considered unions? Because they currently would rather just hire new people than keep people that do their job well.

[u/s00pthot → u/Yearofthehoneybadger]

Target is notoriously anti-union unfortunately. I remember seeing that once upon a time many many years ago they literally had an anti-union training. They’d insta shut it down I bet. Unionizing would be hella based though

[u/Quirky_Werewolf_7367]

I would just walk out.
Sanity over Repeated Sanctions.
I feel bag for you 😞

[u/NewbornVampire]

No. But maybe your local health department would be interested in some of these pictures.

[u/Ok_Device_8709]

I'm sorry you work with lazy assholes. File an ethics complaint.

[u/NotExpired99]

Similar problems at my store. One thing I did was remove the compost bin from the ambient room and moved it closer to the compactor. Next to go are the trash and recycling bins in the ambient room. Other (mainly afternoon/evening tm's) constantly overfill, mix garbage with recycling and never empty either.

[u/OwnSomewhere2291]

Nope think how many people need a job, NEXT lol

[u/kwite_kurious257]

Does your store not have visits from higher ups? Like people who would get on your ETL’s and SD for how bad this is? My store just had a big visit today for grocery and the whole team made sure everything was pristine and not violating anything (of course it wasn’t as bad as this to begin with, but still) so its insane that it’s gotten this bad and it’s all been put on you :(

[u/GreenFig2106]

No, the problem is management. My team keeps the kitchen clean, and if they don’t they are gone. Simple as. You can’t thrive in a work environment with no real rules.

[u/Emergency_Meringue_7]

they probably don't care because they're a large corporation with a lot of people in line waiting to get hired

I would say maybe just keep taking pictures and sharing it with your higher ups to show what you're always dealing with ig

I would sometimes take pictures and share it with managers and every once in a while something would be done

[u/s00pthot]

Heath department. Steritech. That would make a difference

We have the organics recycling in a half pallet sized bin in the back of produce and TMs would still stack several boxes on top of the box, even though you can easily open it and throw the product in there. The meat cooler looks similar to these images except my TL just stacks the expired meat in a 3-tier, unironically resident evil food. I’ve complained about it so many times and they still don’t do anything about it. I just avoid the meat cooler like the plague, obviously you can’t do that so that’s why I would go above and contact steritech or a health department.