Pfs restructuring

[Pfs girlie]

What times are you going single manned?

[Welshie]

Quick up date, meant to be going single manned from 11th April so I been told this morning ( not by my pfs manager) but apparently union is going crazy about it and trying to put stop to it for safety reasons,,,,, secondly originally told second staff member in main store store was going to be having head set on while colleague alone in pfs, not true team leaders being trained with head sets not the fully trained pfs staff member.

Is there anyone else that finds the timing of this slightly ironic ? A year ago you had to remove a cycle helmet to enter kiosk and they choose to do it when everyone has to have a mask over their face 

[Hazelgrif]

Thank you for your feed back and really do appreciate it, am I right in thinking that you aren't one of the pfs staff that is being left single manned.  Must also say with the area we are in and the huge amount of abuse we get it is a little worrying. I've already had 4 staff tell me how nervous they are at this coming into affect I've explained that their fears and apprehension must be mentioned to management, but won't because of the fear of losing they positions.

I've aired my opinions to union and management so guess it's just a case of sitting tight and hoping no one gets hurts in the process.  It's going to happen and hopefully will all be OK.  I've worked pfs for 14+ years and fully aware of the possibilities that may occur.  Perhaps when we are actually told what hours and when we will be single manned may make it less nerve racking.

Also no set times for our Bradgates, Bookers, fast track, cpl, Warburtons, Wiseman costa deliveries, and that's without D/offs, Ctp disability usage, fore court spillages, customers who just need help at air machine, or staff needing use of toilets.  But hay-ho I guess we will see what happens very soon.

[Redshoes]

As far as Bradgate, spillages etc go you call on a competent colleague from the store to help you. You wear headsets and a fully trained competent colleague in the store wears one and they come up from store when needed. When not needed they carry out tasks within store. There should be a competent colleague list in your site register and these should be the people who support.
This is a soft structure change. If it comes back saying you need to loose 50 hours in your pfs but your store in generally over hours there is no point in moving people into Depts that are already over hours anyway. You will probably stay as you are but base schedule will need to be fixed. More changes will come as people leave, in this case they will probably not be replaced. This is a general comment and all stores will not make the same decisions on how to many the extra hours.

[Welshie]

Is anyone currently doing this and does a competent colleague come over from store when needed ? Or do you just get told they're too busy, no trained staff, store short staffed, too many sick calls etc etc like when you try to get break cover ? 

[Misha101]

Yes we are. I work instore but have covered sickness a few times since the change. I was bricking it the first few shifts I won't lie! I also said this to the duty manager at the time lol and they were supportive. The middle person leaves at 7pm I have had my break, brought the papers in and checked costa is full, most of the time Bradgate has been in before they go. If not we just make sure the sandwiches are tidied and pulled forward to help with rotation so another colleague from the store is able to put them out easily. We call the store as soon as we see the van pull up. They understand the cold chain so have always been prompt. The paperwork doesn't have to be done straigjt away it can be left till the morning if need be, but I have always been able to do the slips and book, but not able to confirm on the screen out the back. The driver picks up the pinks from the day before. We enter the temperature on from the slip on the mpro app on the pda. The team have always been great to me and understand that occasionally it may not be perfect when they come in the next morning but know that I have always done my best. I think! I have only asked the duty to come over a few times. I have always encouraged them to pop over for a cuppa and some have taken up the offer and the others appreciate the gesture. I understand not everyone has a good supportive team behind them. Not all managers are great and we have had the odd spat but I am a union rep which means extra training in difficult situations so manage to keep my cool and am mostly respectful( lol ). Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't I'm not a perfect employee but I think my flexibility, experience has helped me thus far and I have broad shoulders and can cope with being sent to Coventry ( no offence ) for a few days. It wasn't as bad as I thought but I would still rather have a colleague with me!  Nothing has gone wrong up to now and touch wood it won't. A few months or a year down the line they may get complacent and that is my biggest worry
Sorry for the long answer but I felt it easier to write what my shifts have looked like to me.  I hope it helps and doesn't annoy you all too much! 😬

[Nomad]

VLH always welcomes new "Day in The Life of ......", we do not have a PFS.  If anybody does a DiTLo... email it to VLH, strict confidentiality observed and author/source is not credited on website.

[Welshie]

Misha good to hear you're getting the support most of the time . Are you only single manned after 7pm ? Does someone come down to help you close at night and how does that impact on the time you get home compared to time you're mean't to get home ?  Our store is not particularly supportive of pfs and many managers, including store manager would need a map to find it so we would have genuine concerns although there is no sign of this happening in our area yet .

[Misha101]

I honestly hope it does not come down to everyone as it hasn't always been easy as it may sound I assure you. Single manned after 7pm. One til is lifted,  drawer reset and closed. Night manager comes over about 9.50/55. They pull the shutters across the windows, as the colleague starts to close the pumps and locks the cigarettes. They do the lifts on the last til, they double check the amounts and counter sign the lift slip. We are contracted til 10.15. Only once or twice have I left late and that was early on as we were getting used to the quickest most efficient routine.

[Welshie]

I assume you are pay at pump at night then and pumps not locked , fire extinguishers etc brought in then and forecourt closed off ? We are still 24 hrs but when we close bank holidays,  it's a nightmare.  You cone off entrance to forecourt to lock pumps and customers will literally knock cones out of the way to make it to a pump before you lock it .

[Penny]

[gmod]Did you intend to add to the post you quoted ?[/gmod]

[Misha101]

Yes. Custimers still need access to the cash machine so we cone off the closed lanes and turn those lights off,  keep them  on the 24 hour pumps

[newguy20]

We should be p@p overnight however the CCTV system isn't linking to the monitoring centre, so having to close at night. What we do is around 8pm do newspapers, top up consumables on the forecourt, check things are all ok out there etc, lock up bunkers bring in cages, at this point we put the cones ready by the entrance/exit. Then at 9.45pm we lift one till that GA then goes out and cones off the entrance for 9.50pm, GA in the kiosk closes pumps down except those in use, (our locks don't work so have to power off). Last customer leaves and the exit then coned off.

Big divide between early and late teams in our PFS unfortunately. We are not going single manned but additional manning is being cut back on . although right now we have extra hours for some reason.

[Misha101]

I wonder how many sites that is happening to. Several times we haven't been able to leave pay at pumps on through the night. So no sales. Which would cause less overall sales, which then affects the manning of the site with budgets and heat maps etc.

[taliahad]

Just catching up with this thread and I find it quite shocking, if tesco want to run petrol filling stations, then they should be prepared to run them properly and that means having adequate staff.  We have not been told anything about going single manned yet, the subject has been raised but our manage has denied that this will happen.  I really would not want to cope in there on my own, it's not right. 

[newguy20]

I wonder how many sites that is happening to. Several times we haven't been able to leave pay at pumps on through the night. So no sales. Which would cause less overall sales, which then affects the manning of the site with budgets and heat maps etc.

It's a bit like how when we had the night shift we were not allowed to sell through the hatch. Which struck me as odd because surely your minicab driver at 2.30am wanting some red bull or a bag of crisps is a captive audience and the staff are there anyway!

[HalloweenJack]

What if Bookers turns up late? Our delivery window is supposed to be 7am till 7pm , and yet, just last week - we had 4 full cages arrive at 7.45pm? Bradgate was here with 10 boxes, Arla was pulling up and we had a tanker. A challenge for 2 of us, let alone one! The pfs im at already has P&P overnight. When will these changes happen? When will J14 happen?

[Misha101]

Because you are frequently in touch with the duty manager you have given them the heads up about what will happen over the next couple of hours. So they will be aware that you will be needing extra help at some point. When it was new they came over to see it for themselves so they understood the pressure, and have always been good at sending someone. Unfortunately, they sometimes seem to be ok with leaving a grocery cage til the morning which I do feel bad about . It's only happened twice with me so far since September thank goodness! The day staff are not affected directly by single manned shift so have been more understanding of the pressures.

[Welshie]

Thank for the information Misha101 , it's good to  hear from someone who's actually doing the job as opposed to what it will be like on paper .

[newguy20]

Because you are frequently in touch with the duty manager you have given them the heads up about what will happen over the next couple of hours. So they will be aware that you will be needing extra help at some point. When it was new they came over to see it for themselves so they understood the pressure, and have always been good at sending someone. Unfortunately, they sometimes seem to be ok with leaving a grocery cage til the morning which I do feel bad about . It's only happened twice with me so far since September thank goodness! The day staff are not affected directly by single manned shift so have been more understanding of the pressures.

Sounds like you have a good level of support from the duty managers. Was this always the case or have they been forced to because of the single manning? Managers here are allergic to the PFS.

[Misha101]

I hear ya!  It wasn't always like that I assure you. It has been mostly since the change to be honest although I work in store so I do see the managers a lot more and generally get on well. Luckily because I helped out at really short notice in the first few weeks as I'm pfs trained. I was nervous about it and those managers have remained pretty loyal. Others however.....!!

[forrestgimp]

In my experience the PFS is ignored by every one of the instore managers up to and including the SM, Its not uncommon for the blue van driver to leave because no one comes to sort out the safe. If deliverys are later than the staff are available for then it will all be left for the next days shift.

I do not envy them.

[Jessadtan]

Hi everyone we have been doing singled manned at times for a few weeks now not working well told if we don't like it then we can move to the store and they will get others to do it the headsets don't work cameras and tannoy keep going offline we are about 7 mins away from the main store and the arc doesn't monitor the cameras when singled manned they just monitor the amount of traffic passing through

[Misha101]

Sorry to hear that.
We have been single manning since last summer. The cameras have been offline a handful of times but that was more down to updates and maintenance. Otherwise in my experience they do monitor the forecourt but it is generally an overstay for a vehicle that has been there 30mins or a person for 15 minutes I believe. But it seems to be all done by sensors triggering an alarm at their end rather than someone physically watching. Have the alarm receiving centre ever phoned you on the Chubb phone? They phoned us to ask about an overstay during single manning hours and asked me if I knew the reason. They have also phoned the night manager quite a lot regarding alarms and overstays. Is that what you mean when you say monitoring traffic?

[Biglove]

Is this happening in all Tesco's? Working In the PFS is hard enough without  having the added pressure of single Manning... And with the door open as well. It's as though they don't care about the staff anymore.