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Pfs restructuring

Started by Penny, 17-06-20, 06:57PM

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HalloweenJack

I've heard that PFS will be getting the pay grade that CSD also get? Any truth or just a rumour?

kaled78

I heard this also,but not in stores that still have a pfs manager

HildaHills

Is it just our Pfs manager or is it wide spread that they are bloody useless? We have countless paperwork to do, computer work with checking and confirming deliveries, our own stock control where we resize labels print new ones gap scan and counts every day we have to sign this as done on the check list, yet our manager can't even process a refund!! We have only one till working and 12 pumps, the work load is beyond stressful now with more customers ( we are situated near the M5 so tourists are a plenty) more paperwork and less staff! Never more than 2 in at once and the fight to get break cover is unbelievable! Over 20 years service and I'm about to jack it in, wondered if it's just our pfs or is this throughout the board. Oh our manager is PT does 4 shifts a week 3 of these are duty manager shifts so not even in the pfs

Chocobud

It's a joke . I too work in Pfs with a part time manager . We do all the work , as you mentioned while our manager sits in the kitchen drinking coffee or popping out for a cigarette. So because we have a Pfs manager we won't get higher rate if pay ? Let's get rid then . Getting the same rate as a 17 year old with no responsibility how is that right !!

Hazelgrif

Wow, thought it was just my pfs manager that done nothing and I mean nothing, she's p/t 4 days a wk 10 till 3:30 lucky if we see her for 10 mins per week, we do it all and I mean all, including getting cover our selfs when others off or on hols. So as. For csd rise but not if there's a pfs manager please take ours because it will make our job lot easier.

HildaHills

I'll offer ours first! Right Dictator who loves to give out a let's talk but can't even work the till properly. I am praying for a total restructure which results in getting shot of our manager who is quite honestly a hindrance

HalloweenJack

We`ve lost our PFS manager - its a designated part time front end one now. Also, Bookers have stopped delivering properly , so its a store shop (and daily) to keep the kiosk topped up - Bookers only bringing about 6 ad blue and the weeks cigarettes....

HildaHills

Do you have the staff to do the shop? We've been given a brief saying hours have been designated but I've not managed to see any extras on the rota. Only 2 staff at any one time and god help us if we need break cover, its never going to work. Ours is a busy kiosk we sell a lot of grocery items, I see bare shelves by the weekend especially if the weather heats up

HalloweenJack

Yes, we have 3 in the kiosk in the mornings for routines/breaks and store shop (till early afternoon - so a 5 or 6 hour shift i think) . Afternoons will be 2 people

anais

We have 4 people in the afternoons

newguy20

We have 3/4 in the mornings, and only 2 in the afternoons, sometimes with an hour overlap around 5pm, sometimes not.
It does cause issues between the shifts as the morning staff complain that evening team haven't filled or done transfers, when there is no extra person to allow transfers to take place (let alone breaks!).

Misha101

It doesn't seem very consistent across the board does it? The size of the kiosks can't vary that much surely. 
We never have four people at anytime.
Mind you with the extra shopping to be done now and the usual waiting for trasfers to be signed. On top of completing waste routines, reductions, gap scan, counts, Costa cleaning, rotation and cleaning. It would keep them all busy I should imagine.

HildaHills

We've been given no extra staff or hours on our rotas to do a shop yet I've seen the information sent down by head office stating 22hrs a week have been allocated for this!my useless manager couldn't answer me when I questioned why there is funding for a 3hr standalone shift every day yet none have been put up.
Staff are leaving due to the awful conditions noone is being replaced and we have 2 off sick!

whatajoke2019

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the three hours a day are being used for checkouts.

That's what they seem to do in our store for hours they've received as credits yet most of us still spend the majority of our shift answering 'service calls'  ???.

I also wouldn't be surprised if some twerp at HO has said: 'Let's add task X,Y & Z, tell stores they are over hours and see how many people leave, without replacing them, so we don't have to pay redundancy!'


Redshoes

As it was a soft structure change our PFS is running at over hours. We were given 14 hours for the shopping but no extra hours have been put in as we are sitting at 30 hours over on the structure change. This means that the 14 hours allocated are being used by the store but only in that these 14 hours are now not being stripped out of the overtime for the whole store. The additional 16 hours is still coming out of the store overtime but holiday and sick cover is not always 100% covered.
We are a smaller site. We have 8 pumps and we are single manned for about six hours a day.

Pfs girlie


newguy20

In terms of hours, Mr Redshoes you seem to know your stuff in this respect. Are the hours for all the front end departments somehow linked? (C/Out, S/S, CSD, PFS, Trollies, C/Office).
Our PFS is under hours with overtime needed several days to cover the shifts (even before the additional hours for shopping) - we have about 25-30hrs of vacancy.   However we cannot recruit because checkouts are vastly over hours - but only for the morning shift. Supposedly they are getting check out staff to move over to the PFS on an ad hoc basis, but the checkout manager  is reluctant and blocks it, and has had a few shouting matches with services manager and PFS colleagues about her staff being "stolen" and "I'm failing IDQ because of this". If a trained checkouts person puts their name down for overtime in the PFS they are routinely taken back to the main store "because they're a cashier not a PFS staff and I need them here". It's all going a bit to pot. Really we should be able to recruit to the vacancies, or to move somebody permanently. But apparently none of this can happen because of the morning situation on checkouts.

whatajoke2019

This is one thing I don't quite understand as, from what I've read about the Ideal Base/Heat Map, if a department is over-contracted and there are hours available elsewhere you can seemingly transfer someone (so long as the process is followed correctly, and they agree) so it effectively balances out?

Not that I can ever get my head about hours for checkouts-in our store Monday morning is somewhat diabolical for service calls and it's made worse as there are only three or four of us on the shop floor who aren't exempt from answering them. If a couple of us are off at the same time and those hours aren't back filled then you can guarantee to spend at least two/three hours on there as a relief and that's just in the morning!

Redshoes

Quote from: newguy20 on 22-08-21, 07:24PM
In terms of hours, Mr Redshoes you seem to know your stuff in this respect. Are the hours for all the front end departments somehow linked? (C/Out, S/S, CSD, PFS, Trollies, C/Office).
Our PFS is under hours with overtime needed several days to cover the shifts (even before the additional hours for shopping) - we have about 25-30hrs of vacancy.   However we cannot recruit because checkouts are vastly over hours - but only for the morning shift. Supposedly they are getting check out staff to move over to the PFS on an ad hoc basis, but the checkout manager  is reluctant and blocks it, and has had a few shouting matches with services manager and PFS colleagues about her staff being "stolen" and "I'm failing IDQ because of this". If a trained checkouts person puts their name down for overtime in the PFS they are routinely taken back to the main store "because they're a cashier not a PFS staff and I need them here". It's all going a bit to pot. Really we should be able to recruit to the vacancies, or to move somebody permanently. But apparently none of this can happen because of the morning situation on checkouts.

Hours show on the tablet for individual Depts. As in checkouts, self service, scan as you shop are different Depts so PFS is definitely a different dept but there is a however. In my store it is agreed that if one is over and another is under but they balance between them then it's ok but if possible the tablet work should be done. If someone is contracted to checkouts but is filling a PFS shift they should be moved in the tablet for example. PFS, CSD have to be manned and it's often at the expense of checkouts. Both PFS and CSD need fully trained and experienced colleagues. It's quicker and easier to train for checkouts and all new starters should be checkout trained. The way we look at it in my store is that PFS and CSD have to be covered, even at the expense of checkouts as checkouts can then be back filled with reliefs. This can be frustrating for checkouts but it becomes one area to focus on and not three. Our off till colleagues are fully trained on CSD and PFS, along with some checkout colleagues. We also have a great number of shop floor colleagues trained in PFS as we are a variable model store.
In my store we have one manager for the whole of front end. We therefore don't have managers arguing over colleagues being moved. I think it's only the very big stores that have retained managers for all the different front end areas but it could be that your store is top heavy with managers.
In an ideal world if one dept is over and another is under the hours should be moved. I find it hard to understand how the PFS will be under hours so soon after a soft structure change. Most PFS sites are sitting over hours so could it be that if someone is off sick or on holiday that the shifts are not being fully covered. That would explain why the checkout manager may be reluctant to put colleagues over to the PFS at the expense of checkouts. It states in the tablet the allowed hours and the used hours so it's crystal clear for anyone who has access to viewing, this will be all managers, wages, shift leads and any off till colleagues that used to be team support.

newguy20

Interesting post thank you.
In our store (a large extra) one manager does checkouts, another does services/PFS/assists checkouts. that's the new structure for us I assume because of our size. From hearing things on here I think our store is very 'old school' in that the departments are different and never the twain shall meet.
Our PFS is very busy because of our location, it was running marginally under hours and then we had 2 people leave, and 2 people cut hours. During the recent structure change I think they trimmed a few hours off, but nevertheless there are still vacant shifts to cover each week, even before sickness/holiday/the bookers cover. We do not do the lone working, there are at least 2 PFS staff on duty and at night it is remotely monitored p@p.
The number of colleagues trained is interesting, we have 18 staff in the PFS, and 8 others from checkouts or other departments. If they are desperate, an untrained cashier will be used with a trained PFS colleague. CSD has 9 staff on the department, cover for holidays/sick falls to 2 cash office or 1 pfs colleague who can move around.
The checkout manager has a pathological hatred of 'her' staff being used elsewhere ('it's not about the hours, it's the point, the services manager should cover her own shifts not steal my staff'). Which seems to be where the arguments come from. It has got to the point of her coming into the PFS and scrubbing cashiers names off the overtime shifts they have signed up for in the PFS because she wants them in the store. Petty comes to mind, if she is having genuine difficulties surely this should be escalated to the store manager not result in her giving snide or rude comments to us GAs. Oh and she doesn't complain when it's christmas and 3-4 of the PFS staff regularly do difficult-to-fill overtime shifts on checkouts!
As you say it is far easier to find cover for a checkout operator, since every single colleague is trained (excluding the odd one who perhaps hasn't done it for a long time and forgot their logon) so that's where the gap normally ends up.

Redshoes

The friction does not help anyone, it won't help fill the shifts.
The word from on high is "one team" and not playing this game won't go down well.
The reality of not covering a PFS or CSD shift is the dept has to close, this can't happen. Covering these areas should be seen like this but there is often resentment and frustration.

Biglove

Is there any update with pfs getting a pay rise to the same rate as CD?

Pfs girlie

I work in a pfs and not heard anything about this

Teddybonkers

Quote from: Biglove on 04-09-21, 08:07PM
Is there any update with pfs getting a pay rise to the same rate as CD?

Dream on mate :D

Biglove

I read it on this feed a few weeks back... I also work in a pfs and I think it's a joke that we get paid same rate as checkouts when we do so much more.... And we don't have a pfs manager either ...

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