Is anyone else at their limit? (SM)
I’m really over it. Like please someone at least tell me I’m not alone. I’m a store manager running a 2.4M, and I’m exhausted. For all their talk about being so big on “Work Life Balance!” every decision they make only makes our role harder and harder. My DM is at my store 3x a week, eating up my time and hours and OE, and coming back to back asking why x, y, and z wasn’t done. When she left at 7PM and is back at 10AM next day. Don’t get me started with count optimization and trying to count avocados while you have 8 pallets of back-stock being ran and 500 units rolling around the store at the same time. It is impossible to do a full sector count at peak time, accurately, and leave on time.
I get calls all day every day, from 5AM up until MIDNIGHT. A few days a week I might be lucky enough to get an uninterrupted 8 hours of sleep. Drivers, ASMs, Associates, the WH, our landlord, my own DM who in the same breath she’s using to call me at 6:46PM when I’m outside of my service hours is reminding me to “protect my work life balance!”
I had an LSA complain about me because I left on time one day (gasp!) and didn’t pick up a phone call at 10:30PM ONE TIME.
And then customers. I know my market in particular is famously tough. Some people are nice, but the vast majority are raging assholes who act like they’ve never been required to wipe their own ass crack, let alone work with us to keep busy lines moving. I only have 3 ECOs and 6 SCOs. AND I DO ON AVERAGE 85K+ A DAY.
I made the mistake of looking at my store’s google reviews only to see one calling me out by name, accusing me of having a nasty attitude and “screaming” in the store. By screaming, they mean I had to continuously raise my voice until the next person in line realized that they are, in fact, a functional human being who is in a line that moves.
I give feedback to DM or DoSO, and I’m told that I’m not being positive enough. I’m not having a growth mindset. I just need to be more efficient. They’re “on my side,” and I’m just being combative. I haven’t taken a weekend off, or worked less than 60 hours a week in the last 10 months since I’ve had the store. There was a point where things were so bad I was working SPLIT SHIFTS 8AM-2PM and then 8PM-2AM to make sure we got trucks every day (elevator!!).
This job is breaking me down in a way I didn’t know was possible. I am so exhausted and there seems like there’s no end in sight. I have an exit plan already and won’t be there much longer, but I can’t help but care about the work that I put out. The job is designed to make you miserable, and despite your best efforts to make everyone happy, they’ll still be upset because you “Look” miserable.
Anyway, I’m sure other stores have it harder, but thanks for listening fam. And associates/LSAs/ASMs, if you think you want to be an SM, no you don’t 🥲