My coworkers

[Rubystars]

My coworkers provoke me to rage. I have been told that people don't want to work with me because I am "mean" to them.

However they do incredibly stupid things and annoy me very much and it's hard for me not to be angry and frustrated with them.

I work overnight.

I usually work on planograms which involves taking the product off of shelves/pegs and re-arranging the shelves/pegs and re-labeling them and then putting the product back on in the new order. For this I need shopping carts. I usually get about 6=9 depending on how many I think I am going to need, when I first come in.

Sometimes I don't fill them all up right away but use them over the course of the night to organize product, hold extra pegs, hold my planogram papers, etc. If I walk away to get some supplies I have come back sometimes to find 2 or more of the baskets I had planned to use just gone... then when it comes time to use them I end up having to throw product all over the floor rather than in a basket where it's easy to get to.

The doors are locked at night and can only be opened with a manager's key. I try to get what I need for the night when I first come in and set them on the aisle where I will be working. If I don't immediately find some way to fill them with something... if I walk away to go to the restroom, to get supplies, or for any other reason and come back to the aisle, some are often gone.

I try to stand up for myself and tell people to stop stealing them: that I got the amount I feel I am going to need, and that I didn't get those baskets for them to use. As time has gone on and this has continued to happen, I have gotten more and more frustrated.

The other people are usually using baskets for freight, but they have the option to also get the amount they are going to need when they first come in but choose not to be prepared.

Even if I'm only using about 4 of them when I first start I usually do end up using all the ones I pull and I like to have them available. To get more I have to call the manager so he can unlock the door for me and it's super frustrating when I already had everything I needed.

I was told last night to stop yelling at people for taking them but I feel like they should stop taking them and get their own or ask the manager to open the door for them.

They will also sometimes confuse the baskets I am working on for freight and start putting the stuff back on the shelves that I just took off, or open the boxes I just taped up, causing me double work.

[Shangri-laschild]

Can you get some sort of bike locks or something to lock the carts together for when you have to leave? That should put a stop to them trying it

[Rubystars]

Supposedly now I'm just supposed to let them take it and I'm supposed to ask to get more... which involves finding the manager (who could be anywhere in the store), then waiting for him to come up to the front which he will do at his convenience... and then trying to get more carts... which may be stolen again.

The only bike locks are inside of packages.

[Andara Bledin]

See, this is a problem where you need to get creative to show the managers how much of a huge pain in the ass it is for them to allow people who can't plan to ruin your planning.

Every time you find you need a cart, get a manager. If you think you need a cart, get a manager. If someone breathes on your carts funny and you feel you need to replace it, get a manager.

Make it so that your problem is the manager's problem. Once they realize how much of a huge pain in the ass it is to allow the rest of the people there to be lazy and fail to plan appropriately, they'll do something to fix it.

[Rubystars]

I think that's a little too aggressive although I definitely like your idea. I feel frustrated because I just want to be left alone to do my job but I keep having other people come in and interfere like that.

I went on the overnight crew to avoid customers but sometimes the coworkers are just as annoying.

[wolfie]

See, this is a problem where you need to get creative to show the managers how much of a huge pain in the ass it is for them to allow people who can't plan to ruin your planning.

Every time you find you need a cart, get a manager. If you think you need a cart, get a manager. If someone breathes on your carts funny and you feel you need to replace it, get a manager.

You're forgetting what's likely to happen. Manager will see that OP keeps needing to get carts, while co-workers don't. Clearly OP is not planning properly, otherwise (s)he wouldn't need to keep asking to get access to another cart. Co-workers who don't keep asking for carts have clearly planned ahead and got the carts THEY need - OP needs to do the same thing or get written up.

[AccountingDrone]

Supposedly now I'm just supposed to let them take it and I'm supposed to ask to get more... which involves finding the manager (who could be anywhere in the store), then waiting for him to come up to the front which he will do at his convenience... and then trying to get more carts... which may be stolen again.

The only bike locks are inside of packages.

Cheap cable ties ... you can start by cable tying all the carts together, and just releasing them one at a time, and making cable tie chains to hold the loose ones nose to tail ... though I would just go ahead and get my own bike lock and take it with you to and from work.

[HYHYBT]

Strange that a store would keep its carts outside in the first place.

[mjr]

See, this is a problem where you need to get creative to show the managers how much of a huge pain in the ass it is for them to allow people who can't plan to ruin your planning.

Every time you find you need a cart, get a manager. If you think you need a cart, get a manager. If someone breathes on your carts funny and you feel you need to replace it, get a manager.

Make it so that your problem is the manager's problem. Once they realize how much of a huge pain in the ass it is to allow the rest of the people there to be lazy and fail to plan appropriately, they'll do something to fix it.

Ah, passive aggressive behavior...hey, you gotta do what you've gotta do. I know I've done my fair share of it...

[mjr]

Strange that a store would keep its carts outside in the first place.

You'd be surprised with exactly how many places do this.

[mjr]

You're forgetting what's likely to happen. Manager will see that OP keeps needing to get carts, while co-workers don't. Clearly OP is not planning properly, otherwise (s)he wouldn't need to keep asking to get access to another cart. Co-workers who don't keep asking for carts have clearly planned ahead and got the carts THEY need - OP needs to do the same thing or get written up.

This isn't necessarily true. Here's how you get around that:

When you first get there, call the manager over and show them exactly how many carts you have. Tell them "I have planned accordingly. This is how many carts I need to do my job tonight. I have (6, 5, 4, however many)". Count them in front of the manager. Then, when a cart "disappears", and you call the manager, you can say, "Well, I had 6 carts, now I have 5 (4, 3, whatever) because someone came and took one. I want to do my job well, so can you please get me another cart (2 carts, 3 carts, whatever)?"

[Ginger Tea]

I had a similar but not quite issue at my last job, once we took on more and more drops we had to have 3 late pickers in my room (used to just be me 6am till job done around 7pm then we had split shifts of 6-2 and 11-job done) we had a limited amount of packing trays as the rest were on vans enroute back and even less wheels to put them on.

At one point we were asked to put milk and bread on the bottom so some staff got into the habit of setting up the milk in-between stocking shelves, no biggie when you have a limited amount but it's just you in there, but once you have 3 people doing the same thing, floor space becomes an issue very quickly and drivers would come back looking for wheels to unload and find all of them in use, one driver said "Fuck it, you want trays empty the van yourself I'm going home." to counter this I told drivers to always take enough to empty the van, though few listened, we could survive with only a few sets of wheels and it might deter some of the others from making it nigh on impossible to get anywhere in and out of the room due to the crowded nature.

I myself did pack milk for my drops, but I put them into a stack on a last drop at the bottom so only used 4 sets of wheels for the route I normally sorted, but that was 4 wheels compared to 20.

Also some of the crates never returned, some routes would leave them over night and collect when they brought the next load in, but as we didn't book them in or out, we might leave 12 and come back with 10 and over the course of a year it resulted in us eventually having none.

Imagine you are the late shift leader and you find all your evening pickers sat in the break room unable to work as they are waiting on vans, we got to the stage where only one guy could sort his or her milk out as there were now not enough of them to go around.

I suggested many things to alleviate the issues over the last two years my old company existed for, one was how the other two would come in and do the milk when there was not enough food on the shelves to make it worth one person starting let alone 3 and that they should be tasked with work elsewhere and not to come in until 2 or 3pm at the earliest, there would always be someone in need of an extra set of hands but nope, in, milk, run out of trays sit around till a driver returns.

I petitioned numerous times to get more trays in if they were not going to sort the staff out as by Christmas Day we are the only ones in after 12pm having only started for an hour and we might as well not bother showing up until 3pm, those that did have to come in on Christmas and New Years day would get a full days wage for 4-6 hours work and we would end up having to work 8-9 hours due to no trays yet having all the food ready at 9am (we worked to get ahead for those two days so we could close the kitchen).

So cue supervisor having a shit fit seeing us sat around twiddling our thumbs, they want to go home cos its Christmas day, so do we, but with no trays we cant do jack.

I liked the job, liked most of the people I worked with, but not when I had to work directly with them. Hell I woke up from having a work based dream (again) and before I woke up I went to the front office (with a litre of OJ in hand) to have a morning chat with the office staff as I started my break and the last words I heard when I woke up was "Figures I'd come check on the office and find you here <my name>."

[Andara Bledin]

You're forgetting what's likely to happen. Manager will see that OP keeps needing to get carts, while co-workers don't. Clearly OP is not planning properly....

Oh, no, that's part of the setup... Start by explaining that you had your carts lined up, but while you were in another section, someone took one of them, so you need to be let out to get a new one to replace it.

Maybe opine that you wish they would set themselves up before they start like you do, but don't go any further... no mention of being told to let them, or being told not to tell them not to... just that you wish they'd plan better so you wouldn't have to keep bugging the manager... Act concerned that you have to pester him while explaining that you tried to plan to avoid this happening.

With this situation, you have to get creatively and carefully passive aggressive and ensure that you can't be perceived as trying to throw anyone under the bus.