A race you cannot win - Area Supervisor Ross Stores Employee Review

Not enough payroll given to maintain store to the high standards that management require. Even you coach all associates to 100% efficiency there are just not enough hours given to get the job done. This is where most of the frustration starts; For example STEP team (truck processers) are required to get the truck processed in a certain amount of time depending on number of cartons received. Because the so little time is given the STEP team ends up "throwing" merchandise wherever (apparel in wrong sections, hard lines not merchandised correctly) When management notices they coach the stock room lead who then coaches the associates to do it correctly, which causes their processing time to go down. Management notices the decrease in time and then coaches them to process faster. Another example is keeping the store sized correctly. The store will get a mystery shopper once a month to look at how accurate your sizing is. If you fail sizing and you were the manager on duty at that day and time expect a write up. As manager on duty you are required to execute STaRT (basically sizing assignments) however during the day all your associates are either cashiering or recovering ( picking up after the messy customers) Even if you manage to get your associates to size a section more then likely it will be messed up within a day either by customers, associates puting go backs away, poor recovery by associates, or by the STEP team. It doesn't only apply to sizing, any merchandising projects that need to be done simply cannot be done because the associate you are using needs to be on register, or coving the fitting rooms associates break, or covering loss preventions break, or needs to go on break themselves, or they need to recover the store. You get the point. All of this pressure placed on middle management is passed onto associates who are always overworked. We are almost always required to ask associates to stay passed there scheduled shift in order to get or keep the store up to standards. This causes stress for the associates because, although they can say no to staying, the good associates will say yes because if they say no they will feel guilty. Also some weeks when we do not make sales and we need to cut hours. Its not pleasant to tell workers that what they thought was going to be a 30 hour week turns into a 15 hour week. In addition middle management is often required to fall back onto associates and ask of them to do more than their job requires. Falling on your front end supervisors to coordinate breaks and lunches, having you fitting room associate do markdowns, pulling associates to projects in the stockroom, all while still requiring then to do their normal job duties at the already high standards that are expected. Finally you have the customers. Having worked retail for over ten years I can tell you that Ross has the absolute worst customers I have ever worked with. They are rude and purposely messy. They allow their kids to run throughout the store doing whatever they want. Taking apart fixtures, taking size nubs and rubber boots off of hangers, taking toys from the toy department and spreading them to every other department of the store. Women are no better, don't want that cute pair of shoes you picked up? Leave it on a promo table. Don't want that purse? Leave it on the rack of clothes. Get to the register and decide you don't want something? Don't give it to the cashier, throw it on the pile of other go backs on the base deck in the front of the register. Granted, customers in your store might be different then mine but Ross's generally target the lower income groups. In the end, the unreachable standards expected, the lack of resources given, and the added stress from customers are the ultimate reasons why I left the company after only 7 months right before getting assessed for promotion.