HOW MANY HERE has cut meat all day during a snow or ice storm, stayed after 5 and kept cutting to fill the case back up, cooked something in the market, pull three or 4 toilet tissue boxes together, pull a couple butcher coats over you, sleep three or 4 hours and start cutting all over again. In Atlanta back in 76 me and two more cutters spent three nights in a A&P. Back in the day it wasn't unusual to do this most every ice and snow storm
i would get "Absolutely NO OVERTIME allowed. NO EXCEPTIONS." They even had a sign on the wall the said "If you punch out more than 5 minutes late you will be terminated"
i would get "Absolutely NO OVERTIME allowed. NO EXCEPTIONS." They even had a sign on the wall the said "If you punch out more than 5 minutes late you will be terminated"
So, if you were helping a customer on your way to the time clock and it made you punch out a 6 minutes after, you would be terminated?
sounds like a crap business model, the cost of hiring and training a new employee is far more than the few dollars at most of staying a bit over. Where you work is someplace i would not want to.
i would get "Absolutely NO OVERTIME allowed. NO EXCEPTIONS." They even had a sign on the wall the said "If you punch out more than 5 minutes late you will be terminated"
So, if you were helping a customer on your way to the time clock and it made you punch out a 6 minutes after, you would be terminated?
sounds like a crap business model, the cost of hiring and training a new employee is far more than the few dollars at most of staying a bit over. Where you work is someplace i would not want to.
I am not aware of it actually happening, but that was the threat. It wasn't just one store either. Just about every store I worked for had similiar rules. It is a **** business model and not only hurt customer service, but created a hostile work environment as well. I have seen this in both independents smd chains.
oh. I don't cut meat any more. I have my own business. That is one of the reasons I got out.
-- Edited by fdarn on Tuesday 26th of January 2016 11:33:37 AM
I have but not to that extent. I've been devoted in the past and still am devoted but not to that extent. Simply because it's not noticed or appreciated anymore in business. I hate to say it but I give enough to get what I get, nothing more. At the first sight of snow, I'm down the road if my shift is over.
This was the kind of devotion most meat cutters from that era had, tremendous love for their trade. It just doesn't apply to meat cutters, it applied to all trades. Of course it was a different time a different world. It was a work ethic that can never be understood or ever again be duplicated. This type work ethic was personal pride, a job well done, going the extra mile. Why? Because it was your calling and it was all about how you accepted and embraced what ever the job entails. You gave it your all simply because it is yours to do.
In doing your duties you always had a sense of discipline and concentration and never ever would you leave your duties to someone else. You finished your job and never buried your fellow cutter or leave a night-mare of product unfinished in grocery buggies jammed into a cooler. We practiced "acceptance", whatever was needed was done. Learning a new skill or facing a new challenge was all apart of the job. We had enthusiasm, it was normal to dedicate yourself to hard work and reap rewards not only for the customer but also for yourselves. Giving of yourself 100 percent produced good quality work as well as a satisfaction that cannot be expressed with these words.
Of course supervision was different back then, meat supervisors were respected, they been there, done that. They were roll models to us and they can get in there an work with you. Back then it was normal to drive 50 miles to a meat cutters meeting in some store where a new cutting approach was being taught. We never envied or looked into our fellow employees pocket, or even the companies pockets. The philosophy was (boy) I can't wait to make first cutter, or meat department manager or graduate from apprentice to a full blown cutter so I would be rewarded with a higher paycheck. We all wanted our companies to be financially healthy, because if they were sound we knew our jobs were safe.
One time during a bad snow storm our meat supervisor Mr. Berryman who owned a Jeep, went around the city and suburbs to pick up as many of us at our homes who couldn't get to work and brought them in. Another time in Clark Summit, Pa we had a blizzard and the meat department manager only lived a few blocks from our store, we all walked to his house and stayed over night. All 16 of us meat cutters and meat wrappers. We had a blast and ended up leading the division with sales for that week because we could get back into the store the very next morning.
I remember Mr. Berryman telling me that he spent more time on the job than he did at home. I said doesn't your wife get mad at you. No he said, my wife is a very religious person. She told me that if I spend considerable time at work, why not spend that time well? Why not give it your all so as not to waste the time of our lives?
Loyalty, work ethic, competitiveness, pride in our work, pride in our company, trust, dedication slowly faded away when Unions started to organize supermarket companies and when former regional supermarket chains went public. Then the focus changed from keeping and respecting good employees to focusing on the stock holders first, trades people second. And "greed' raised its ugly head!
-- Edited by Coalcracker on Thursday 28th of January 2016 08:58:23 PM
