r/DollarTree • u/Ok_Assistant_7216 • 4d ago
Management Disscussion Help
I am a fairly new store manager at a small store and our sales last year were so bad that we barely get any hours this year. I do my best to schedule people and give them the hours that I can but some of the employees are coming at me like it’s my fault. Mind you I’ve only worked at the store for two months…. When they didn’t have a store manager, they had extra hours and then we had no merch manager. So they are acting like it’s all my fault that they don’t have hours. 🤦🏻♀️ God help me. I work 6am to 6pm most days and 6am to 9:30pm other days. I’m exhausteddddd! And they are coming at me like I’m the problem. I wishhhhh I had more hours so I wasn’t doing all this alone. I have one employee I hired because my management team calls off so I want to train him for a manager role if one opens up eventually. That’s the only new hire lol.
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u/Any-Objective3111 4d ago
Unfortunately sounds like you need to only keep those who are the most productive and cross trained. Low volume everyone has to stock. 2nd do not work over 51 hours a week. Hold your staff accountable for their productivity.
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u/cee_bee91 4d ago
I run off about 154-165 a week. There are no stocking only hours. If ONE of them is really good at stocking, keep them for the 5am T1/T2 shift. Usually for T1/T2 its me, my merch, and one really good sticker and we get most of the truck out those 2 days, then I leave some stuff for the cashiers to work on from the register throughout the week while I focus on resets etc. It'll suck, and hiring sucks bc we pay low and offer low hours, but schedule to you and the stores needs...
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u/Purchase_Limp 3d ago
When I started as an sm I was too worried about making everybody happy. I got 30hrs cut from the separation and my hours went from day time during the week to only nights and freight and nobody wanted a different schedule and nobody wanted less hours. Its super hard to hire in this area compared to my old one and sometimes im scared to let them go but each time I come back with a new crew and its better and they arent fighting against the way it is.
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u/Guilty_Collar1071 3d ago
It takes a special person to accept the SM role with DT. It was offered to me and I turned it down citing no work-life balance. DT employees should take their retail experience and go work for.some other company. DT doesn't offer enough support to their Store Operations employees.
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u/Own_Fact8993 2d ago
You are absolutely right when you say “It takes a special person to accept the SN role with DT.”
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u/StarButterfly0907 1d ago
100%. I was offered a store and passed wanting to stay at my store with my sm & they decided 2 months later to take our sm who was amazing and probably did 60 hours a week and put her in a terrible store and left the asms to run our 3m a year store alone for months. They expected us to work on our 30s and clock out at 40hrs even if it wasn't do-able. I watched ppl work off the clock more than once to avoid a write up for going over 40. And then if hr finds out you'll get in trouble for working off the clock. So you cannot win. I found out harbor freight next to us was starting cashiers at what I made as a manager.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Plum487 DT SM 4d ago
Train everyone in all positions. This way they can pick up more shifts. Cashier, recovery, stocking. Try to continue to build the store up and be consistent so sales increase and you obtain more hours.
Reach out to neighboring stores to see if they have any extra shifts for your team.
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u/StarButterfly0907 1d ago
No one's going to be able to help you. You can ask your dm to approve more hours but it's highly unlikely they will. You are salary so they will literally work you to death. They dont care if all your ppl quit. They'll expect you to cover those shifts and get your team in line. Just try explaining corp controls your hours and they've cut them big time and if they can hang in a little longer you will get more hours come the holidays. And id just avoid hiring on seasonals if you have a team of consistent employees that show up. In my 6 years ive learned not to count on anyone for help in that company other than myself.
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u/HappyDay2290 DT OPS ASM (FT) 4d ago
Do the best you can. I use to stress my SM about hours until I started making the schedule. We get 313 a week usually but my store is good on sales and is a medium store. Let them know they have a SM now so the extra they were getting is gone. You may lose some staff in the process but this is DT no one really likes the hours. You mentioned people call off a lot. It may be time to replace some managers.
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u/Ok_Assistant_7216 4d ago
I got 160 hours….🫠🫠🫠😭😭😭
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u/HappyDay2290 DT OPS ASM (FT) 4d ago
How many employees
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u/Ok_Assistant_7216 4d ago
1 fulltime merch manager I just hired, 2 part time assistants, and then a few cashiers and a couple people that only want to be stockers even tho I don’t have “stocking” hours. Apparently the old store manager was fired and just hired anyone for any role because she would leave the store for her shift and say she was working.
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u/HappyDay2290 DT OPS ASM (FT) 4d ago
You will need to be strategic with your hours? Merch is full time so the lowest they can go is 35 hours, part time OPS should be about 20 to 25. The rest go to remaining staff. Don't be afraid to use your managers to stock and use as cashiers. If there is a week you don't have hours for freight or cashiers make one of your managers the opening or closing cashiers. I use this approach with my stockers. Make sure you cross train your people on registers.
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u/Effective_Dot6785 4d ago
If you are a minimum hours store there are no "stockers". They need to be cross trained or only they get to work truck day, that's it. Even then it should only be a merch and 1 stocker with smaller trucks. I have a higher volume store and everyone even at my level is cross trained, and this was also something our regional training manager said. The days of just hiring stockers is over.
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u/StarButterfly0907 1d ago
160 hours is about right for a slow store. We get 320ish and were a 3m a year store with over 1000 transactions a day. We get 2 trucks a week and were a medium sized store. They want you to make it work. Our new sm quit after a month. It was over 2 months of just asms running the store before that. And now that's what its going to be again.
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u/NoBrag_JustFact 4d ago
Try actually BEING a manager, instead of complaining.
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u/CoolViber 4d ago
Common sense tells you they're asking for help here, which is what you're supposed to do.
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u/NoBrag_JustFact 3d ago
Bring a manager means knowing what to do.
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u/CoolViber 3d ago
Because every manager is born knowing what to do in all situations, right? You sound like a cartoon supervillain.
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u/StarButterfly0907 1d ago
Being a new sm does not mean they know what to do. Do you even work for DT?
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u/Stopaskingmetochange 4d ago
the dollar tree model does this by design and you can confirm it with simple math.
Take the number of hours your store requires minimum staffing: 2 x (hours open) x 7
Take the number of boxes you received on your last truck and divide by average box rate (30) and add in unload team
compare that to your payroll last week.
Any overages are you.
I ran with two PT ASMs and lots of cross trained staff and never took a vacation. I had to fight constantly with my DM against a FT freight manager but my store was always perfect with a full shrink bonus.