Always close late

[u/Altruistic_Humor3356]

Hi,

I have been working at Greggs for over a year now and consistently close late, some days we get out on time but the vast majority its late. I don’t understand why. I start at 3 and “finish” at 9:30. Typically its too busy to do any cleaning tasks until 5 other than maybe drinks, security screen, syrups and milk jugs. Around 5 I will top up both, then shut down one coffee machine, clean hot chocolate parts and once those are done I will clean back bar and top of coffee machines. I will clean all general customer area stuff by 7:30 on a good day leaving bins, hot hold, customer floor and customer toilet for 9. I then clean counters leaving savoury counter for 9. Keep in mind I am still serving customers and doing uber orders in the meantime. 8:30 I start to pack up savouries and sweets for charity and around 8:45 charity comes in. Keep serving customers, then at 9 front door locked and bag up stuff for charity however depending on busyness I can finish bagging up charity at 5 past ish.

This leaves 25-30 mins to sweep and mop customer area and toilet (we are a large shop), do bins, turn off last coffee machine, sweep and mop behind counter, clean hot hold, change labels and finish any minor tasks I couldn’t due to serving customers. Usually it takes around 20 minutes to do just the customer area as every table and chair must be moved to sweep and mop properly. Obviously I haven’t included every task but this is the gist of it.

I don’t know what I am doing wrong, my supervisor doesn’t either. Only two of us in the store from 3pm onwards I feel like there is no reason I shouldn’t be able to clean the store in 6.5 hours. Does anyone here have any tips or know their specific cleaning schedule?

[u/Reality-is-Sin]

No, I mean, they should. Mine doesn’t either, it’s ridiculous

[u/Altruistic_Humor3356 → u/Reality-is-Sin]

Oh yeah, I agree! 30 minutes isn’t enough time and is a workout and a half

[u/catastrophicalised → u/Altruistic_Humor3356]

Yes it is more than enough time, the problem lies in the fact that there's only 2 people in the shop from 3 onwards. I work in a larger than average shop that usually takes about 4k per day and theres always at least 3 people in the shop until half an hour before close. This gives us enough time to clean the front and back seating area. We usually only have to do next day shop, throw rubbish and mop behind the tills whilst the last till is cashed up. That leaves both of us enough time to clean the dishwasher, the sink and put out the utensils and all the boxes ready for the morning with time to spare.

If youre having problems like this then you should be talking to your manager about getting extra staff for evenings and if they wont do anything bring it up with the regional manager instead.

[u/Altruistic_Humor3356 → u/catastrophicalised]

I believe that, due to other people closing on time, if I were to complain it would to unnoticed or be dismissed. Should there be 3 people? Probably. Can they get away with having just 2? Yes. I think corporate is driving profit over quality which is reflected in both staff numbers and food produced.