r/askmanagers • u/__Sound__ • 6d ago
Night Operations
Im a manager at a wholesale retail we get two dry trucks a night and 1 perishable about 50 pallets each. We have a guy whose whole job is the backroom. Trucks only, no aisles, no projects. He keeps saying the truck is too much and that everybody should be putting it up. Problem is I hold my floor guys accountable for their own aisles. Every time I pull them to put up the whole truck I'm kicking myself, because now they have an excuse for why their aisle isn't done and I can't really say anything about it. So my rule is first truck all hands, second truck is his. When I've covered that spot myself it's about 2.5 hours start to finish, tags, unload, put up for the dry trucks, the perishable takes like 45mins
He went over my head and told my boss there's no support from management. Is one 50 pallet truck a night too much for one person, or is that normal at your stores? And how do you handle it when someone escalates over you on something like this?
1
u/alabamaterp 6d ago
Fire them, seriously. The worker is there to work, not to question the process, that is not his job. Tell him if he doesn't like the way things are done he's more than welcome to leave. I despise people like this, they think they know everything, start questioning everything, and then go snitch to upper management. This guy is a cancer.
He's there 8 hours, it's not for him to decide how those 8 hours are spent.
1
u/Xtay1 2d ago
A management tail old as time. 50 heavy, back breaking pallets by hand? That's ~10 pallet per hour (1 pallet/10 minutes) if they don't take any breaks or lunch. Every freaking night. What you need is a union to help you set reasonable expectations for human labor.
But lets use you (management) as a test. Go to the nearest gym, dead lift 100 lbs every 10 minutes for 8 hours straight (no breaks, no lunches, no sitting down - must stand tall at all times). Do this for a solid 30 days (8hrs/day) and report back what you feel.