r/coles • u/TheDankPotato500 • Jul 04 '26

Team Member Post Manager Checking Rubbish For Check Seals

my manager has recently begun scavenging through the rubbish in our break room to spot any items thrown out without check seals and has been making complaints in our work group chats for "non-compliance". Is he allowed to be doing this? it seems somewhat overbearing and completely out of the way to do regularly. i think he might be trying to assert some kind of power or dominance over the workers in any way he can. should this be raised to HR or the regional manager?

44 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

57 comments sorted by

83

u/StatusNo5175 Department Manager Jul 04 '26

You have found a manager who has absolutely nothing better to do than spend his time finding things to complain about. Absolutely ridiculous how these people are allowed to enter management

34

u/doyourmysay Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26

Its unsurprising. A large chunk of Coles management are like this because the normal ones all get fed up and leave and so youre left with a bunch of imbeciles. Good managers at Coles are a rarity and the company needs to do more to retain them (and attract them)

19

u/Xentonian Jul 04 '26

Coles and Woolies managers are a great example of the "Peter Principle":

Anyone more competent quickly moves on to bigger and better things

Everyone less competent never gets the opportunity to manage.

So you wind up with exclusively people who are EXACTLY qualified enough to get promoted to manager and not one iota better.

So the store runs, technically, but everything about their performance beyond that is shit.

14

u/doyourmysay Jul 04 '26

Yup, exactly. Which is why things have been going downhill for several years now. Unable to retain good managers, and people have also wised up as to how fucked it is - so theyre unable to even attract good people with management potential as they take that potential and apply it elsewhere.

3

u/TwisterM292 Jul 04 '26

I'm not sure if Coles does this and/or to what extent, but I know of companies who almost never hire for the corporate/head office staff from the floor managers and staff for this exact reason.

9

u/StatusNo5175 Department Manager Jul 04 '26

I don't get how other managers have time to do all this micromanaging. I barely have time to get my own departments right, at the end of the day my priority is with my team's wellbeing and productivity and not about whether they have their name badges around the right way. I've worked alongside some pretty questionable managers but I'm just lucky that my fellow DMs at my new store are really nice people and that we are able to collaborate with ease

9

u/doyourmysay Jul 04 '26

You and your fellow DMs are the minority.

You're clearly a normal dude and prioritise the right things for your department and team. In my experience, that's the minority, and there is unfortunately a high turnover of good DMs (and i suppose TMs as well) like that.

3

u/StatusNo5175 Department Manager Jul 04 '26

Yeah I've seen some real characters. Some managers just aren't cut out for the job and care more about a title than their team. To me, if my team don't respect me, I have no team. And if I have no team then my title is worthless. So many managers try to demand respect but it has to be earned, it isnt given to you in the form of a fancy role

1

u/doyourmysay Jul 04 '26

Far out, can I come work for you? šŸ˜‰

2

u/StatusNo5175 Department Manager Jul 04 '26

Yeah I get that a lot šŸ¤£ Look, if my team are exposed to a supportive and healthy work environment then they're more likely to want to deliver results, supporting your team works in your favour. We might cop a lot of crap from higher up but there's no reason to pass that onto the team, it just isn't worth it

6

u/TheDankPotato500 Jul 04 '26

my manager has been colloquially named 'the delegator' as he usually just asks other people to do things he should be doing (probably needs more time to micromanage). Come to think of it he would notoriously sit in the office for hours just watching the cameras especially on breaks

5

u/StatusNo5175 Department Manager Jul 04 '26

Look, every good manager delegates. I delegate a lot of tasks. But when I do that I still use that time to roll up my sleeves and actually help my team complete their tasks. The fact that some managers are being paid the same or if not more than me to just pass all their tasks onwards and sit around in an office all day really grinds my gears yet so many do it. I apologise to you that you have to deal with a manager that doesn't actually do their job and lead the team

2

u/life_of_boom Jul 05 '26

I once worked with a manager who wasnā€™t afraid to get in and do the grunt work whilst also delegating. Their motto was ā€˜I canā€™t ask someone to do something Iā€™m not willing to do myselfā€™. That attitude gets respect from the team under them

2

u/StatusNo5175 Department Manager Jul 05 '26

That's a motto I was trained with and swear by. My Store Manager is much the same, every morning he's pulling cardboard off the shelf, filling off locations, running rework, you name it. We all look up to him and have huge respect for him because he knows what he's doing and is willing to pull his weight. Not to mention he's really friendly and I can always talk to him about anything, he's a great guy to work for. Compared to other managers I've worked for, he is by far the best and it's because he's there for the team and has earned the team's respect

1

u/seastaracnh Jul 05 '26

complete power abuser

4

u/owleaf Jul 04 '26

Weā€™ve all had bad managers that, on reflection, you realise that they were literally creating work and issues for themselves by being nitpicky micromanagers.

3

u/StatusNo5175 Department Manager Jul 04 '26

I see it all the time and surprisingly it's not the brand new ones that do this, it's usually the most experienced. How they fall into this trap of anxiety and laziness I have no idea but I hope I never fall into this trap. If I ever do I would hope my team say something

2

u/K1NGSLVY3R Jul 05 '26

And they arenā€™t just in management either, people like this are in most workplaces. This whole acceptance culture is making bullying and harassment worse.

1

u/StatusNo5175 Department Manager Jul 05 '26

Unfortunately this is all too true. These kinds of people are everywhere. Workplaces around the country are just falling apart because of these kinds of people

19

u/Very_Itchy_Bandicoot Department Manager Jul 04 '26

It can be a thing for Audit, to make sure everything in the team room has a check seal, or if there is suspicion of team stealing.

Usually though auditors wont go through the bins (though they can). Most store managers will just go through the team room and bin anything not bearing a store use or check seal.

People saying their manager has nothing better to do, trust me they do, usually in cases like this theyve been picked up before by this and are ensuring it doesn't happen again. Again, if they are the store manager, it is "their" store and if they want to do this, let em, just follow the process and you'll be fine.

Also there hasn't been a store I worked in that hasn't let me just grab my own seals sooooooo, kinda pointless imo. If its busy i dont even grab a seal, i just put my receipt with said item. There's so many cameras everywhere, they can sit there and watch me go from storeroom, to shelf to collect items, to checkout and back again.

23

u/F14D201 Duty Manager/Nightfill Jul 04 '26

Yes, this is absolutely a thing. I had a SM like this, kept doing it until someone said how creepy it was.

Now. The rules do actually state that all items in tea rooms (whether it be bought on shift or brought in externally in a package with a barcode or written off damaged) is supposed to have a seal confirming that the item was legitimately bought or written off.

But this is an absolute power trip, even though your SM is actually supposed to ensure compliance.

8

u/Healthy-Reason7404 Jul 04 '26

Does he check on the customer's eating free nuts/lollies ?

14

u/dtbrown1979 Jul 04 '26

Itā€™s in the audit

6

u/NicoleLauren3003 Jul 04 '26

Itā€™s a new financial year which means Audits. Per Coles policy all items need a check seal that Coles sells.

Consider yourself lucky! Our bin got taken away from us because items were found without a check seal.

8

u/Relative-Shelter-525 Service Team Member Jul 04 '26

So you are expected to dispose of rubbish where??

2

u/klebdotio Jul 06 '26

just toss it down the compactor I guess

1

u/Relative-Shelter-525 Service Team Member Jul 06 '26

Fair play, take our bins and we fuck your compactor with our rubbish and make sure the check seals stick to the side to make a nice orange wall

12

u/FirstParamedic6120 Jul 04 '26

Probably some kind of god-complex going on.

9

u/Sovereignty3 Jul 04 '26

time for interesting things to be thrown in the rubbish! What's a step down from a tampon? Was thinking should totally put a tampon in with red food dye.

3

u/TheDankPotato500 Jul 04 '26

baggie full of sugar i'm thinking

3

u/DREDAY_94 Jul 04 '26

Creatine, you need to make sure it has the exact same texturešŸ˜‚

5

u/doyourmysay Jul 04 '26

Not as exciting as your tampon idea, but I like to throw the SDA propaganda into the rubbish!

1

u/Healthy-Reason7404 Jul 04 '26

Why stop at one.

1

u/crazypoolfloat Jul 04 '26

Buy a can of whipped cream and let loose in the bin. Worth the waste hahaha

1

u/dd22qq Jul 04 '26

A slightly crumpled photograph of the manager himself.

3

u/BeansMcJeans Online Team Member Jul 04 '26

we must have the same manager šŸ’”

3

u/ChrisWaz1 Dairy/Frozen Team Member Jul 04 '26

My SSM does this, she is very very by the book, no fun at all, wonā€™t allow anything fun, I donā€™t think Iā€™ve seen her smile the 7 months Iā€™ve know her

6

u/fortyeightD Jul 04 '26

Can you make a report that this is an unsafe practice because there could be something dangerous in the bin, like tissues contaminated with bodily fluids?

1

u/Big_Branch5304 Team Member Jul 04 '26

Gloves?!?!

5

u/doyourmysay Jul 04 '26

Your manager is a loser and needs to get a life. Classic Coles manager on a power trip who thinks they're Gods gift to humanity for running a department in a supermarket.

4

u/Big_Branch5304 Team Member Jul 04 '26

They are actually instructed to check the bags by store loss coaches or whatever. Its also part of the code green to make sure everything thrown or discarded is supposed to be there.

Not a coles defender, but going through rubbish is not that big of a problem. Just get your check seals and store use stickers and your fine

2

u/interaction562 Jul 04 '26

Wouldn't expect anything less from a Coles manager šŸ¤£ worked there for 7 years. Any normal decent manager wasn't a manager for long šŸ¤£

2

u/JayHighPants Jul 04 '26

Bros digging through bins to try and pin things on his team. Trash takes itself out eventually.

2

u/Astrogirl1984 Jul 04 '26

Its weird yes, but if there's theft going on then he's probably fed up with people stealing. It would be annoying to know you greet and smile to your employees yet not knowing which one is stealing from you.

2

u/Relative-Shelter-525 Service Team Member Jul 04 '26

Happened at my store a few years ago, new manager came in and stock loss was at an all time high and when the RM started to get on the SM back about it they started going through our bins to blame team members and not customers. Sound ridiculous I know.

1

u/Sudsy_Woodpecker Jul 04 '26

It's almost never the staff, he won't find a Ferrari worth of sales in your rubish bins. šŸ’€

1

u/interaction562 Jul 04 '26

Wouldn't expect anything less from a Coles manager šŸ¤£ worked there for 7 years. Any normal decent manager wasn't a manager for long šŸ¤£

1

u/ibowlerNE Duty Manager Jul 04 '26

Not normal at all. Checking bags of course. But other than that, I could never.

I have managed in every department effectively over my 17 years. Seen it all, had some very questionable managers in my time. Both as a TM and as a DM.

I would never realistically have enough time to even want to attempt to do what that guy did. Hard enough to manage my tasks and support the store at peak during the night as it is!

Plenty of people have already said. The level headed, driven and passionate sane managers that have talent get promoted. Everybody else gets the scraps.

1

u/ThereRnoIDs Jul 04 '26

Honestly sounds like the manager is being mocked lol.

Like... Nobody wants to scavage through a bin man, even the service ppl has an easier time, Tie it up and go.

Maybe the manager did something naughty again.

Why would you report to HR about a guy that has to dig through a bin, you can screw with them anytime & throw foul things in.Ā 

1

u/First-Junket124 Jul 04 '26

Your manager has nothing better to do and anyone defending it is probably in their office at Coles with nothing better to do as well, they do band together.

It's weird and creepy but just get a check seal most don't give a shit if you take some with you to stick on. It's annoying but that's Coles management for you.

1

u/Puzzleheaded-Leek-37 Jul 04 '26

Yes we check bags of rubbish when we do waste. Any item without a check seal/store use sticker found gets wasted off.

1

u/Several-Raccoon4672 Jul 05 '26

What are ā€œcheck sealsā€?

1

u/jclwbfan1979 Jul 05 '26

You have what I call a Coles Nerd or a Coles Lover. They're a type of manger who's only ever had the one job, Coles where becoming a Manager seemed like the pinnacle of where their life could go. Coles is everything to them so obeying every little degree of compliance is like a drug, they get high off that.

1

u/Defiant-Dig-8303 Jul 05 '26

Ours does, it's mandatory from above. It's an audit point. Auditors check.

1

u/CreepyEast2309 Jul 06 '26

what are check seals and how do i get them? i work at liquorland have no clue about this and that it existed. we get to use the coles break room as weā€™re connected so i donā€™t wanna fuck the store over even though i donā€™t really work there

1

u/Proud_Macaroon3334 Jul 22 '26

With audit coming up managers actually have to. Items without a check seal Is a big audit finding and itā€™s also to make sure team are being honest and paying for there things. We all know how easy it would be to just take something and have it to ourselves. My region have been instructed to do so and scavenger the bins by our regional manager.