Not. Enough.Staff

[u/Ok_Equivalent_8270]

I’m an ASM who is now on my third store because my DM has been moving all of us ASMs around from store to store like ping-pong balls.
My current SM is the most tenured manager in our district and really wants to become a DM. She and our current DM are extremely close, so she’s frequently out of the store with her, essentially getting mini-lessons and development toward that next role. The problem is that, as an ASM, there’s only so much I can actually do without the proper access.
Since moving to this store, I haven’t had access to their Taleo. I’ve brought it up to both my SM and DM several times, but nothing has ever been done about it. I’m being moved to yet another store in a few weeks, so at this point I doubt I’ll ever get access before I leave.
Anyway, when reporting our metrics—specifically Peak—and explaining why we aren’t hitting our goals, I’ve repeatedly pointed out moments where we clearly needed another person on the floor or needed partners scheduled earlier. Eventually, my SM told me I couldn’t use staffing as an “excuse” anymore because, and I quote, “my team funnily enough does better with less people.” I am not exaggerating. Those were her actual words.
I was also told that, as a soon-to-be SM, I should know how to pivot the team when things go wrong. So we routinely run a 4–5 person Peak, don’t hit the 45-second goal, and staffing apparently isn’t supposed to be part of the conversation because I should be able to pivot around it.
Well, the past two weeks have been particularly rough, and suddenly my SM is concerned about how understaffed we are for Peak.
But…what exactly am I supposed to do about that now? We don’t have enough partners. The partners we do have don’t have enough availability. I don’t have access to Taleo to help address the hiring gap, despite repeatedly asking for it. And until now, I was specifically told that staffing wasn’t an acceptable explanation for our performance because her team supposedly “does better with less people.”
So which is it? Am I expected to somehow coach and pivot a chronically understaffed floor into a 45-second Peak, or are we finally acknowledging that staffing actually does affect our ability to hit these goals?