# Difficult "newbe"



## MoonlitSunset (Oct 8, 2020)

How do you deal with a difficult "newbe" who doesnt want to do things the way you're showing them (the way I was trained) ?


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## Captain Orca (Oct 8, 2020)

Doesn't want?  Refuses?  Doesn't have the capacity to learn?  Within 90?  Explain the procedures, the hows the whys of what we do.  Get ETL input.


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## Hardlinesmaster (Oct 8, 2020)

Watch & document events. Try retraining the tm, saying errors are happening, etc.


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## Bonzo (Oct 28, 2020)

A TM I was training kept refusing my instruction at one point, then I told him..."I PROMISE you that you WILL be un-employed again with the next 48 hours if you do not take care of zoning this isle NOW".  He did!  When i saw him the next day, I was 30 minutes late, and to my surprise he had ALOT more zoning done than I expected, and he turned out yo be a great worker and very likable  coworker!


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## TheCartGuy (Oct 28, 2020)

Bonzo said:


> A TM I was training kept refusing my instruction at one point, then I told him..."I PROMISE you that you WILL be un-employed again with the next 48 hours if you do not take care of zoning this isle NOW".  He did!  When i saw him the next day, I was 30 minutes late, and to my surprise he had ALOT more zoning done than I expected, and he turned out yo be a great worker and very likable  coworker!


Luckily, the facts-of-life got through to him.


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## 60SecondsRemaining (Oct 29, 2020)

MoonlitSunset said:


> How do you deal with a difficult "newbe" who doesnt want to do things the way you're showing them (the way I was trained) ?



Are you a lead or a TM assigned to train them?

How you handle the situation will vary greatly on you position in it.


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## Captain Orca (Oct 29, 2020)

We had a new TM years ago who wouldn't get off his phone.  He lasted 2 days.


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## IWishIKnew (Nov 5, 2020)

How is your store to work in? I sometimes wish I had a way to say to the slackers that they really don't want to fuck this job up (particularly the high-schoolers). $15 is a lot for retail starting wage, where we live. Working on the sales floor isn't hard. Physically taxing sometimes, but not too much. Our ETLs and other store management doesn't suck. Our ETL is pretty good with time off requests and scheduling flexibility and trying to keep schedules consistent and that's not super common in retail. Our guests, by and large, don't suck. Our TLs don't suck. If you want full time hours, yeah you might be kind of screwed, but not so much if you work hard and have good availability. You could do soooooo much worse than working at my store. Seriously, newbies, don't fuck it up.


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## Hardlinesmaster (Nov 5, 2020)

Be ready to work hard.


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## happygoth (Nov 5, 2020)

Captain Orca said:


> We had a new TM years ago who wouldn't get off his phone.  He lasted 2 days.


Unfortunately that isn't the case anymore. Worked with a newb last night who had earbuds in and talked on the phone all night. We have regular TMs who do it, so why not the newbies?


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## Captain Orca (Nov 5, 2020)

Earbuds-music?  Not a real issue.  Bullshitting on the phone and avoiding work?  A real issue.  Two different issues.


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## happygoth (Nov 5, 2020)

I hate both, but the phone calls are more intrusive. Carrying on conversations while on the sales floor is just not professional. 

And while we are on the subject, why so many public phone calls, in general? Who the fuck are these people talking to that they can't talk to before or after their shift, or on break? As for guests, why so many personal phone calls while shopping? I can't believe how many people I hear on the phone having extended conversations in the store. Shopping is my down time, my chill time. Plus, I'm one of those people who really does not like talking on the phone, definitely more of a texter, so I suppose that is coloring my opinions, but jeez, I'm shopping, I'll call you back later.


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## IWishIKnew (Nov 6, 2020)

It seems like most of our guests who aren't shopping with someone are on the phone with someone. Often on speaker.

Or they're listening to music. Often on speaker.

When did it become even remotely acceptable to put your calls or music or whatever on speakerphone? You're in a public space, asshole--use headphones.


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## rd123 (Nov 6, 2020)

I haven’t heard any guests putting music on speaker but yeah phone conversations, a lot . I also don’t like to call anyone while shopping . Shopping is kind of a therapy for me . But I don’t enjoy shopping at my own store . It’s like buy what you need and get out!


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## BurgerBob (Nov 8, 2020)

rd123 said:


> I haven’t heard any guests putting music on speaker but yeah phone conversations, a lot . I also don’t like to call anyone while shopping . Shopping is kind of a therapy for me . But I don’t enjoy shopping at my own store . It’s like buy what you need and get out!


I wander my store if I wanna get out of the house but don't wanna be bothered by employees . They treat me like a ghost at my store.. oh there's Bob must be board.


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## FlowTeamChick (Nov 8, 2020)

happygoth said:


> As for guests, why so many personal phone calls while shopping?


The only ones of these that don't bother me are the ones where they're talking to each other about purchases that need to be made.  Like "I forgot what I was supposed to get" or "tell me again that brand/fragrance/color I'm supposed to find" or "they're out of the kind you like, what about this other one?"


IWishIKnew said:


> When did it become even remotely acceptable to put your calls or music or whatever on speakerphone?


Oh my word, yes to this.  Why would anyone just assume that everyone else around them wants to hear what they're listening to?  The TMs who do this are the most annoying, particularly if that person and I are working in nearby areas.  Same for having the volume up in the break room.  Ug.


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## IWishIKnew (Nov 8, 2020)

FlowTeamChick said:


> The TMs who do this are the most annoying



Oh, god the ones that do this in breakroom make me homicidal. Shut. Up. Bad enough that we have shitty TV and people who don't turn their walkies off, the last thing I need is competing videos or top-volume phone calls.

SHUT. UP.


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## NKG (Nov 8, 2020)

Let your TL know and keep trying to train them. When your done training them, that will be an issue you won't have to deal with


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## Tarshitsucks (Nov 8, 2020)

IWishIKnew said:


> It seems like most of our guests who aren't shopping with someone are on the phone with someone. Often on speaker.
> 
> Or they're listening to music. Often on speaker.
> 
> When did it become even remotely acceptable to put your calls or music or whatever on speakerphone? You're in a public space, asshole--use headphones.


See this why I use headphones or if playing pogo turn off the music.


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## Bonzo (Nov 9, 2020)

I was simply a TM assigned to train newbies for a couple of years for the 13 years I was there, but I did have to sign off on each trainee after completion of training. I did however train some of the best workers that Rancho Santa Margarita store has ever had!!


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## Used To Be Sane (Nov 9, 2020)

IWishIKnew said:


> It seems like most of our guests who aren't shopping with someone are on the phone with someone. Often on speaker.
> 
> Or they're listening to music. Often on speaker.
> 
> When did it become even remotely acceptable to put your calls or music or whatever on speakerphone? You're in a public space, asshole--use headphones.


Can't even count how many times I've had to say "what?" "Can you repeat that?", "I can't understand what you're saying" as customers blab away on their earbuds as I'm trying to ring out their orders and it appears they are taking to me. 

Just yesterday some idiot came through blabbing away on her earbuds and after I asked THREE TIMES if she had any coupons, discounts, circle, or would she please enter her phone number for circle rewards she just kept talking and I couldn't understand a darn thing she said but I made eye contact and she nodded no so I completed transaction.

15 minutes later she's holding up the whole store to tell me she's supposed to get 25% off of the toy she bought.  I post void the transaction to ring it up all over again as our systems no longer allow immediate corrections.  Spend ANOTHER 10 minutes with her as she pulls up the coupon and then argues for another 2 minutes with me about how we discriminate against Legos.  THEN the register POS freezes and I can't do a DAMN thing so bring her to a new lane where THAT one won't even scan her item so bring to NEXT lane (with all the customers behind her thinking this is some kind of comedy scheme) and FINALLY get the darn thing re-rung up again and checked out and she says "oh sorry, I did know that legos weren't allowed but thought I'd try anyway".

Edit:. At the final " phase" of ringing up the stupid $24 toy she insists on seeing a manager and I said "gladly" at which point she admitted that she was trying to squeeze the Lego item through knowing it was disqualified.

That only took a half hour. 

Fortunately the guests behind her find the whole thing entertaining.  I did not.


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## Captain Orca (Nov 9, 2020)

I told someone once that we were not having a 3 way conversation and I would help her when she put the phone away and acted with some courtesy.  That and chomping away on a wad of gum at the same time.  Disgusting.  Ever sit next to some smelly slob chewing gum on an airplane?    Makes you want to jump out of a window.  Sitting in a movie theater is just as bad.  Haven't been to the movies in well over 30 years.  Awful.


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## ManMythMachine (Nov 11, 2020)

happygoth said:


> I hate both, but the phone calls are more intrusive. Carrying on conversations while on the sales floor is just not professional.
> 
> And while we are on the subject, why so many public phone calls, in general? Who the fuck are these people talking to that they can't talk to before or after their shift, or on break? As for guests, why so many personal phone calls while shopping? I can't believe how many people I hear on the phone having extended conversations in the store. Shopping is my down time, my chill time. Plus, I'm one of those people who really does not like talking on the phone, definitely more of a texter, so I suppose that is coloring my opinions, but jeez, I'm shopping, I'll call you back later.


Yeah, who's all here like, "Well why don't you wait until I'm in the middle of Walmart and call me maybe!"  

I forget stuff if I don't write it down sometimes so I know these people are treating the store like a walk through their home.  GET OUT! Heh.


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