My Next Position – Front End Supervisor or Is That Stupid-Visor!

Approximately 6 months after starting at Woolworth, I got a new position.  The position was of a front-end supervisor.  This position was recommended to Bernie (the store manager) by Warren (the assistant manager).  The problem with Bernie and Warren was that they hated each other to the point of never speaking to each other.  This was more of the lack of personality of Bernie and the more outgoing personality of Warren.   This probably why I didn’t last in the position for no more than a year.  It wasn’t me – it was the problem between them.

As a front-end supervisor, my duties included keeping cashier lines moving by opening registers as needed, getting cashiers change as needed, making sure everybody got appropriate breaks, count drawers to make sure that everything was always ok, voiding bad transactions amongst other things.  This fairly exhaustive list was most all of the duties I had while as front-end supervisor, but the position did at times be stressful.  This was mostly because of the incompetent cashiers (read my previous post on that one) and the fact that we were quite busy especially during the week.  This was at a time when people actually shopped at the mall, sadly not so much anymore.

I was finally glad when I left this position and never looked back at it, even though I missed the thought of having power of others.  I guess I couldn’t have it both ways. 

Since I never stayed at HQ long enough, I never got past the cashier position which was absolutely ok with me with this company.

Staples, however was a different story altogether.  Approximately 3 years after I started at the company, the company eliminated the position from all stores.  The position was retitled a few months later as Customer Service Lead, a much less powerful title but virtually all the same duties except with no managerial pay level and no salary.  Sad to say in the nearly 13 years I worked for the company, I was never asked or even considered the position even though I had previous experience in that capacity.  This would not be the only position I was shut out of as I will explain in a future post..  In a way, I am really glad that I was never offered the position as nobody ever seemed to last in the position anyway.  But then again, does anybody last long at any position at Staples?

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