A Last Resort Type of Job - Cashier Harris Teeter Employee Review

-Pay not competitive -Overworked -They do not hire baggers separate from cashiers. You can be scheduled as either. -They expect you to scan items very fast and bag your own orders (no matter how big) fast but also provide great customer service. They will let you know often if you are not doing all of this quickly enough for their liking. -Threats from the assistant manager that if I didn't raise my items per minute (the amount of items you scan per minute; counts any amount of time time you do not have your register locked as time you're not taking to scan items) she was going to start switching me off my register with anyone who came in after me scheduled as a bagger and who was faster. -They have "on call" days (usually 2 a week) where you call at a designated time to see if they need you to come in (though they may just end up calling you whenever they feel like it that day and make you come in). You're expected to get ready very quickly (or be ready already perhaps) and arrive soon after your on call time if needed. These are basically scheduled days in which you may or may not have to work/get paid as you cannot really make plans and still need to call out if you're sick or can't make it in at your designated on call time. At my location, they never tell you how long they are scheduling you for if you are called in. You will need to ask. I worked many on call days where I didn't know how long I was there for until it was almost time for me to leave. I was once called in for only 1 hour and 45 minutes... So don't go thinking they will make it worth your while to come in either. They may also substitute these days as days off. -Very bad communication between management and employees. You will always be asking co-workers questions (managers often unavailable to ask) and be unsure of how to complete any new tasks. Your co-workers will often not be sure themselves. You will also often be totally unaware of some new tasks. I've had many new-ish people scheduled as baggers ask me what they were supposed to be doing if there were no orders to bag... Baggers have many duties but you will probably only learn about a couple of them from a superior. -Lack of baggers on the front end. Cashiers usually have to bag their own orders. -No conveyor belt at registers. Cashiers often complain of back pain as they need to reach and bend over into the customer's cart and get to anything underneath it - all at a quick pace. Another cause of back pain is the flip-over cashier bagging station (which you will use often) that causes much bending over. -Everything pits cashiers against other cashiers in competition. From Items Per Minute (which is posted for everyone to see and the top 3 are posted with separate honors) to amount of organic item PLUs punched in, to amount of dollars collected for charity. They act like it's meant to be fun but then why am I being threatened with constant bagging duty if I'm not super fast and then whatever mysterious consequence there is for not collecting enough charity money? Was once threatened with being written up if I forgot to ask customers if they wanted to donate to a charity as the customer was able to get a free HT brand 2-liter cola if the cashier forgot during that period. It was insinuated that being fired could be a possibility after a certain point under that. -You don't count your own till and have to take their word for it if they say you were short/over. You also share the same till with other people throughout the day (they only count tills after the day is over) and if they are short/over by a significant amount, everyone who was on that till that day are all blamed for it.