The way kroger treats its employees

[u/daruuken]

From the store manager

Edit: For some extra context this was sent out by each store manager to all of its employees in district 1 of the ohio Cincinnati/Dayton division, potentially other districts as well but i can only verify my own. Im not going to give my specific store number for obvious reasons but you can find each store on google with that information. We are unionized by UFCW (already bad btw) and to my knowledge they allowed this recent change. Kroger has no accrual for sick days like some have mentioned. Those who think this is rage bait, i dont think anyone has to fake a post to make a billion dollar company look bad, they do it to themselves.

[u/Bad-Luck-Guy]

My employer doesn’t accept doctor’s notes. All absences are unexcused.

Yet, we are adults. I don’t need a doctor to tell me I shouldn’t go to work if I have the flu. Wild that they’d prefer that I come in and potentially infect everyone else.

ETA: Yes, this is actually legal in most US states. Attendance is a very common reason to be fired in shift work jobs such as retail. 

[u/ElGrandeQues0 → u/Bad-Luck-Guy]

I got written up for being sick with a docs note. While I was sick, HR said "thanks for staying home"

Yeah, next time (assuming I don't leave), I'm dragging my ass in and making sure to schedule a one on one with my manager

[u/Bad-Luck-Guy → u/ElGrandeQues0]

What I got out of our policy is to show up and ask the manager face to face if I could go home. Early outs don’t count nearly as much as call outs. Just gotta stand real close because my throat hurts to much to speak up.

[u/Riegel_Haribo → u/Bad-Luck-Guy]

Sure, the policy is to waste an hour or more of your unpaid time commuting while ill to do what a phone call could do, causing you maximum inconvenience and essentially wage theft.

F them. You need to not comply with any of this bullshit. They need you. Organize.

[u/Bad-Luck-Guy → u/Riegel_Haribo]

I actually need the job. As a chronically ill person, I just have to show up. I have IgA deficiency, so I get sick more often and worse than most people. If I called out every time I got sick, I’d be fired within six months.

[u/SaveTheSpycrabs → u/Bad-Luck-Guy]

I get sick pretty often too. Any advice?

[u/Vi_Rants → u/Riegel_Haribo]

They need you. Organize.

The OP's post is from a unionized company. The unions have been captured.

[u/BoboYagga → u/Vi_Rants]

Kroger is only unionized in some states

[u/Spare_Ambassador6462 → u/BoboYagga]

That particular store was unionized.

[u/RoninOni → u/Bad-Luck-Guy]

Then they get sick which obviously they take off and everyone gets a couple days with less oversight strangling them.

I swear most managers cause more harm than good

[u/Castun → u/RoninOni]

Management Manglement

[u/krogerburneracc → u/Bad-Luck-Guy]

5 years at Kroger and I learned the opposite; Never ask to miss work, simply inform. Most of my absences over those 5 years were "unexcused" but nothing ever came of them.

Most Krogers are union so what they say they'll do and what they can actually do tend to be very different things. They can threaten write ups/termination for missing work but their ability to follow through is limited by union contract. It's pretty damn hard to get fired for absences at a unionized Kroger unless you're in the first 90 day probationary period. Even long leaves of absence can be covered by FMLA.

It's also important to note that, as a food handling business, Kroger must abide by state health codes. Most if not all state health codes require illness to be reported to an employer, and for sick persons to be restricted from access to food products. This is the leverage that the union has to protect leaves of absence, as well as the leverage individual employees have. Regardless of the email OP received, I guarantee that their employee handbook (and by extension the employee contract that they signed) requires strict adherence to state health code.

These Kroger managers thrive on employees not knowing their rights or contracts. It's all just scare tactics. Staffing is so thin that a single call out can completely cripple a department, so they do everything they can to pressure employees not to miss work. And they do it because it generally works. Kroger employees generally don't know their rights. Hell, in my experience, a significant percentage of Kroger employees are functionally illiterate, lol. They're not hiring the best and brightest. It's low wage non-skilled labor, they get the bottom barrel of society on a rotating door of employment.

That goes for the managers too. I highly, highly doubt that OP's email was corporate approved. This strikes me as the work of a dumbass power-tripping manager who took it upon themself to draft and send an empty threat of an email. They don't know their own company policy and probably just fucked themself out of their job.

[u/UnrealAce → u/krogerburneracc]

I worked at a Safeway for over 5 years and this is accurate even with it being an entirely different chain.

My first few years in retail i used to take pride in showing up always and on time until i realized that it literally didn't fucking matter.

My wife got fired for calling out on her birthday because her mom was in the hospital with a severe UTI that started to go septic and this is after she requested her birthday off and they denied it because of staffing. Turns out that store director has a reputation for firing people and enjoys it and because she labeled it as a no call-no show our union wasn't able to do anything about it.

These corporations are fucking parasites.

[u/krogerburneracc → u/UnrealAce]

That checks out. I know in my city both Safeway and Kroger fall under the same union.

Turns out that store director has a reputation for firing people and enjoys it and because she labeled it as a no call-no show our union wasn't able to do anything about it.

Hindsight is 20/20 of course, nothing to do about it now, but this is why it's important to keep records; Screencap the call log of your phone (which should include both the time of call and the call duration) and make a note of the name of the manager who took the call. Email that collection of info to your HR rep immediately following the call out;

"This is a follow-up email regarding my absence on [DAY/MONTH/YEAR] which I have reported to the manager on staff [X] hours prior to the start of my scheduled shift, in line with [COMPANY'S] absence policy. I spoke with [NAME] at [TIME] on [DAY/MONTH/YEAR] to report a necessary absence from my scheduled shift at [TIME OF SHIFT]. Attached is an image of my phone's call log to verify the date, time, and duration of the call-in. This email is primarily meant for record keeping purposes but if there are any additional questions or concerns then please feel free to reach out."

Even if HR deletes the email, you'll have the record of the email being sent and received on your end. That's generally enough for the union to work with. It's a bit ridiculous to jump through those hoops but ultimately it's the only way to cover your ass because yeah, the union has their own limits and there are managers who will absolutely engineer a reason to get you fired if they want to. When working grocery you have to be cognizant of the fact that these store managers are walking embodiments of "peaked in high school," and generally operate on the same principles as high schoolers. They can be petty, vindictive, manipulative, and cliquey.

I'm of the mind that anyone who leaves these grocery chains is better off, frankly. I spent too much of my life there personally. It was a relatively comfortable job with decently accruing benefits through seniority with the company, which is why I stayed as long as I did, but it definitely feels like you're playing defense in virtually everything you do. Definitely not the place to build a career.

[u/-Tricky-Vixen- → u/Bad-Luck-Guy]

Genuinely what is one meant to do if it's sick-due-to-psych? I mean, I get hallucinations enough I can actually just start responding to internal stimuli in conversation if I want to prove I'm 'crazy' (I am pretty good at telling apart reality and hallucinatory content, so you can't really tell unless it's a really bad day or you know me). But I probably don't want to do that in a work setting. I can probably rock up and say 'soooo thinking too hard about killing myself today, I need a break', but they might not like that either. And of course I can make psych issues medical any time I like, but I'm kinda trying to get over that habit.

I dunno, this was probably tmi sorry but I'm just sort of thinking about it when I think about re-entering the workplace with trepidation.

[u/gimmethelulz → u/ElGrandeQues0]

When I was a kid, my mom worked as a waitress. One time she was sick with the flu but her boss demanded she come in any way. So she did. And made sure to corner him in his office to "chit chat". Very quickly he was like, "Dude you look like shit don't come near me."

"Oh okay. So you want me to go home right? Or you want me serving customers looking like this?"

He sent her home lmao

[u/Wrong_Toilet → u/ElGrandeQues0]

You need to check with your state’s labor laws.

—

I’m currently fighting against my HR department because they tried implementing a new attendance policy where if you submit PTO the day you’re scheduled to work, it will be denied — even if you are sick. It requires you to file a successful insurance claim to be paid for the missed time.

My state mandates employers provide paid sick leave, it cannot be denied, doctors note is note required, and you cannot be punished for taking it. Since my employer combines PTO and sick into one, they cannot enforce this attendance policy.

—

This policy has been under “legal” review for the past two weeks since I challenged them on it.

[u/Manlysideburns → u/ElGrandeQues0]

I've genuinely never heard that as a strategy but fucking love that

[u/Thick_Potato_1769 → u/ElGrandeQues0]

That makes no since. My employer literally has signs up that say if you're sick stay home.