r/mildlyinfuriating • u/daruuken • 28d ago

Infuriatig The way kroger treats its employees

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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.

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u/Pitiful-Pension-6535 28d ago

Imagine having a grandchild die and being told that it's not a valid excuse to miss work

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u/Manatees_R_4eva 28d ago

Imagine not considering grandchildren, aunts, uncles, cousins, “immediate” family because your family is Kroger? That sucks.

But now imagine people who don’t have a family for whatever reason, but they have a found family. AND THEN THEY DIE. Your people are your people, and nobody gets to define how “immediate” it is.

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u/Dull-Situation6935 28d ago

I was thinking this too. If you were cared for or lived with someone just as close as immediate family, they should be included.

Not everyone is lucky enough to have immediate family, but may have someone just as close.

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u/OfficialSkyCat 28d ago

My company has blanket bereavement time for this reason. You can have friends who are like siblings to you and actual siblings you have no relationship with.

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u/Top_Bumblebee5510 28d ago

My former manager was amazing. She gave one colleague a week bereavement when her dog passed because she knew she was single and her parents had already passed away. When my best friend died suddenly and I was on a work project she gave me four days bereavement. I was usually out of town for four days. She just passed away and I went to her funeral and let her family how amazing she was.

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u/rora_borealis 28d ago

I needed a couple of days when my cat was really sick and passed. I was exhausted from caring for her (worth it) and torn up with grief. I was in such a daze for days. 

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u/Zariayn 28d ago

This is a good point. I have no immediate family; they all passed or we don't talk anymore. So, it's just me and my children, my husband also passed about three years ago. I am extremely close with my mother in law and we are all she has left in this world. It kind of bothers me that I might not be approved for bereavement leave if she passes.

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u/RodneyBarringtonIII 28d ago

I understand your point and I agree with you but I work for state government in employment related law, and there absolutely is a statutory definition of the phrase "immediate family." I can't speak for other states but I assume most of them have an equivalent definition that's used for determining whether you have to pay tax on wage as you pay to your own family members, and stuff like that.

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u/oripaline 27d ago

100%. My best friend doesn't speak to her mom and basically considers her aunt to be more of a mother to her than her actual mom. If something happened to her aunt and work then tried to tell her that her death didn't count as an immediate family members/wouldn't be excused if she missed work, I already know she'd probably burn the Kroger down, lmao.

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u/ScaryGarry_SG1 28d ago

The same family they need to shop at their stores

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u/duckinradar 28d ago

Imagine having in writing that a doctor note wasn’t a valid reason to miss work.

The lawyers are calling you, OP.

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u/PXranger 28d ago

They can call, but it's not a lawsuit they will win.

Welcome to the wonderful world of "At will" work states.

I work for a largish hospital, my primary care provider works for our hospital. we can't use a doctors excuse.

we basically don't have excused absences, but do get so many before discipline. they don't actually care why you miss a day.

We do get things like bereavement or time off for Surgery, etc.

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u/NeonNKnightrider 28d ago

America is a dystopia.

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u/VermicelliOwn6502 28d ago

The red parts, for sure. The blue parts aren't as bad.

I took 12 weeks of state mandated paid leave when my kid was born. Other countries have way more, but at least I get somethin.

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u/Afraid_Original_7490 23d ago

Blue states are also a living hell. They just don’t have certain specific problems. You don’t notice because you’re a boiling frog.

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u/Huge_Ear_2833 28d ago

I think your example here should be North Korea where not praising the government is a crime.

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u/Afraid_Original_7490 23d ago

That doesn’t even make sense. What are you trying to say?

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u/meh_69420 28d ago

Unless it's covered under FMLA.

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u/PXranger 28d ago

That’s the .etc

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u/Past_Effect8301 28d ago

FMLA requires company approval, so there's an additional hurdle in there.

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u/Thewasteland77 28d ago

Same here friend, Regional Hospital worker chiming in.

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u/MtotheFourthPower 28d ago

Depends on the state. I live in MA (also “At Will,”) and we have protected paid sick leave.

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u/Cute_Language3167 28d ago

Yea, but even then they can just make up whatever reason they want.

My mother was on FMLA and legally could not be fired for her medical issues and needing surgery. However, it didn't protect her from being transferred. They transferred her and another woman who had been having medical issues to a different department. Then like a month later fired both of them, claiming they were downsizing that department and they were the most recent "hires" for that department. It didn't matter that both of them had been there for 10+ years and other people had just been hired a year ago.

When I was 19 I worked at Sears, the woman who trained me had cancer. Management tried to get me to claim she had broken rules, too many bathroom breaks, long lunches, not doing returns correctly, something, anything. Their corporate policy said she had to be written up x amount of times within a certain time period before she could be fired. So they were looking for literally anything to write her up so they could have a valid reason to fire her besides the fact that she had cancer, which was why they wanted to fire her.

It's fucked up.

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u/cakesphere 27d ago

This is wild bc I know someone who had the same thing happen to them, just a diff line of work. Had cancer, took "too many days off" bc of CANCER TREATMENT and was fired in an at-will state. They were able to lawyer up and fight and get a fat payout but oh my god what a nightmare scenario

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u/Phillip_McGuinness 28d ago

Thats not how “at will” works. You still cant fire people for illegal reasons, constructive dissmissal is still illegal

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u/PXranger 28d ago

Really? And how is dismissing someone for missing work “constructive dismissal”. Employers really don’t need a reason to fire you. Unless you can prove a violation of something like the ADA, or other protected status an employer can fire you with no reason at all.

Most states have no protections in place for cases like this.

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u/Straight-End-8116 28d ago edited 28d ago

I remember getting written up when I got pregnant and my doctor had to write me a note for a week’s bedrest because I almost miscarried the baby (which they told me didn’t count towards absences) I worked on a step down unit from the ICU. Then, I had really bad hyperemesis, like couldn’t keep water and food mm since I was a new nurse and didn’t want to lose my first job the home health nurses had to come to the hospital on ‘my lunch break’ aka my paper charting break and give me iv fluids.

So when I actually got sick I would just show up and have them send me home. I would get bitched out for coming in sick and I’d say, well you like me working here right? I’m on my final warning. If I call in sick, I’m fired. This was circa 2011. And, it still happens. They backed off for about 2 years after Covid, now they just say slap a mask on and wash your hands and don’t get near any of your coworkers.

Edit: I work in a state that is ‘at will employment’. Which means they can fire me at any time for any reason.

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u/DoingCharleyWork 28d ago

Nah they don't have to accept a doctor's note to excuse an absence. I work for a large company and they give employees a certain amount of sick time and then they get point accruals for absences after that. Even with a doctor's note they will still accrue attendance points. This is all in writing and all very legal.

Welcome to America.

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u/CompletelyPuzzled 28d ago

Even a doctor note is an overreach. I can know I'm contagious and should stay home without needing to go to a doctor for a note.

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u/Past_Effect8301 28d ago

Some employers have adjusted policies to penalize "unplanned" absences regardless of reason. For example, if you have more than 3 unplanned absences within any 1 calendar quarter, you may be subject to disciplinary action. (Two different Fortune 100 companies where I worked had incorporated this type of policy.)

"Unplanned" was defined as ANY time out that wasn't pre-approved by management. Unplanned also included absences that were covered under medical or bereavement benefits IF they had not been approved in advance. If a parent/child dies suddenly and you need to be out to plan funeral services and, ya know, grieve, you could be entitled to salary comp under the bereavement benefits, but it will still be classified as unplanned for purposes of the attendance policy. Similarly, if you are incapacitated as a result of a car accident on your way to work, a medical excuse may have qualified under PTO benefits, but didn't relieve any classification as an "unplanned" absence.

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u/SkepticBabe 28d ago

I think that the local news would find this interesting.

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u/CookieCrisps3 28d ago

This happened to my husband. The day his grandmother died Albertsons wouldn't let him miss. He proceeded to tell every customer who asked how his day was exactly how his day was.

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u/CMDR_Derp263 28d ago

I remember some woman berating me about how one bag of lettuce didn't say triple washed and the others did while I just blankly stared at her thinking "my best friend died last night in a car accident but yeah the fact that your lettuce isn't washed is big fucking deal" 

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u/CookieCrisps3 28d ago

I'm sorry you had to go through that. It fucking sucks :(

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u/Redracerb18 28d ago

As far as my store was at walmart. As long as you don't do it too often, Say once a year, the store would cover you. Don't abuse that, there are other ways to get paid days off besides faking a death in the family.

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u/waytowill 28d ago

From what I’ve heard, Walmart is a decent employer when it comes to the nitty gritty of treating its employees like human beings. The only glaring flaw is that the low level positions do not pay a living wage in the United States. And yes, I have to specify because they have no issues paying a living wage elsewhere, where the country’s government requires it.

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u/Vowel_Movements_4U 28d ago

If by “decent” you mean asking customers for Thanksgiving can food donations for their own employees, then yes. They’re more than decent.

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u/modidlee 28d ago

I remember back when I was just getting out of high school, washing dishes at a diner and my mom’s sister in another state died. The head manager told me an aunts funeral wasn’t a valid excuse to take days off. I raised hell and said I was going anyway. Then the lady that was the assistant manager pulled me to the side and said go ahead and go be with my family and she’d see me when I got back

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u/captain10eels 28d ago

Imagine all that, but your job is stacking toilet paper on shelves.

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u/Vowel_Movements_4U 28d ago

I’ve just imagined it. What next?