LP crackdown in my facility.

[Escapemax]

 Hi all.
  Back in early Feb LP did a "Survey" on my facility. Gave one of my fellow Ops a hard time. I was there. Then tried to give it to me. My response to his questions just shut him up. And he left. As a result, The "Ops Squad" is nolonger allowed in certain areas of the store. Anyone who works for AAFES knows its our job to "Cover" any Dept that needs it. Now for a Customer to get a laptop, We need to get the Manager or Supervisor to get the computer. Which has taken up to 20 minutes waiting. Waiting for person with the key. Most of the soldiers are on their lunch break, Whatever. Time is essential to some of them. Cashiers need to sign in the bag. 
 I was off yesterday. Come into work today. Now there is a new POS operating system. Now the registers lock on no activity. Cashiers can longer do a "Item Void". Now they need a supervisor or above to remove the item. Fortunately the "Ops" level 2 still allows me to do this. And I dont know what other changes since I didnt run a POS long enough today.
 Before I forget, They hired additional LPs.

 Do I dare ask what else is coming??? Getting to the point that I no longer want my job. But have nothing else to fall back on. So I am stuck.

[tikrjee]

Well, next they'll take away lockers (if they haven't done so already).  This will be accompanied by no longer allowing employees to bring bags or other containers into work (no backpacks, purses, lunch pails, Tupperware, water bottles, anything with the potential to fit another object inside it).  Your breaks will become scheduled, and you'll be forced to take them regardless of what you're doing (even helping a customer).  It will be required that all employees on break report to an area under constant supervision, and will also require full-body/cavity searches upon entering and exiting said area (which explains why they hired on more LP).
And, should you happen to complain about any of this, you'll be written up.  Oh wait, we can't use that term any more.  Apparently, write-up's a "bad" word.  You'll receive "coaching/counseling" that won't matter anyway because 9 out of 10 of supervisors and 97% of managers don't know how to document it properly anyway.  20 "counselings" later, you'll finally get a call from an HR rep in a different region, informing you that you have 10 seconds to vacate the facility before SF and OSI show up to arrest you for trespassing.   This, of course, won't matter because that HR rep is in an earlier time zone, and you'll be in a holding cell, pending your predetermined guilty verdict.  20 years to life for you.

It's been my experience (odd word, since I've been with AAFES for a whopping 10 months) that it's best to just shut up and color.  If you've got nothing to hide, then don't hide anything.  Be blunt and brutally honest when any manager, supervisor, or LP asks you anything.  In the mean time, keep an eye on the classified ads.

[Escapemax]

 I have done nothing to hide. But this is starting to make people paranoid.

 All these new security requirements are for the employees. Never mind the Contractors that clean every night. The contractors that are remodeling the store. Never mind thay could easily walk off with a USB drive in a lunch box as an example.

[Disgruntled]

Funny this should come up...

Today, on the "Our Exchange" forum that is supposed to be all open and stuff, there was a call by General Thurgood to post about the most stupid rules in AAFES. Someone referred him to this site. Hopefully he finds it. I really don't think the guy realizes just how much it sucks to work for his organization these days.

And, yeah, the contractors that are supposed to save us money are stealing us blind. So are the customers. However, LP is too busy trying to score brownie points and get into the Exchange Post by tricking employees into admitting under extreme duress that they stole sh!t they never did and to coerce them into signing promissory notes without proper representation. Hell, some of them use the Q & A forms to demand money from some poor slob who never knew what hit him.

The GM is supposed to post a letter about representation on the bulletin boards. Ours is posted on the board in our break room-at the very top, printed at 1/2 scale. The very top of this board means it is about 7.5 ft up. Our average associate is 5' 2". Good luck with them ever seeing it. The union keeps posting the CBA version of the notice on their area and management keeps taking it down.

General Thurgood, I work with people who are seriously career AAFES-some with like 35+ years. In just the past six months, 25 people have put in for retirement or just quit because they are tired of the crap.

What was the analogy with a ball of clay in a fist? Right! The tighter you squeeze, the more clay escapes from the clenched fist. Your clay is escaping faster than you can replace it, sir.

[Insider1]

I think General Thurgood gets the Readers Digest version of the site provided by some of his faithful underling clones and he is likely largely unmoved by the posts here. I'm just about certain that the faithful clowns he surrounds himself with have assured him it is just the complaints of a few disturbed and disgruntled people and that the team is firmly committed and enthused by all the propaganda being force fed down their throats. Some day he will go back to Pepsi and probably look fondly on running the herd in Dallas.

You see in most real companies...the top toads are held accountable...AAFES is a little different.  They ought to make a new WBT test on that subject. The managers can do the usual and fill it out for the employees.  Then they can even put it on the Loss Prevention Surveys It would be as important to LP as most of the rest of the foolishness on the Survey.

[Disgruntled]

Sad, but true. Isn't his two years about up?

[Insider1]

It was up last summer and he was supposed to back to Pepsi and think big and act small there, but either the clones convinced Pepsi to let AAFES hang on for a while more or maybe Pepsi gave AAFES some free Mountain Dew to keep him for a bit more.

Did you ever wonder if he was the Change Agent who got poor Mike Howard in the spacesuit for the newest and silliest PER changes? I think it happened while he was looking for the Yellow Car!

[skibum]

I am pretty sure he is still looking for the yellow car

[BobJackson]

Loss Prevention = thief covering their own deficencies in the morales department.  They harrass family members, charge them with minimal crimes and then call the MPs who must process when called.  They are trying to generate revenue for AAFES with that $200 "Administrative Cost/Fee" for everyone charged.  Then AAFES hides behind the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2002, which BTW says that they can go after the amount of the loss, up to $200.  Now, what if the item was 10 or 20 dollars?  They only quote the part of the USC that benefits them and most people pay it thinking that they don't have a chance to challenge it.
 
Thoughts?

[SmokeyBear]

"Now there is a new POS operating system. Now the registers lock on no activity. Cashiers can longer do a "Item Void". Now they need a supervisor or above to remove the item. Fortunately the "Ops" level 2 still allows me to do this. And I dont know what other changes since I didnt run a POS long enough today.

The level of access is purely up to who is assigning profiles in your store. Every cashier here can do an item void. Leaders, Supervisors, and Managers all have level 5 access in our store. Customer Service and Cash Cage associates all have level 4 access. I believe all our cashiers have level 3 access. I believe Manager Function 200 prints out a list from any register with who has what access.

That is pretty absurd not to give cashiers access to item voids. Those new scanners do double scans all time because they are so sensitive.

[Escapemax]

Ops is on Level 2. $150 Cap on Refunds. Same level as the Senior Sales Assosciates. PZ, Jewelry, Etc. Cashiers are on Level 1.
 
 We just got the New improved Walmart style boots in. I hate those things.

[Disgruntled]

We are due to get those new corrals and they are, in a word, fugly. I also hear from people where they are that the paint comes off on their clothes. 

Incidentally, cashiers should still be able to do error corrections immediately after a double scan. The item void shouldn't be blocked, but I was told it was to "prevent going back and voiding a big ticket item after ringing it up for a friend".  In other words, the assumption that all associates are thieves and have to be reined in.