I had a decent day at work, not many others were. We keep getting orders for things we never had in the store. 1 person ordered 5 pillows and we got that order, even though we haven't had any of those since pre Covid. And there were about 60 swimsuits we never got that we are also getting orders for.
And supposedly there are some allowances being made but it seems we keep getting enough orders that even the variance we've been allowed doesnt' help when there are the normal amount of things we can't find. We need to have our completion rate be in the low 90s but we can't get to that with the amount of stuff we never got and with the sales being what they are etc. Plus even though there is a lot being done to make the store look nice it's a lot of surface stuff --like putting clothes back on hangers that customers leave all over or making sure the hangers haven't popped out of one side of a top. Rather than taking the time to make sure that things are in the right place. Because that takes time and people we don't have.
I also found out our staff is about 1/3 of what it was pre pandemic (although we did have some layoffs right before the pandemic)but we are doing more in sales than pre pandemic. And, of course, it's hard to fill positions. The HR manager was saying she had 6 interviews scheduled but only 2 people showed up.
Things are kind of going back to normal- the ice machine has been plugged in but has to make sure it works before we have ice again!
And people are losing their minds over rules that aren't new but are being enforced because everyone got lax. Like no food or drink (except water in a clear spill proof container) anywhere except the breakrooms or your locker. Because people have been eating and drinking in front of customers. Not just snacks, like full meals right in front of customers. So people are upset about that but it makes sense.
Also we are supposed to only have clear bags and those have to be stored in our lockers not in the stock rooms, etc. People have been taking their regular purses and lunchbags and stashing them in stockrooms or having their purses under the counter at the registers and of course a few people have had things go missing. This rule is company wide policy, previously we could have clear bags on the salesfloor but now we can't unless we are off the clock.