'Figure it out': Merchandizer gets back at their manager and a tyrannical back room manager

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    Posted by u/Expensive GeoMetro 6 hours ago Stack the pallets 4 high M OC r/r/MaliciousCompliance I used to work as a merchandiser for a national soda company about 10 years ago. One of the biggest problems we had would occur every holiday when stores had serious sales on soda like getting four 12- packs for 10 bucks. The problem is that there simply isn't enough room in the backroom to store enough product on a really busy holiday like the 4th of July. Our sales reps
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    would order way more stuff than we ever had room for, and then it was up to me on how to Tetris it all into the space for us in the back. The way it SHOULD be done is to send multiple orders on days like that as space becomes available, but of course that means sending drivers to stores multiple times which costs time and gas. I had one store that had a really strict backroom manager with a no exceptions policy of pallets never being stacked more than 3 high.
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    On this particular 4th of July we literally had twice as much product than what would fit. So I call my boss and tell him he needs to send a driver to buyback some of the excess load. He tells me to stack the pallets as high as the forklift will allow me to solve the problem. I remind him at this location I'm only allowed to stack 3 high. He tells me to "figure it out."
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    Cue MC. I KNOW that the backroom manager will get lava level mad when he sees this, but it's the boss' orders, so I am up to 5 high when the manager sees it and goes banshee on me. and tell him it's my boss' orders. I finish stacking, with one tower now being FIVE high, then start walking out as my shift is now done. I The backroom manager tells me if I leave it like that we can kiss our account with the store goodbye. I and leave.
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    I get a call from my boss 30 minutes later that there is a driver on the way to do buyback and I need to go back to that store asap. I tell him my shift is done for the day and I have already returned the company truck and am on my way home to see some fireworks (its 8pm at this point). He tells me to turn around and go get it sorted. I tell him the only way I am going back is if I get double time for the ENTIRE day (about 14 hours at that point) plus a 10% raise. He yells at me that it's never
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    I also tell him that if he changes his mind he can send an email to me agreeing in writing to my terms. I had other side gigs at the time and wasn't concerned at all about this job. I got an email 30 minutes later from my boss's boss agreeing to those terms. It is immediately followed by a phone call from him apologizing that I am needed and I need to go back to the store asap.
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    My boss's boss ALSO sent my boss who was already at home to help sort the mess out. Hearing him apologize to the backroom manager was gold TLDR: my boss orderes me to do something that made the store mad, almost cost them their contract with the store, and resulted in me getting doubletime for a day plus a permanent 10% raise. Oh, and boss also had to come sort the mess.
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    Horrifior · 6 hr. ago Leverage. You had it first on the forklift, then with your boss, and with his boss. Used them all to maximum benefit. Well done! Vote Reply Share
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    thurmin 6 hr. ago This was a delightful read Vote Reply Share Graflex01867 · 6 hr. ago Just out of curiosity, what's the safe stacking limit for the pallets? Was 5 high dangerous, or just really annoying to the back room manager? Vote Reply Share
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    Lylac Krazy 4 hr. ago I did a similar thing back when I worked for another business. It worked, but I was let go within a month. Like you, it didnt bother me. I setup shop right across the street from my old employer and undercut his billing by 30%. It took 3 years, but I ran him out of the building he was in. and he owned the building....I still feel good about it Vote Reply Share
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    balles_de_acier 4 hr. ago. A long time ago, I was an order picker for a grocery warehouse. We would pick and stack our orders with the products in a certain order, as specified by the pick list. They were arranged so that the night stockers at the store could just push the pallet down the aisle and load the stock on the shelves.
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    One day I got a pick list that made no sense. It had 1 layer of potato chips on the base, then layer after layer of pop cans, and then pop bottles on the top. I went to the boss and told him that this was a bad idea, that I should pick the pop and put the chips on top. Nope. So I did what I was told.
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    You can imagine how well that worked out. On delivery, the pallet had collapsed, and dumped the pallet and the pop all over the place. Some of the bottles broke, and soaked the boxes containing the cans. The delivery guys declined the shipment, and my boss got reamed. He didn't try to blame me because I had a couple of people next to me when I told him about the pick list. Vote Reply Share
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    Geminii27 5 hr. ago I'm surprised you managed to make that raise stick. I'd have thought they would scramble to find a replacement pallet-stacker and then toss you to the curb. Vote Reply Share ExpensiveGeoMetro OP · 4 hr. ago I saw the 7 up guy get a DUI at work INSIDE his work truck after hitting a FIRE TRUCK and NOT get fired. Those types or jobs are super physical and not many folks stick around, so u can basically get away with murder as long as you show up on time each day. Reply Share Vot
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    Zumbo Prime 3 hr. ago "Boss we can't do this" "IDGAF, figure it out" "OK" "wait no not like that" Vote Reply Share
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    zephen_just_zephen 3 hr. ago . I worked in tech. Nothing as potentially exciting as one side of the bottom pallet of sodas collapsing and the entire stack falling over onto a store employee. Nevertheless, even there I had a hard and fast rule: you can give me a goal, or you can tell me specifically how to do something. But if you give me a goal, and you don't like how I accomplished it, that's on you. Reply Share Vote
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    litsalmon - 5 hr. ago This is great. Almost all of my coworkers will roll over with stuff like this. I'm constantly telling them to get something in return for doing stuff like this. They get bamboozled with the "it's just this one time" or it's a "favor" from manglement, which, it NEVER is just one time. Reply Share Vote
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    Life-Significance-33 · 3 hr. ago Management caused this problem, Management can fix it themselves. In the main post, the owner should have fired the manager who ordered that stack as if it had collapsed, the owner would be getting sued out of business. I am not a warehouse manager, but I would bet they have to know what best practices are and what is allowed by OSHA. Vote Reply Share
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    Shadow Dragon8685. 2 hr. ago It sounds like the Manager did get made to fix it himself - physically, and personally, alongside the driver he... around and found out about. Vote Reply Share ●●● Life-Significance-33 2 hr. ago In this situation, yes. My point was more to general Vote management everywhere, taking advantage of workers to fix what they broke. Reply Share
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    RudeOrSarcasticPt2 5 hr. ago This was good to read. I was in the freight/shipping biz for decades, and pallet stacks were always a PITA. Backend managers are such prima donnas, and most are there because the store mgr doesn't want them interacting with the customers on the floor. Retail is such a stinkbomb. Vote Reply Share ●●●
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    Peter Horvath PhD. 4 hr. ago I kinda thought that the forklift man is the employee of the store. Now if I understand correctly you are the employee of the beverage company and yet do forklifting on the premises of third party? Why don't they do it on their own? Reply Share Vote
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    ExpensiveGeoMetro OP 4 hr. ago . You would be surprised how much product in a store is completely managed by an outside vendor instead of store employees. My sense is that part of the contract signed between the soda company and store is that the soda company is responsible for basically everything for the product including delivery, stocking, building displays, replenishing, etc. If you walk in the back of any big store you will see areas where vendors keep their stuff and use the forklift to k
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    O foxfai 6 hr. ago That's a good power move. How long did you still work with the store afterwards? Reply Share Vote ExpensiveGeoMetro OP · 4 hr. ago I was there another 1.5 years. I had a great relationship with the backroom manager after that. I ended up getting reassigned to be supervised by a sales rep instead of my boss for what was obviously my boss not liking my stunt. I had way more freedom and autonomy with that change though, so I wasn't mad especially with the raise. Vote Reply Share
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    MoparHoney · 3 hr. ago Sorry Boss, i started drinking. You waited too long Vote Reply Share Shadow Dragon8685 2 hr. ago Double-overtime for the entire day's work and a permanent 10% pay rise? Yeah, no, even if I was a boozeaholic, I'd be holding off for at least the rest of the day on the off-chance someone would bend and give in to that in writing. Vote Reply Share
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    zorggalacticus 1 hr. ago I can't imagine stacking soda 5 pallets high. I work in a warehouse and we stack almost nothing more than 3 pallets high. Pretty much all liquids are only one high in a rack. Two high while shipping. Reply Share Vote
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    Drink Duff 16 min. ago I did that same job back in the early 2000's i feel your pain being caught between the company and an angry store. I always defaulted that I was an employee of the company, not the store. If they were angry, then I'm done with that store for the day. Even if my work wasn't finished. I'm not going to take abuse for that isn't my fault, even if I was only 18 at the time. Good for you for having the guts to ask for a raise in writing. I usually just ignored their phone calls

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