Question for Any One over Assistant Manager Postions

Do you have a manager that is assigned to your store or do you report directly to the district manager? It seems like there is a staffing problem (you don't have enough help to get to the stock unpacked and to the sales floor) OR there is an inventory problem (you are getting more product than your store can sell) Do you have the authority to bring in extra help to help get the inventory unpacked? Can you transfer any inventory to another store?
You asked for help in dealing with your district manager. Deal with him on a very professional basis-tell him you need to have additional help to get the trucks unloaded based on the numbers. Have you talked to any of the other store mgrs/asst mgrs in your chain? How are they handling the inventory and what kind of feedback are they getting from the DM? This may help you deal with him better. As a DM, he is walking your store and seeing fire hazard in the back, while you are more concerned with the clutter issue in the front --both are big problems and potential liabilities. Good Luck!

This is considered the "Holiday Season" in most stores. Usually they are trying to slowly add the staff (seasonal) they will need during the actual Holidays. As they add these people, this is where you should start having a few workers to help unload and start stocking the floor.

You beef up on people in the stocking areas now.. the (seasonal) sales staff and service staff starts being hired towards the end of this month so they can be trained in time for the Holidays to work the floor.

You need more staff right now. It will be temporary for a few months..
Ask how can you either, be allowed to authorize overtime for your people. Or hire extra people to help catch up and get through the holiday season.

Your dm needs to either send in some help or figure out how to get it to you so you all can catch up.

To tell you the truth. I was an actual Buyer, DM and a Store manager at different times in my career. Almost EVERY year, I switched out of my heels and hose and put on jeans to help unload, check in merchandise and lay it out on the floor myself.. also with my other staff, secretaries, Book keepers, ect.. . We just made it a priority. Because if it is not on the floor, it cannot sell. Retail is too dependent on what happens on the floor, we work as a company wide team to make it happen.

The people on Salary just knew that at any time they may be asked to go out there and get the work done. They were given comp time later.

Sounds like a scheduling issue to me in order to make it all work. Holiday overstock is always a challenge. You are being challenged to come up with a way to make it all work in the best way you can, and with most companies SAFETY comes first. Making space for the "anticipated" overstock should be priority one. Scheduling your BEST workers for the task by KNOWING who those workers are is the best way to try to execute. Have a brainstorming sesion with your stockers and someone will have a great idea. Bosses WILL try to intimidate in order to get things done, many of them manage in that fashion. Dont take it real seriously or personally. The best thing to do is NEVER give excuses but always say "I'll make it work" and then gitterdone. Even your DM has to answer to someone. I find the best thing to do is always give your immediate supervisor the tools he/she needs to answer to his/her boss, that's really all they want. "Hey John/Joan, how much OT can we get away with this month? If I can add a couple of extra crew members to this weeks schedule we can clear a spot in the warehouse and get this accomplished..." Always THROW THE BALL INTO THEIR COURT.

My husband is in this situation often. Try to see the place through the eyes of the 1st customer walking in the door in the morning. What are they going to see? When the manager walks in the door 1st thing in the morning, he has a certain checklist of things he's looking for. Make sure that is what he sees. Work smart and work clean for 7 hours of your shift. By work smart, I mean put out the biggest items 1st. If you have bins of dog food or toilet paper they're going to go out much faster than bins of jewelry or canned goods. Divide and conquer. Assign someone 3 aisles and you take 3 aisles, now you both have a clear goal to meet. By work clean, I mean break down your boxes as you go, put one box at the end of the aisle to stack the boxes in. Then around the 7th hour, stop what you're doing. Begin cleanup and recovery. Your mgr is going to understand that you didn't finish all the stocking in one night. They are not going to understand why you left the store dirty.

you said you told your boss, but you didn't say what he said. sounds like he needs to step up and provide a solution, or work with you to find one, OR zip it. and a good boss would help fix the problem. i'm sorry if that's not the case. but in the end, all you can do is all you can do. if you're stressed because you feel like you're not doing your job, relax..you're doing all you can do. that HAS to be enough for you. if you're worried about your job, talk to your boss and tell him that. ask him if he can spare some time to pow-wow about this subject, as you feel like there has to be a better solution that you're just not seeing. good luck....it sounds like a no-win situation, in which case, your best is all you can give.