Family Dollar complaint: Hostile WorkStore Environment

Manager Pam Shockley was off work for 3 weeks recently because she was ill from Covid-19. She has continued to suffer from side effects from Covid and a new eye infectionillness. Pam is a very good manager in that the store is run efficiently, and she is very friendly, kind, and helpful. However, she does not handle employee issues very well. While she was ill, two employees, Barbara Fulford and Beth Adkins, have attempted to run the store according to the way THEY want to run the store, and it has created a lot of hostility among other employees and customers. Barbara Fulford is an assistant manager, and Beth Adkins is a cashier. Ms. Fulford only has an 8th grade education, with NO GED, and she can never balance her register at the end of her shift. Other assistant managers, Stephanie Emberton and Kim Gosnell, have been instructed to ensure that the register till balances. That means that they are to either put money in the drawer to cover any missing money or remove excess money. She also leaves her shift early or calls out if she doesn’t like the hours. She tells whomever makes the schedule whether she will agree to work the hours, and she belittles the other employees to customers. She refuses to help unload delivery trucks, forcing the other 2 assistant managers to unload every truck.

As stated, Ms. Adkins is a cashier. She has created problems from the first day she was hired. She attempts to bully and intimidate the other employees- sometimes in front of customers, and she criticizes how the assistant managers perform their jobs – especially at the end of a shift when the assistant manager is finishing their reports. She constantly berates them and tells them that they are doing their jobs incorrectly. She is very aggressive verbally and in her body language posturing and has created a hostile work and store environment. She keeps telling the assistant managers that one of them is getting fired and she is going to be the next assistant manager . Customers complain about how rude and hateful she is, also. As soon as she arrives for duty at the store, she informs the assistant manager on duty of what she is going to do and not do and advises them that the manager, Pam, has approved it. However, the assistant managers are given daily instructions by the manager of what is needed or required to be done, which does not align with what Ms. Adkins states, and the manager denies telling Ms. Adkins any different. Ms. Adkins has also told the employees that she is a convicted felon, having served 5 years in prison. This is used to intimidate or coerce them.

Another issue that is a large SAFETY issue is that some employees call out about 1 hour prior to their shift or as soon as they get there. This is an extremely dangerous safety issue if it occurs at night. That leaves the assistant manager with the responsibility of having to have to either come in to work andor close the store alone if they are already on the schedule. That has happened NUMEROUS times and is unacceptable. The store is in a crime-ridden neighborhood, and I believe the Family Dollar company policy requires that a minimum of TWO employees are required to be there at closing. My sister is a former employee of Family Dollar, and she stared that that is company policy. The employees are instructed to try to find an employee to come in to cover the shift. I believe that is a manager’s responsibility, and, if no other employees are available, the manager should report to work to cover the shift. I understand that this manager has been very ill and still has lingering issues, but the districtdivision manager, Keyarea, has not provided extra help that has been needed to cover management’s responsibilities.

The store building itself is in varying degrees of disrepair. It needs immediate attention before an employee, customer or vendor is injured by the building issues.