I live in the South, where we are experiencing winter weather that we don’t regularly have. Roads are iced over because my state doesn’t have the resources to combat it. Many employees can’t get to work, and many don’t have electricity. We were told today that we didn’t have to come to work but we had to use vacation hours if we didn’t come. Is this happening to everyone?! Seems like we are being punished for something that is completely out of our control.
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CLEARLY the ones bashing the retail employees for getting paid for 40 and only working 20 doesn’t understand what we had to go through!! We are at the front of the line.. exposed and exposing our families meanwhile you sit at the comforts of your home!! We ALSO had to deal with people getting more ignorant than they ever had before last year over the way we started to do business and them having to wear a mask and on top of that getting a huge pay cut while still expected to produce the same in a world that is geared to be online... yet customers can come in to do “device setup” in a touch less environment!! Go figure so no whoever wrote this is NOT WHINING! The south is not capable of handling weather like that just like the north wouldn’t know what the h-l to do if a hurricane 5 came through so please sit down someplace!
Boohoo, try working from home and have a power outage or internet outage, something completely beyond your control and being forced to use your PTO to cover the time. It is what it is. Be grateful you don't have to burn through UIA which can ultimately get you into attendence issues that lead to possible termination. Those of us that worked our full schedules plus OT last spring remember how many weeks retail employees got paid to do absolutely nothing due to store closures because of covid. All you retail employees do nothing but gripe and complain on here, yet not once were you ever grateful to be paid your full pay during that time. Then when Verizon decided to make WFH an option for you, you whined and complained about having to do customer service, which you didn't even do, you were nothing but operators transferring calls that you could have handled. If you hate the company so much don't let the door hit you in the a$$ on your way out.
It seems to me that the OP is more concerned about using their time than the weather. They don't say where in the south they are and they didn't appear to lose power. If they had, they would have been more concerned about conserving their battery for real emergencies rather than posting on a layoff board trying to milk more time from Verizon. Using their time would be the last of their concern. If the OP was really that concerned about the weather than using a couple of vacation days should not be a problem especially if the OP was already given ample paid time off due to Covid.
@5wba+19tKLLD6 What you are saying has a lot of truth, but I think this post is a little different. The damage caused by the winter weather in the southern states is heart breaking. Children froze to death in their homes for goodness sake. I can understand why an employee would ask the question the OP is asking.
If I didn’t have electricity, water, and/or was dealing with busted pipes, a flooded house, etc I would consider it tone deaf to be intimidated in to opening a store I couldn’t safely drive to as well. Especially if the person asking me to do it wasn’t doing it themselves.
Where you are speaking the truth is the whole frontline has gotten jaded. It’s like there’s a clear division between the ones that worked from home and the ones that didn’t. Many have just stopped selling, abused covid policy, etc. That part frustrates me also. I just don’t think that frustration with laziness should eclipse the issue the OP is having. I think the two issues are different.
Getting rid of corporate stores has been a work in progress for years. The pandemic didn’t cause stores to close, it only accelerated the process and now it’s in high gear.
Stop acting like Verizon paid us. The government gave Verizon millions in tax breaks to not lay anyone off.
I'm a peon just like you and will gladly call out verizon when deserved but I also will call out entitled millennials (I am also a millennial) that have had the luxury of getting paid for full time work for several months that either worked part time or not at all during that time yet still want more and then wonder why verizon is getting rid of stores or making reps part time. You are part of the problem.
@4qcg+19tKLLD6 you must be one of the ones that never come to a store. Never enough for you people.
We are led to believe that V is the only option and that if we don’t lay down and take the mess we are “biting the hand that feeds us”. This is just untrue. I don’t see anything wrong with employees standing up for themselves. The industry is always evolving, but V needs its employees just as much or more than the employees need V.
Considering most of you got paid 40 hrs for working 20 or were getting paid 40 for not working at all for months you shouldn't bite that hand that feeds. Maybe then verizon wouldn't be getting rid of corporate stores. Never enough for you people is it.
Lol they don’t CARE!! Just a number on a spreadsheet you are...
I’m also seeing this situation. Seems kind of like if they can influence/intimidate employees in to coming to the store, then it’s not considered a closure, so at that point they can take vacation time from employees that don’t come. Our store has such a small staff that it wasn’t a surprise that most employees couldn’t make it because we have so few to begin with. It’s frustrating, but you have to do what’s best for you. The south will have to accept responsibility for lack of preparedness, and make changes accordingly. There’s no excuse for people freezing in their homes without clean water and electricity. My state’s response to the winter storm was way sub par, which isn’t Verizon’s fault, but, a little more empathy wouldn’t hurt the situation.
@1jdv+19tKLLD6 except in this instance the store isn't closed
This is incorrect and we need to fight it. I was told the same thing by my DM. We pushed it to HR and it was overturned. If you don't have power or water per verizon policy you aren't required to come to work. The reason they f—ed up this time is some of us remember Harvey when you refunded my vacation time due to store closers. You can't make me work at a different location due to covid and you can't make me use my time for your store being closed.
Maybe employees would be more likely to try to come to work if they saw DMs and higher showing up to run the stores when the staff can’t make it. It’s super easy to tell others to do unsafe things while working from your home 90% of the time. No one wants to wreck their cars due to inexperience driving on iced and unmanaged roads, to maybe get to work and have abusive customers breathing covid on everything, and then get a bad survey that docks the entire team’s pay hundreds of dollars, with no one to actually help because support staff is virtually gone.
If the goal is to open the stores impacted by the weather, it should be all hands on deck, not SMs and reps have to come and everyone else stays at the house. I imagine there’s going to be lots of retail employees taking vaca until the ice melts on its own.
Back in the good old days we’d call the inclement weather hotline and get the message “Roads are snow covered but passable, all employees are expected to report to work. Drive carefully “
I don’t miss the three hour drive home those days.
My store has been closed all week and we got word today we are expected to open tomorrow.
Right now there is still a couple of inches of snow on the ground that has partially melted and refrozen into ice. Today it will melt and tonight it will refreeze creating a mix of slush and ice. Emergency services are literally begging people to stay home because they are overwhelmed with calls for help with limited response capability.
No, I will not be risking getting into a wreck or worse attempting to drive to the store in order to cater to stupidity. We would be opening the store in order for the town id–ts to come into the store to upgrade their phones, assist in resetting their appleID/Facebook passwords or my personal favorite to watch them pay their bill with a debt/credit card at the kiosk.
They can use one of my UIA, personal, or vacation days as I really don't care.
Could you use it as a personal day? Or does VZ not have those anymore? Granted either way your using time off you don't want to use. The personal days don't rollover unlike PTO.
It's beyond the company's control as well. Why should they pay you for not working? That's why you have PTO. Sorry for what the south is experiencing right now, but the northeast doesn't get paid time off either when they can't make it in.