I've (22f) been working at a grocery store for past 2 months.
After putting back shopping carts that were outside, I was called into the office by my manager. At first, it just seemed like he was going to ask about my 3 call outs; which is what I expected. They weren't consecutive but it was 3 in a quarter, so it was enough to scold me for it. But then he started to say that I wasn't as “cheerful” and “upbeat” as I seemed in my interview with him.
I mean, I'm not walking like a zombie in everyday and I have a naturally calm demeanor, which he also knew cuz I told him that from the beginning. He claimed that aside from the call outs I'm a great worker that does whatever someone asks of me and he hasn't heard me complain once about it. I asked him then what was the problem?
He said “At (grocery store name) we believe in customer service above all else and want our customers to feel like family welcomed here. I've seen you be friendly and polite with customers, but you don't ask how their day is going or really have that open conversation with them. Also, I don't really see a sense of urgency when you're ringing up customer orders or grabbing carts. You seem to do a lot of things at your own pace, which is still fast, but not as fast as you could be going. Just a reminder that here, hours are earned not given automatically. If I see you not really having that dialogue with customers, you might see on your schedule a decline in hours.”