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The Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training.

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I would never have met Porsha if it wasn't for a scheme to re-arrange the supermarket near my house. The scheme was hatched by the management of the chain as part of "Tick off your Customers Week."

The idea sounded reasonable. Every night for a month or so, the store, which was usually open 24 hours a day, would close at around 11 PM and open around 6 AM. In those hours the store would be re-arranged, presumably to make it more profitable.

This was undoubtedly the idea of the senior managers I see walking around in the store from time to time. Their clothes are always neat because they haven't picked up any boxes lately.

These godlike figures never show up one at a time. They arrive in pods. They never talk to customers. They only talk to each other except when they take time to give an order to one of the hourly workers.

Their idea for re-arranging the store may have been well thought out, but the execution was not. It resulted in lots of angry customers. I was right there in the middle of the pack.

I had stopped in for what I thought would be a quick trip to pick up a couple of items. We needed some brown sugar. We needed frozen peaches. We needed mustard. We needed green beans.

I found the mustard OK, but when I got to the sugar aisle, there wasn't any. None. No sugar. Not a bag. A store worker told me that "they" were planning to re-arrange the section with the sugar that night and decided it would be easier if there was no inventory.

Well, yes, I'm sure it would be easier, but, silly me, I thought the business of the supermarket was to sell food, not re-arrange the store more easily. So, without brown sugar, and clutching my mustard I wandered off in search of frozen peaches and green beans.

Ten minutes or so later, I found the green beans. They were in a section marked "Pizza." Evidently "they" had moved the food, but not the signs. Now I knew why everyone in the store was so tense. They were looking for food and couldn't trust the signs. Wars have started over less.

I still had to find peaches. They weren't in the frozen cabinet for "Fruit." I knew I was in trouble. Ten minutes later I made it past several angry shoppers to the front of the store.

I approached a young woman cashier, wearing a name tag that said "Porsha," who was walking my way. "Please," I begged, "help me find the frozen peaches. They're not in 'Fruit.'" Porsha smiled a huge smile.

"Let's hunt together," she said. Off we went. It took a few moments, but we finally found the peaches. As you might expect, they were in "Ice Cream."

I thanked Porsha and started for the checkout. "Do you need anything else," she asked me.

"Only brown sugar, but I know there isn't any more," I sighed.

Porsha beamed that great big smile again. "Oh, yes there is!" she exclaimed. "Follow me."

We went back to the cashier's station she'd left. During our hunt for peaches, I discovered that Porsha was doing this on her own time. She had just clocked out when I stopped her. She insisted that was OK.

When we got back to her station she reached down to the area where cashiers put the merchandise that has to go back on the shelves. "Some guy threw it at me," she said, "when I told him why there was no more sugar on the shelf."

She laughed and smiled that smile. "I'd rather see a nice guy like you get the last one anyway."

Porsha headed off for home with my thanks trailing after her. I sought out a store manager. I told her of my frustration. The manager said, "You think it's bad for you, we've got to be here all day."

I told her what a great job I thought Porsha had done. "She's new," the manager said, "But we've got a good training program that teaches people to help."

I was speechless, which rarely happens. Here was a store that cared so little about customers that they would move things around and make them hunt for it, then, when you complained, they told you that you should feel sorry for them.

And as for Porsha, they might have taught her the store policies, but they didn't train her to be helpful. She showed up with that. She got it from the people who raised her. The best the store could possibly do was not screw it up.

Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.

Request your free copy of "Meeting the Challenges of the Boomer Brain Drain: An integrated approach."

Wally Bock has helped people learn to be great bosses for more than a quarter century. His latest book, Performance Talk: The One-on-One Part of Leadership, makes learning key leadership principles almost effortless by teaching through a story and providing lists of resources for further growth.

Click here to find out more about Wally's coaching services.

For weekly tips and resources pointers, check our Wally Bock's Three Star Leadership Letter.

Click here to find out more about having Wally speak to your company or convention.