I need a new job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[live4christp1]

So today is our physical year end and guess what happens, the people from the accounting office come over and say we have to do an entire physical inventory tomorrow (SATURDAY)

They have no clue how this business works. We are a shipping and receiving warehouse. We receive in fresh product (poultry) that goes into a blast freezer by pallets (32 - 40 pallets depending on the blast) and is there for about 48 hours. So..............if you are going to have to do a physical inventory you need to know in advance so that you can get a count team to verify (double count) everything that is put into the blast freezers as you won't be able to physical see that product.

Then they decided that we need to count it at 2:00 AM Sunday morning! NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm leaving here at 4:30 and won't be back until Monday at 8:00 AM - Don't call me, Don't ask me, YADA, YADA, YADA!

Anybody hiring? I might need to look for another job on Monday?

 

[kadaten]

Sorry. No sympathy here. We had to do ours after hours, too, when I was working retail. They scheduled inventory (an all-nighter) the day after a huge weekend sale, and the day before we had a HUGE new line to unpack and put out. It took weeks to prep for inventory (every tag that *normally* has to be hidden from view had to be pulled to the outside of the item, all the miscellaneous crap in the back room had to be straightened and organized) and weeks to clean up (all 14,000 tags had to be re-tucked! )

Hope it goes better than you're anticipating! It's really odd, though, that they didn't give you a head's up that this was coming. Don't they think people have lives and would have to plan around the additional, long, odd hours? Good luck!

 

[diznygirl]

What? You can't go inside the freezer and count the poultry?

 

[cec311]

This coming from an accountant, we don't just randomly pick the day and time to do inventory. It is a science and has a reasoning behind it. Why you weren't informed is unknown as planning an inventory from the accounting side takes almost as much time as from the manf side. You couldn't just throw an inventory plan together overnight. Who knows?

 

[puffkin]

Sorry, I am an accountant, used to work in public accounting/auditing. Inventories are a very important part of the accounting process, especially in companies that have large dollar amounts of inventory on their balance sheet. The accountants have to do this one way or another, it is part of the regulations they need to follow.

Try being in public accounting and never getting to take any time off between Christmas and New Years because of doing physical inventories. Yuck! That is why I only lasted two years......

 

[sunkissed212]

I'm an accountant as well and this is not something that accountants just decide to do at the last minute. This is a very important thing too...for, if your company gets audited and you don't have this information....that can be bad news.

BTW - it's "fiscal" year...not "physical" year.

 

[va32h]

No sympathy here either. I've pulled lots of overnight shifts. They are paying you aren't they? Well then, buck up. What are you going to tell potential new employers, when they ask why you left your job? It isn't like you are being asked to work at 4 am every week, just once, at the end of your fiscal year.

 

[Poohnatic]

Yeah, no notice is not fun, but this has to be done. It's not like your schedule is changed permanently by this, just the one weekend.

Retail manager here, and we do weeks of prep for inventories, but in the past, I've had a week's notice that we have to do one-and it gets done. If you're a publicly held company, it is especially important to have a fiscal year end inventory to figure out profit and loss for the year.

Suzanne

 

[cardaway]

Yes you need a new job.

The inventory sounds very standard and it sounds like you should refrain from commenting how business works.

If you really gave them that attitude then it would be in their best interests to point you in the direction of the door.

 

[jenm2878]

Yep - another public accountant here. The date is usually planned months in advance, and is always okayed by the company that needs to count. Don't blame us that your bosses didn't put you in the loop! (and believe me, most accountants like walking around observing inventory about as much as you like counting it.)

 

[Wish I lived in Fl]

Sunday morning at 2 am in addition to regular schedule- they better be paying me triple time.

 

[Planogirl]

Hey, don't be so hard on the OP. If these things are planned well in advance, her department should have been warned well in advance. People do have lives you know and often have to make arrangements. Not everyone can just pop into work at 2AM at just any time the Accounting Department needs them to.

This sounds like a possible lack of communication which can probably be traced back to Management. If this company pulls this last minute notification often, I'd definitely recommend looking for another company to work for.

What if you had a vacation scheduled right now? Like to WDW or something?

 

[jenm2878]

Hey, don't be so hard on the OP. If these things are planned well in advance, her department should have been warned well in advance. People do have lives you know and often have to make arrangements. Not everyone can just pop into work at 2AM at just any time the Accounting Department needs them to.

This sounds like a possible lack of communication which can probably be traced back to Management. If this company pulls this last minute notification often, I'd definitely recommend looking for another company to work for.

What if you had a vacation scheduled right now? Like to WDW or something?

You're right, it probably is management's fault. I just am defensive to the OP saying that accountants don't know how business is run. (I'm a public accountant BTW) Often as accountants, you get treated badly by employees of a company when you have to audit them or observe inventory. They don't seem to understand that we're just doing our job, and our questions aren't meant to torture them or find mistakes they made. There is a certain amount of information we HAVE to obtain to comply with accounting/governmental standards. Really, I don't like watching people count inventory or go through boxes to find an invoice we need anymore then they like doing it. My apologies to the OP, but it really is management's fault you weren't informed, not the accounting department.

 

[Blondy876]

WOW so many unpleasant people. She was venting because it is NO fun to work at 2 am. If you don't think she needs the sympathy then don't post just to tell her how much worse it could be. My gosh, she just wanted a shoulder to lean on.

To the OP, good luck, hopefully this won't cause you to lose your job. (And don't let all these others get you down, there are a lot of people who are quick to tell you that their lives are sooooo much worse and you have no right to feel what you feel. Ignore them and feel whatever you want.)

 

[live4christp1]

Well, I'm still here and NO I didn't work this weekend.

Inventory used be very standard here, twice a year in fact we counted EVERYTHING in the warehouse. Company has been very lax in the past few years though and not really done a complete one. Very bad business practice if you ask me, but hey, I'm only the shipping/receiving data entry clerk okay.

The accounting manager (who is a newby) said they only found out on Thursday (find that hard to believe). Our manager is on active duty and our next in line is on vacation for two weeks (another no, no for year end).

Somebody showed up and counted it though. Guess they were all satisfied that we were doing a good job of keeping track of it all.

BTW - I don't mind doing inventories, have been here many, many times, have counted myself. Have spend many times here in the office pouring over count sheets, verify double counts, sending teams back in to check discrepancies, etc. But we always knew well in advance that "hey, we are doing and inventory on this day and everyone must be here." That I don't have a problem with but no you aren't coming to me on Friday mid-morning and saying you have to be here, sorry but I don't think so.

Just wanted to add that when I referenced accounting I didn't mean outside accountants or auditors.....I was talking about our companies idea (joke) of accounting and payroll department and how the warehouse and freezer work. And YES we can count the product in the freezer but NO we can't count the product in the blast and unless you have ever worked in this type facility you have no idea of what I am speaking of. A blast freezer is a cell (room, size varies depending on the blast) that holds 32 - 40 stacks of product. When it is loaded the doors are closed and it is sealed shut, maintenance is called and asked to start the blast freezer. This runs for 36-48 hours depending on the density of the product. A blast freezer contains special freezing devices and fans to drop the temperature of the product and eventulaly freeze. The product has to have spacers between every layer of product in order for the air to circulate. The blast freezer cannot be opened while cycling.

If you put a pallet of 40 cases at 50 pounds each just in the freezer and don't blast it, even if the room is 10 below zero, the outside edges will freeze but the center of the pallet will spoil before it freezes.

 

[live4christp1]

So.........yesterday we finally did the physical inventory. The accounting office came over to count. Our manager (who is currently on active duty and not being paid at all by our company) came in to help. They counted on count sheets, our manager did a seperate count. First sheet I get from them (the accounting office) has 12 items, 6 were right - the other 6 were wrong. (I'm talking what they counted as opposed to what our manager verified)

Other products that we track by bar code, they just checked off the ones that were here, didn't bother to write down the ones that were here that weren't on the print out. And this is supposed to be what we adjust our inventory to.