COIMBATORE: The Tasmac administration issued strict instructions that all employees, including supervisors, must be present at their respective shops throughout working hours.
Despite strict instructions by the Tasmac administration to remain at shops during working hours, supervisors in most outlets are found to be in clear violation of this order. They allegedly fail to stay at the workplace for the full duration of their duty. Instead, they make brief visits during working hours, check thepremises hastily, and leave soon after.
This pattern of short, irregular appearances has become common practice across several outlets, leaving the shops without continuous supervisory oversight for large parts of the day without an effective system to monitor or record the actual presence of supervisors on a real-time basis.
Under each supervisor, a shop is staffed with four to five salesmen, depending on sales volume. Supervisors usually report to the shop around 12 noon to mark their attendance before leaving to the bank to deposit previous day's collection into the Tasmac account.
Most supervisors do not return after this task and only reappear late in the evening or near closing time. As a result, day-to-day sales operations are largely handled by the salesmen alone.
This raises concerns about operations, stock management, customer handling, and overall discipline at the outlets. Salesmen working under these supervisors say the lack of continuous oversight creates gaps in accountability and weakens the administrative control that the management seeks to maintain.
"Some supervisors return to work after the bank and complete ledger work related to stock management. However, over 40% of supervisors do not return and take a three- to four-hour gap. They also do not treat the salesmen in a proper manner," said a salesman.
He added that unless a reliable mechanism such as real-time attendance tracking, mandatory log entries with time stamps, or regular inspections is introduced and strictly enforced, the current practice of fleeting visits is likely to continue.
When contacted, Anushya Devi, Senior Regional Manager (SRM), Tasmac Coimbatore Region, said, "District managers conduct periodic inspections. We also check employees' attendance. Staff are monitored through CCTV cameras in the shops.
However, each district manager oversees about 100 shops, making it impossible to continuously monitor all of them at the same time. We are currently developing a real-time checking mechanism. If customers notice that supervisors are not on duty, they can inform us. We will carry out surprise checks and take appropriate action."