- Perpetually understaffed and overworked: Everyone new quits after a few weeks or a few months, and understandably so. I'm told at some point in the past they filled the store overnight no problem. Not a chance now. Something gets missed almost every night. Bigger deliveries + fewer staff to handle them = complaints from the store manager we're not working hard enough. Meanwhile they're nitpicking the grapes haven't been angled just the way they like them.
- Terrible healthy and safety: You're not supposed to climb into cardboard cages to crush the material down (in case they topple), but people do because there are never enough to go around. You're not supposed to wheel two cages around at a time, but you must otherwise you won't have time to complete your tasks. I worked in fruit and veg; I was expected to fill the section on my own when it's clearly a job for two members of staff. The only way you can manage is to cut corners and run yourself ragged. Chilled cages are not supposed to be out for more than 20 minutes – they're regularly out for 6+ hours at a time because you can't spare the time to run them back to the fridges. It's dangerous for customers and dangerous for staff. Tesco has a "near miss" policy for accidents but that doesn't mean a thing. There's no union to report this to, of course, because not a single member of the union works nights. Fairly certain some of it's illegal.
- Low pay: It's minimum wage work with few benefits. And what benefits there are, Tesco are gunning for. Sunday premium? That got axed this year. Hot food in the canteen? That went a few years ago. Sure, there's a nighttime premium between 12 and 6, but truly it is not worth it for the stress. You go home after a shift exhausted, mentally and physically, aching from head to toe. Half my time on shift I felt like crying, and I am not habitually a crier.
- Unsuitable or non-existent training: You're thrown in at the deep end. Half the training you do receive isn't relevant because it's about working on the tills or working in a store with asbestos, etc etc. A total waste of time. But someone at head office set a quota so we must meet it. The training that is relevant, no one sticks too anyway.
