[Closed] New job not going well 🙁

Sorry to hear that, you're doing better than I would just by staying. I'd have left the minute I got a sniff of how it works but ik impulsive and sometimes not very objective.

Haven't worked in that sort of place before so I dont gave any specific advice, but as you say the worst that can happen is they let go of you and you can be back on UC, for better of for worse.

I bet you could find ways to subvert...things on show all in order but random shit behind. Junior managers are mostly fine, soukds like you have happened acroas a bellend. Perhaps they can see that look in your eye and they know you can run rings round them.

Play with them!

Only my observation, when I go to supermarkets out of hours, the replenishing staf are not exactly rushing about, having chats and jokes with other staff -not that I care, but it didn't seem like a high pressure thing to me, and why should it be?

Maybe you just have an a-hole supervisor, if you dont have the experience...

it’s not objectively measured but estimated by the team leader

That sounds like a problem right there.

I feel your pain. I worked retail for a number of years and felt so overworked and undervalued. Do you have to deal with customers too? If you don't, that's a huge bonus.

As I posted on your other thread.....shelf filling is hateful. I actually don't mind the delivery driving that I do.....bit dull compared to my previous life as a musician, but it gets you out at least. If I'm back early though I get stuck shelf filling and absolutely ****ing hate it!

As you say though, it's a fairly grim eye opener being in a low paid job.....and by and large the managers are utter ****s. Literally some of the least intelligent people I've ever met! They 'make up' for their lack of intelligence by being able to embrace the utter bollocks that you have to deal with in a supermarket.

I did shelf stacking for about 8 months in the run up to my A Levels. The middle managers know that most of the people there are students who'll stay for 6-8 months or similar types of people (like those forced to take the job by Universal Credit) so there is little incentive to do long term training, build relationships etc.

They also know that most of the workers have neither the knowledge nor the experience of workplace law, unions etc to report them so they stand little chance of ever being pulled up for their behaviour. As a result, many simply rule by bullying.

But then everything in those sorts of places is target driven - this number of boxes per hour, that number of breaks; you're just treated like a robot.

What's that? People who are given a small amount of pretend power like to lord it around? I'd never have guessed.

Sorry to hear that pal. Did you have any luck with my place?

I look at minimum wage jobs then I look at spme managers I've worked with and by in large i reckon most of the time the managers couldn't manage a minimum wage job.

Sorry to hear its shit. Where are you based?

Did a spell at Toys R Us between leaving school and starting an apprenticeship in the late 80's
I got lumbered with stacking nappies, which was a relentless task, only made bearable by the pallet truck racing course we made upstairs in the storeroom.
There was a real cow of an assistant store manager, who would make a point of going round and pushing the stacks of nappies backwards to check if you had "faced up" to make it look like the racks were full. And if they weren't, she would make a point of telling everyone, that rather than going home on time, they would have to help fill the shelves.. I think her plan was to make people resent you for holding them up from going home. Luckily , most of them had done this task in the past and knew how hard it was to keep up with the sales. You wouldn't believe how many nappies were purchased ( they were the cheapest around).
30 years later, I was in there getting stuff for the kids, and there she was ( although she was manager now ) still strutting round checking the stock.

Bitch

Nice middle aged bloke in one supermarket told me of one obnoxious person junior jobsworth,so one day he put a security foil strip in her shoe under the insole, she triggered the alarm when walking out, and she had a few quids worth of stock in her bag, she hadnt paid for, caught by a security guard who was new, and didnt know her as staff, she got sacked.

Another chap i knew good worker and always helpful, in a factory, booked a afternoon off, boss from hell, screamed where you going, he said ive booked the afternoon off, she said no you havent, he said i have and walked out, a few weeks alter he resigned, a week latter was told she had been sacked as a few others had resigned due to her attitude, and they lost a lot of production .

Me a few years ago, hated the job, found out about widescale fraud, and mentioned it to another staff member she grassed, and my life was hell, for a few monthe, finally snapped, told her to stuff her job, i resign, next day a recorded mail envelope saying i was sacked for gross misconduct.

At about 18 working in industry got told off for something so petty, chatting to an old wise bloke about 60 in the foundry, he said listen lad, when you leave school you think youve left all the bullies and children behind in the playground, you havent, they just get jobs in junior management or become supervisors. He was so correct.

Stay strong.

Okay. Think outside the box. This is the plan:
Drop a hint to the most intelligent out of your fellow worker ("because I trust you not to say anything") about how you've been dropped into post by HQ to find out who is stealing stuff and the side issue of possible bullying. Ask a few pointed questions: Have you ever been bullied by any managers or supervision? Be 'seen' making a few notes in a little black notebook in your back pocket.
That should sort it out.

You're experience of supermarket management is the same what ever one you are in. Worked in sainsburys for 9 years and the management are mostly ignorant ****s that know nothing of how to motivate people. Couldn't be more cliquey and bitchy.

how much work does the team leader do? I'm guessing this isn't sainsburys.

OP's experience is exactly the same I had in a short stint as a postman.

The depot big boss (decent guy) was quite keen to let me go without seeing out my notice when I told him I was about to flip and kick shit out of someone. He knew I meant his under-boss (jobsworth brainless ****) who was roundly despised.

"Going postal" really is a thing.

Interesting insight. Facing a similar situation here. Worked in a good paying industry for years and now liking for scraps and being treated like a kid.

I once worked at M&S. Fortunately all the staff I met were thoroughly nice people. But I used to have to unload fresh stock from cages and stick it on shelves upstairs in the warehouse. Nice simple job you'd think. But the bizarre way everything had been organised only made sense to the one staff member that designed the layout. Who was rather proud of the achievement. Took ages to find the right place for things, unless you happened to have worked there years and memorised it all. And of course most of it was in plain boxes rather than easier to recognise retail packaging.

And of course most of it was in plain boxes rather than easier to recognise retail packaging.

Any modern warehouse, it would all be by barcode with a hand held scanner: scan box, get instruction to take the box to location 22 b, shelf 3, etc... and thats going back 20 years from my forklift days, lol!

I’m not sure about your predicament and I sympathise, but can you tell me where the Eggs are?😀

Any modern warehouse, it would all be by barcode with a hand held scanner: scan box, get instruction to take the box to location 22 b, shelf 3, etc… and thats going back 20 years from my forklift days, lol!

You'd think so, but that's not how M&S worked and it wasn't that many years ago. Obviously not quite caught up with the cool kids like Amazon.

I worked in a supermarket when I was at school. The culture of bullying by the managers was mind-blowing from my experience.

Had a few years in upper management of a supermarket (I was in property), and a 20 career in retail shopfitting before that. Supermarket managers are generally absolute 🔔ends, the louder they shout the higher up the chain they go and the bigger the store they run. Middle management of the larger stores seem to take on as how you should manage people and it's a toxic system. Managers of smaller stores and convenience were generally nice people.
Glad I'm out and running my own business now.

Most toxic place I ever worked was supermarket. Was also the most satisfying when I just walked out one night...

Sounds rubbish OP I feel your pain.

What’s that? People who are given a small amount of pretend power like to lord it around? I’d never have guessed.

I worked in a warehouse once, unpacking CDs and sticking stickers on them then packing them up again. Honestly the guy (on the same shit pay as the rest of us) who was allowed to have a Stanley knife used to think he was the big I am and lord it over everyone else constantly.

Have had both sides of the shit job paradigm, when they're good it's brain out top bantz with the crew and zero responsibility, at the worst you're completely at the mercy of whichever bunghole petty Napoleon has the badge with supervisor on. Just look for something else similar elsewhere, you'll get lucky at some point, CVS in all the quick churn agencies. Also don't give up on the 'proper job' search, even if o&g has tanked there's other process/industrial stuff out there.

Supermarket work is just soul destroying.

I grabbed a job at the local Morrison's when I was furloughed last summer thanks to knowing the manager, was hoping for Home Delivery but ended up on the meat dept as I was the only person they recruited old enough to work with knives! I lasted 3 shifts doing that before leaving as it was so blatantly obvious it was a toxic environment in the store due to people abusing their power without knowing what they were doing. Thankfully a driver job was then available after one of the drivers had insulted a customer so moved over to that, it was either that or leave. I then got to watch the store go through so much turnover of staff due to bullying from managers and supervisors it was unreal. I had the odd day where I would do the picking after a driving shift and while the shelves were full they was nothing in the right place and all sorts of errors with price labels etc, all down to one of the night supervisors targetting the fillers to get stuff out as quickly as possible. I pointed this out to the store manager and he was shocked at how bad it was, a real nightmare for him if the in-house or local inspectorate had come round! I left soon after as it was obvious that, while there were a core of good staff there, the bully element was running the place and wasn't an environment I could continue in. This wasn't even one of the bad stores (I knew which ones were from the job I was furloughed from) so God knows what they're like to work in.

There are some really good people on the shop-floor, but – as one co-worker told me – there are some horrible people in management. Many people doing these gigs don’t have a lot of options and are consequently vulnerable to the caprices of those above them, especially from the dismal middle management positions. Most are just trying to keep their head down and survive another shift.

That about sums it up. How the decent people continue working under those conditions I don't know, I'm just glad they do!

I was lucky enough to return the attention on a crappy supermarket supervisor from post GCSE shelf stacking when he joined a company I worked at in the holidays from college and uni' in a senior role to me as operations manager.

The boss realised that he wasn't really my manager but just someone to do my paperwork for me and gofer to the labourers and to be a legit trailer towing driver. He couldn't hack the pace or understand the industry and left soon after putting the Discovery and trailer on its roof. Probably had stuff in the fridge that was there longer. Got a bunch of new kit from the insurance, so not a bad result for a months wind-up, even if I did have to manage the rest of the season which wasn't much more than I did anyway.

I worked in Sainsburys for a bit at uni, you're literally describing my job. Facing up at the end of the day, no bother. Why is he finished and you're only on your first aisle? Because he's in drinks juice and I have biscuits that don't stay in the same place due to your ****ing moronic standards! Also got into trouble for talking to someone when we were all blitzing an aisle, don't think she appreciated the fact I couldn't keep my face straight. Thing was, she wasn't a team leader, just a barely above my level supervisor.

Costco was marginally better but the store manager was a raging thunder****.

Sorry to hear that pal. Did you have any luck with my place?

Nah, didn't hear anything back.

Just another job application that entered a black hole.

Any modern warehouse, it would all be by barcode with a hand held scanner: scan box, get instruction to take the box to location 22 b, shelf 3, etc… and thats going back 20 years from my forklift days, lol!

Nope doesn't work like that.

I work for a supermarket group (banking side) but at Christmas we're all asked to work a day or two in a local store - PR-type thing. I've volunteerd at my local store (rural Scotland) for a few years now, but will only do shelf stacking, as otherwise I'd have to deal with actual customers. The only easy bit is that a cage will have a specific food/drink type in it, but this could be spread across a number of aisles. The cardboard boxes usually have the manufacturer written on them, except own-brand, but if you don't know the layout in detail - each box opening and where it goes is a 'surprise'.

Management-wise, maybe we're lucky, but the store manager is a lovely bloke who's been there a few years and consequently so are his management team etc. Not met a single ar5e, but then they do know I'm from HO so maybe it's different for me.

Also, as it's a very rural area the staff turnover will be low (I see the same people each year), are you working in a more urban area?

Nothing really to add but to say good luck and stick in. Hopefully something else will come up.

I worked in retail for a while, also done fast food. The hardest, most stressful, and yet worst paid jobs I've ever done.

People doing these jobs deserve way more credit (and pay) than they get.

I feel fortunate that my early/student jobs never had this problems.

A summer moving things around a warehouse was dull but colleagues were fun which made it ok. Checking A level marking was incredibly dull but for some reason I got pulled out of the main group to do special considerations - that meant I ended up in a small office of permanent staff helping them change the marks of people who'd had personal shit going on during exams that was to be taken into account. Then I did a stint as a QC chemist. Started off badly but about a week later a new manager took over. So I went from being patronised to doing loads of continuous improvement work and helping formulate. I was being treated like I had 1/2 a science GCSE, not a first class masters.

I don't know if you can but assuming you need the money, keep your head down, do what you are supposed to and what you know is right and walk out each morning leaving it behind you.

Good luck

Feeling for the OP, I've faced a couple of "I need the money" jobs in years gone by, it's not nice. Hoping you find something better soon, it's close to 'peak shit' at the moment I guess.

I worked for Tesco for about 2 years in the early 90s, frankly it was a breeze, they couldn't find enough proper grown-ups to work evenings and weekends back then, so they had to employ School Kids who basically sacked it off from 4pm to 8pm when the store closed for beer money. I can well imagine a LOT has changed since those days.

I worked for ASDA for a few months after that as a Dept Supervisor until they (justifiably) sacked me for being shit. At the time they were actually desperately trying to improve staff relations, I was told by some of the old timers it was like a Victorian workhouse before that, some of the older stores still had the dreaded managers offices out the back, they had a horrible them and us system of management, they spend all the 90s trying to improve things, I doubt that trend continued when WalMart took over.

Money is money though and greed is greed, in the 90s I think they wanted to be 'nice' to staff because it was profitable, not many people wanted to work evenings and weekends and the Supermarkets wanted to open later and later and especially on Sundays. Now the world has changed and more than ever people will work any time.

As for middle-managers, if I was going to offer them some defence, in retail the stress doesn't stop as you rise through the ranks, middle-managers in Retail are worked like Dogs (my Bother is some kind of deputy manager of some kind for Morrisons) and know they're replaceable. This current situation means there will be a lot of insecure, stressed, career minded younger people suddenly managing older, more experienced people, who might piss off when the situation improves, back to their usual type of work, or might decide to stay and be a threat to them.

I quite enjoyed working nights stacking shelves, always could see what you actually achieved at the end of a shift. I remember there were a few grumblings that I'd got put straight on the fresh food aisles as a new starter as that was apparently a high responsibility position but nothing more. Was more pleasant than working on a production line for sure.

Supermarkets wanted to open later and later and especially on Sundays. Now the world has changed and more than ever people will work any time.

I actually worked a summer for Sainsbury's back in the late 90s and don't remember it being high pressure although I was on check-out not shelf-stacking per se. On Sundays you got 1.5 x hourly rate, now it's just another day.

I imagine a lot of companies now look to how Amazon warehouses operate like an ultra well-regulated Victorian mill. This is the model for disciplining the precariat.

This topic is very enlightening. People forced to lower their sights during a Pandemic are suddenly seeing what some people have to do to put food on their tables and on shelves for others to buy. Wouldn't hurt for more people to experience life at the place where the shit ends up rolling to.
Reminds me years ago I left a factory job to become a Postman. My neighbour worked in an office in said factory. He couldn't believe I'd lower myself? 🤔 6 months later the factory called in the receivers and he came and asked me if there were any postie jobs going 🤔🙄

I'd worked in retail before and my old job put me in constant contact with the retail world so it wasn't particularly an eye-opener for me. I get what you're saying though, hopefully it'll mean people in general give store staff an easier time than before. It wasnt unusual to hear lots of retail workers have loads of stories of entitled customers bullying and abusing them over trivial matters. Sadly I doubt it'll change long-term but you can hope.

I had a lot of jobs between 1991 and 95, bottom of the ladder manufacturing jobs, manual labour type stuff. The same can be said for the way staff were treated, not just by supervisors and lower management, but by others doing the same job. Very cliquey, toxic, places to work.

OP. My BiL did a stint as an order picker for one of the supermarkets, working horrible night shifts, 3am to 10am random days of the week, the pressure that was applied by minor supervisors nearly did for him. The turn over of staff was incredible, he was one of the long term staff after a month.

All I can say is if you want out, without walking out, is to deliberately get yourself fired. Do your job but slower than expected, just play the game, “sorry, I can’t go any faster”, etc. It will only be a matter of time before they either cave in and leave you alone or fire you.

Try something else whilst looking for a more suitable job that uses your O&G skills.

sorry to hear this. My daughter has been working for an upmarket supermarket chain in a nice town for about 6 months now and is enjoying it. She's mainly checkouts but they all have to do a bit of time on the door and then end of the evening facing up and put-backs, and the like. She's a bit happier with those bits now but did find it stressful as the store's shutting up for the night and she's playing the opposite version of supermarket sweep, legging it round trying to find the aisle for the artisan cheese straws and organic houmous.

From what she says the bosses are all OK, I think she did OK in a difficult situation early on when a load or traveller lads tried jumping the one in - one out queue and she tried to stop them (unsuccessfully, and got some abuse for it too) and the manager took her aside, with her being a bit shaken and told her she'd done well and not to ever put herself in 'danger' again. Her immediate supervisor is barely a couple of years older than her anyway, and just seems nice.

Some of the customers though are pricks, trying it on over queue jumping, mask wearing and the like, and then getting shitty when a 16yo stands up to them. She just has never taken shit off people, she was head girl and still rates one of her best school days as the one she requested a meeting with the Head teacher and gave her a dressing down over a poorly handled situation at a school event the day before (yes, my daughter handed the Head her arse, and she accepted it too)

I used to work in retail.
I would say just suck it up. It’s hard. It’s miserable. That’s why people don’t like to stick around if they don’t have to. If you need the money you need to speed up. Retail is all about hustle, if you’ve always worked in an office it’s a rude awakening.
When I got an office type job when I got out of retail I couldn’t believe how slow the pace was. I was completing work in half the time expected as I still had the hustle mentality.

One request - please spread the word about how difficult it is, shop workers need to get more respect than they do and none of the abuse and attacks that are so frequent.

Another vote of sympathy from me for everyone working a supermarket job and hating it.

I worked in a Budgens part-time when I was at university and, of about 14-15 jobs I've had over my life so far, it's the only one I've ever walked out of. I lasted about two months, then just went home after a shift and never came back.

Eventually they sent me a threatening letter saying that if I didn't return my uniform I'd recieve an invoice for £198 or some equally ridiculous amount.

Eventually they sent me a threatening letter saying that if I didn’t return my uniform I’d recieve an invoice for £198 or some equally ridiculous amount.

So you basically stole someone else’s property as you couldn’t cope with some hard work?

Supermarkets are tough and ran very tight, I’ve said before I work for tesco, I’m a manager for stock control and admin, we have a tablet which defines job task and hours allowed for said task, we have to work to that. Some days it’s tough, I used to enjoy my job, seriously it was fun you had time to work with your team, help them progress or just generally be there if they needed anything. Nowadays supermarkets have got rid of night replenishment, proper bakeries have gone, self serve is more prominent and blimey covid, I have no idea how many long term guys haven’t just walked. It’s been and continues to be a drain day to day.

Sometimes you have to switch off and just go into fill mode, last week when it went pear shaped I think I worked solid for 8 hrs filling which is the last thing I should be doing, but the shop takes priority.

If it helps pay the bills and fits your life it can be fun it can get great! But currently I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

So you basically stole someone else’s property as you couldn’t cope with some hard work?

To be fair working in Budgens probably wasn't as difficult as being an internet hard man like you.

Genuine LOL at finbar.

I worked in Wm Lowe in Workington (before Tesco's bought it out) and while re-sitting my A-levels...

Two important life lessons for me:
1. If you bugger about sailing/drinking/chasing girls (one in particular who I'm still married to 😁) there is a price to pay... Working on a deli counter for 12 months on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings and any other crappy shift was my price.

2. Absolutely do not try to make the person working on a deli counter's life miserable because you've had a bad day - I guarantee you will get the skankiest cuts of meat and cheese... Just be nice.

Oh and I would still love to meet the arsehole who managed that store back then - I believe he was busted for thieving eventually but he was the ultimate example of angry small man syndrome. Utter prick.

b230ftw
Full Member
Eventually they sent me a threatening letter saying that if I didn’t return my uniform I’d recieve an invoice for £198 or some equally ridiculous amount.

So you basically stole someone else’s property as you couldn’t cope with some hard work?

Mate you really need to get off the internet for a while. The aggression in that one sentence is unreal. Go do some yoga, have a cup of tea. Life will seem so much better 🙂

@b230ftw have you ever thought about becoming a Big Hitter? pm sent.

I grew up in spending time in my family's seaside shop and worked there from an illegally young age, for years it's all I knew. Whilst I was doing A levels I also stacked shelves a night in the local Budgets. I was a skinny runt so how I managed unloading tonnes of cages every night I've no idea. Hard work but luckily it was mindless and the manager took it easy on me unlike the majority of the female stackers.

Yes, like prison, doing a few years in a Supermarket has made me determined to never go back.

I wasn't a pushover at that age, but still ended up getting bullied (pretty low level) by my department manager. It seemed at the time that he was just determined that my job should be as difficult as possible, because that somehow elevated his own position.

My advice for surviving in a supermarket is to get trained on as many departments as possible. If somebody calls in sick, the department managers look down the roster to see if there is anyone else trained on their dept, and go and requisition them. I rarely did two days in a week in the same department, and it kept me sane. Seems weird to say, but when I walked through the door of the bakery or meat-room or whatever, people were happy to see me because it meant that they were no longer short-handed - made a huge difference to my experience.

Far-and-away the worst job used to be "breaking down". It's basically taking the roll-pallets as they come off the lorries, and re-distributing the contents so that everything on a single pallet is from the same aisle. It takes hours and is backbreaking in a dark, cold corner of the warehouse. Oh hang on, worse than that was making thousands of Jam donuts. That was 23 years ago, and no-word-of-a-lie, I haven't eaten a jam donut since. Oh, or spending an entire day in the freezer trying to sort out the humungous delivery of frozen turkeys just before christmas.

I’ve not worked in a supermarket but a factory. My job was to clip coffee packs with a promotional stick and clip. I did that 3 hours three nights a week after school. I was by myself in a warehouse so mind numbing beyond belief. No radio, nothing but a huge clock.

I once did a shift with a long term guy and I’ll never forget his words “try hard a school lad or you’ll end up like me.” I never forgot that experience or that conversation and it did motivate me. Sad looking back that this old boy felt this way.

To be fair working in Budgens probably wasn’t as difficult as being an internet hard man like you.

🙄

I once did a shift with a long term guy and I’ll never forget his words “try hard a school lad or you’ll end up like me.” I never forgot that experience or that conversation and it did motivate me. Sad looking back that this old boy felt this way.

I had a similar experience, worked in a factory who made cakes for Tesco. It was hard work and boring but safe and not too bad. I was put on the end of packing line and was chatting with one guy and he asked how many weeks longer I’d be there, I said one more (they employed a lot of students in the summer like me), he said he only had 34 years to go before he retired. It was the way he said it though, as if he never expected he would do anything else.
Weirdly I got stuck in retail the next year and was there over a decade until I managed to extract myself - which wasn’t easy.

Far-and-away the worst job used to be “breaking down”.

Stocktake of frozen turkeys and meats in run up to Christmas, basically working in a room at -30 for hours with no extra kit bar some scabby old coats, lugging boxes around with your fingers occasionally getting crushed by stuff falling out of boxes. Still remember the discomfort of it thirty years plus later.

FYI the worst job I did was as a student in circa summer 1997 when I worked at Manchester airport. There were a couple of business there which broke down, cleaned up, washed, etc., all the 'galley trolleys' which come off the flights full of empty/half-eaten meal trays, all the cutlery, etc.

There were various roles I filled in for. One, for example, was taking the trays out of the trolley; waste food would go in one bin, anything one-use in another, then anything that needed washing would be fed onto a conveyor for further processing. So you'd stand there all day doing this as the trolleys all backed up. What a job! This was the 'dirty end' of the process and you'd end up covered in food.

Then there were other roles such as feeding the empty trolleys into a big 'car wash' type machine. Steam everywhere, trolley surface scalding hot upon exiting the washer lol.

Another role was to just pick cutlery and cups off a conveyor as they exited the washer. So you'd just stand there for hrs doing that.

The place was full of ex-cons but strangely nobody was nasty or a bully. They even had a staff restaurant which although not 5-star nevertheless served hot food for free.

I did a summer working at a cash and carry doing a bunch of restocking and kind of enjoyed it. Hard work and dangerous in some ways, but some good people (Mick the butcher being one) there. I have never eaten so many Pot Noodles. Thank you staff purchase scheme.

Worst job was working in a lab at a hospital. You've never had a shit job unless your day has been defrosting the fecal fat freezer. Well, that and autoclaving blood samples.

I feel for you mate. During the first lockdown I got a job at my local Tesco working as a picker for the click and collect service. I lasted a week before walking out half way through a shift. I only did the job to fill in my time and didn't need it for financial reasons.
The manager was claiming she didn't have enough staff so couldn't give the current staff their full entitled breaks. Basically we were working a 9-11 hour shifts with a 10 minute break. I reported them to trading standards.

I have fond memories of my part time work behind the deli/meat and fish counters while I was a student. Luck of the draw with managers I guess. Most are going to be promoted shelf stackers so their actual intelligence will be hit and miss and their management skills vary as a result. I feel for anyone that needs the work.

Sounds rubbish. Hang on in there and consider it temporary where as the dickhead manger is stuck there. Keep looking and keep moving on until you find somewhere that fits.

Stocktake of frozen turkeys and meats in run up to Christmas, basically working in a room at -30 for hours with no extra kit bar some scabby old coats, lugging boxes around with your fingers occasionally getting crushed by stuff falling out of boxes. Still remember the discomfort of it thirty years plus later.

I worked Freezers for about a year, it was semi-hazardous work so you got paid 20p a hour more.

The cold isn't easy to explain, -5c in the UK (in Wales anyway) is almost unbearably cold, the Freezers, as you say ran at -30c and I'm sure some will be thinking "Yeah, it's the wind that gets you" the fans in the Freezers blew at a gale.

Our job was supposedly to go in, grab the closest cage, wheel it out onto the shopfloor and fill anything you could find space for in under 20 mins to avoid it starting to thaw. You'd then return it to the other side of the freezer.

Because we were just kids doing evenings and weekends we were never given any kit, you grabbed what you could find laying around. Massive orange rubber gloves I can still remember the smell of mostly, I preferred to just have those, run in, grab a cage and get the hell out. Occasionally though you'd arrive to a wall of half-empty cages because the day shift hadn't condensed them. So we'd have a choice, risk freezing to death (often worth a go) or put on the Snowsuits from the lost and found box of random suits. We wore trousers and shirts, Night shift wore, what we can only assume was nothing under their snow suits so they STANK, a smell that didn't leave you until you showered.

So a couple of 16 year old kids with zero training in working in a freezer, often wearing nothing but cotton shirts worked in -30 throwing boxes around, swearing and every 10-15 mins running out to warm up, and then be shouted at for not being on the shop floor filling shelves.

I remember one day arriving in work wet because it had been raining and after working for a couple of mins flicking aside my 90s spec curtain haircut and it snapping.

I'd completely forgotten about all that.

I think I have the win on jobs that stink...

As a student I worked as a cleaner at the British American Tobacco factory in Southampton.

Essentially the job was sweeping and shovelling all the baccy that fell off the machines onto the floor. The stench is horrible, as the dust just hangs in the air.

Came home reeking each day, even after a 25 minute bike ride. Get rid of the black bogies, put clothes in wash and have a shower before I could do anything else.

Didn't last long...

I think I have the win on jobs that stink

Ah, but you never worked in Southport sweet factory, standing at the conveyor belt picking out defective individual Chewits as they sped past before your numbed gaze...

You’ve never had a shit job unless your day has been defrosting the fecal fat freezer.

Now I know what fecal matter is. I know what fat is. What is fecal fat? And why does it need to be frozen???????? 😳😳😳

I don’t want to ask but I am very inquisitive.

Now I know what fecal matter is. I know what fat is. What is fecal fat? And why does it need to be frozen???????? 😳😳😳

It makes it easier to insert the Spice Malange

@AD - You're originally from Workington?

Feel for you. I spent a long time in a shit job for a shit boss, he was a goat farmer who married someone rich and set up a business. They were both illiterate arseholes and my life was hell

It is terribly unjust that the most vulnerable end up in these jobs (not talking specifically about you OP) and get trapped with no way out

Stay strong and hopefully it won’t be forever

JUst remembered a freinds son, many years ago , got a job as a graduate trainee in a big supermarket, lots of interviews to fet in etc, and role play, first day at his new store put on the floor stacking shelves, got to about 10.30 he got hungry, so went and got a packet of crisps and a can from the shelf, and started eating them when stacking shelves.
Senior jobsworth walked up and said youre not to eat on shop floor,etc, heated discusion about rules and hunger etc, and sacked at 11.00am told not to come back.

Another job i had promised a junior managers position,first five mins, hello said new boss, tea bags in locked cupboard, count out 20 for the day, and put ern on, when i asked why just 20 tea bags she said people steal them, even a pint of milk had to be accounted for, 30 mins in i realised it wasnt the job for me.

@Daffy - Aye I'm Workington born and bred... Although not the new 'Jenkinson Workington man' though 😆

I live a few miles further inland now though but still frequent Pedro's for my take-aways...

Have had both sides of the shit job paradigm, when they’re good it’s brain out top bantz with the crew and zero responsibility, at the worst you’re completely at the mercy of whichever bunghole petty Napoleon has the badge with supervisor on.

This.

I used to work in pubs/bars. Some of the jobs were amazing. But one big city centre fashionable bar was an absolute nightmare. Is was being managed by a team of stuffed suits in an office somewhere unseen in the building. They would give the title 'Supervisor' to one worker and pay them an extra 20p per hour. My god that power went to their heads. One repellent slimy git used to insist we always had to be doing something whether it needed doing or not. Such as constantly pushing a mop around. The tragic thing was that at the end of the week when all the bar staff were heading to a club/party/rave, he'd get all chummy with the 'where we going?' etc... Unbelievable.

@AD - Also Workington and remember Pedro's from my time at Stainburn. Left a good few years ago, but remember Wm Lowe and My cousin worked at Tesco for a while.

JUst remembered a freinds son, many years ago , got a job as a graduate trainee in a big supermarket, lots of interviews to fet in etc, and role play, first day at his new store put on the floor stacking shelves, got to about 10.30 he got hungry, so went and got a packet of crisps and a can from the shelf, and started eating them when stacking shelves.
Senior jobsworth walked up and said youre not to eat on shop floor,etc, heated discusion about rules and hunger etc, and sacked at 11.00am told not to come back.

Just so there's no confusion for anyone who's never worked in retail, or in fact pretty much any job. It doesn't matter if you're a Grad Trainee, a 'normal' min wage slave or the Regional Manager, you can't just help yourself to stock because you're hungry. It would be considered theft, because it is, and theft is instant dismissal in retail in fact most if not all jobs, and no you're not allowed to eat or drink on the shop floor either. Some staff who can't 'nip off' for a bit if they're desperate are allowed to have a drink at their workstation, they'll have the receipt sellotaped to it.

This is an absolute fundamental rule, it's usually made very clear at interview, it will be listed very clearly in the staff handbook and sometimes on your employment contract, it will be mentioned during training and again, first thing day 1. It's usually given with the preamble of "I'm sure you wouldn't but..." because to 99% of people, it's obvious.

I enjoyed my Saturday job filling shelves at Sainsbury's (except for Xmas) but as it was when electronic tils were being introduced I think things may have changed a lot for the worse since then 🙁

got to about 10.30 he got hungry, so went and got a packet of crisps and a can from the shelf, and started eating them when stacking shelves

Hmm, lol!

I think I have the win on jobs that stink

Ever been in a landfill? Ever done a waste audit?

No? Piss off out of here.

Worst job I ever had was picking turnips... then once picked we'd process them in a shed by chopping any odd looking roots off to make them look pretty...utterly back (and hand) breaking. Think I lasted 3 days doing that.

That was physically awefull though, on the other side I've worked in offices and warehouses where the work was easy but the atmosphere was just as toxic, but more in a mental way than a physical one.

@OP - what did you do in Oil and Gas out of interest? Theres lots of jobs going at the renewable energy developer I work at and I know that there are certain skillsets which transfer really well...

DM me if you like.

@dickydutch

I was a Directional Driller lol, but I have an MSc in Building Surveying now. I probably don't want to actually work as a Surveyor per se because in reality one is a small to medium-sized project manager.

Funny you mention directional drilling! Drop me a DM.

Forgot the smiley sorry.

Sometimes I just love this place! Hope something comes out of that Cake.

Asda 24hr in the rough end of Dundee doing nightfill on petfoods while at Uni. One night a lad comes in with a freshly burst face, walks to the sporting goods and picks out an aluminium bat. The security guard was older than God and had the good sense to not try to stop him as he headed out into the night. But yeah; crap job with folk who were obsessed with the status of being trusted with fresh goods and viewed being put on a different dreel as a demotion. Oh; and the supervisors were grand but the managers utter C-wombles.