I worked at Asda for 10 years - AMA

[asdapazta]

I saw someone do an Aldi one of these recently and found it very interesting.

I worked for Asda for just under 11 years, starting at age 16, I left last year so worked through the whole toilet paper/hand sanitiser/pasta covid madness.

@DeflatedAgain not that I can think of, there was once someone very unhygienic in our in-store bakery, but management dealt with that quickly.

There is the 20 minute rule when it comes to chilled/frozen food. When taking a trolley full of chilled/frozen you were supposed to write the time on the bottom box and return it to the fridge if it had been out for 20 minutes. This never happened. When our health and safety audit would come in management would run around giving colleagues pens and making them do it, but they didn't care unless we were being audited.

@asdapazta It was a combination of things really. The hours were dreadful. My shifts were Saturday, Sunday, Monday and I was a single parent. I took the job as a Christmas temp and got kept on so the hours were ok short term but a nightmare permanently. I found something else luckily. I was also bored to be honest. I was on the chiller section permanently, originally I was told I'd be on and off the tills too but although they trained me it never happened. I was pretty quick at restocking though and treated it like a workout. I prefer to vary what I'm doing as the time passes quicker so was a bit disappointed not to be on tills occasionally.

I found Asda an Ok company to work for to be honest, I've definitely had worse. I've also worked for Lidl which I preferred as the pace was faster.

@Mustardandchickensandwiches I only witnessed it once, I can't really remember the words, they sing it at bit meetings.

I might be wrong but it went something like:

Give me a roll back! Give me a pocket tap!

I swear I didn't join in!

Oh god, is this it?

@WaxingGibbon it's still grumbling on I think.. I think it's going back to court again? Tbh I haven't read the last few emails.

I think it's right, it's the same job just reversed and I do think it's routed in sexism. Most colleagues felt the same as far as I can remember. I know warehouse colleagues disagree though.

@Mustardandchickensandwiches that's the one I was talking about! Oh wow it's even worse watching it back!

Unless @Dodgygeezer meant something else.

@Dyerun that makes sense, I remember Xmas temps being given the worst shifts! All weekend is awful, I hated having to work EVERY Sunday, never mind every weekend!!

Thanks @asdapazta! I asked because it's such a well known gender pay case, I studied it for my hr exam last year.

Gimme an A!
Gimmie an S!
Gimmie a D!
Gimmie an A!

What does it spell? ASDA!

Gimmie a pocket tap
Gimmie a roll back

Who's number 1?

The customer ALWAYS!

Whoosh!

That is so, so shit. I don't have words.

@WaxingGibbon I didn't realise it was that well known, what do you think of it?

@Mustardandchickensandwiches just to make it worse, in the 2010s some time, Asda had a 'float' in the Manchester Pride Parade and all staff involved did that over and over along the parade, it was proudly shown to all colleagues (in the region I believe)!!

What parts of the job did you most enjoy?

What parts did you hate the most?

It is still rumbling on, although it has been ruled that the jobs are comparable so the staff in store actually have a case - last update i heard. As an ex home shopper and current warehouse colleague i can agree the 2 roles are comparable, dont think check out operator and clothes packing are though so not sure what roles they have compared in each place.

My current warehouse is pretty split gender wise and i would say the 2 roles i have done are comparable, i would never go back to store as it can be toxic, but im not sure if thats because i no longer have an arsehole manager and im spoken to like a human.

Regarding a previous comment asda store staff will be payed £11.11 p/h i believe from June, but for that rise from the current £11 p/h is with the catch of sacrificing their yearly bonus.

What was your least favourite shelf to stack?

I used to work in HQ for another supermarket. We used to get sent out to store at Christmas to "help out". I would always get put on cheese! I wondered if it was the most hated shelf to stack

@FinanceLPlates I enjoyed the clothing section and working in the colleague canteen the most (before they got rid of it!)

I hated the feeling of being 'stuck' on a till and hated working in admin, people really hated me in this role because I would be the one to fix pay/holiday issues that were managers fault!

I mostly hated the insecurity. When I first started it was great but naturally a lot happened and they would cut more and more jobs and hours. I had 3 roles that were axed and I was put elsewhere, given different hours etc but I must say I am naturally a worrier so that's more a me issue than the company I suppose.

@supermamio have they really got rid of annual bonuses?!

The one payed out in april just gone was the last one.

@FanSpamTastic I hated pop! It was too heavy for me, also hated anywhere that needed lots of security tags - health and beauty or toys for example!

Loved tins, crisp and toilet roll.

@supermamio I am really shocked, that was usually the incentive to really push for a good stocktake or reduce waste etc.

How did that go down with colleagues?

Is there often mice problems

The few i still talk to in store prefer the higher hourly rate as its not dependant on store performance etc. The last bonus was a bit rubbish tbh, well it was for my store 😂 i only worked there for a couple of weeks of this tax year, contracted at 8 hours a week and got a bonus £30 less than someone contracted 16 hours who was there the full year.

Yes @asdapazta its often referred to as important 'equal pay for equal work' case law, because of the huge numbers of employees involved and also loads of other big retailers were in the same position so the outcome of the Asda case had potentially big implications for thousands of other workers.
I think it was right that the Supreme Court found in favour of the workers, and that it was surprising that Asda challenged the rulings as far as they did, as presumably negative publicity would have hampered their attempts to be seen as progressively inclusive or serious about their gender pay gap (due to the lower paid retail workers being mainly women).

@supermamio that's really interesting to read, I didn't know that, thank you

@supermamio that makes sense, £11.11 P/H seems very reasonable, I agree the bonus seems to be calculated strange and can be really underwhelming after being told 'think of your bonus' all bloody year!

@WaxingGibbon that's so interesting, I had always assumed Asda would never admit because they would look bad for admitting blatant sexism but I obviously don't know how it all works!