To hate the phrase 'Just get a job at Tesco.'

[LemonSherbetFancies]

Aimed at unemployed people?
As if it's that straightforward and easy to just walk in, ask for a job and start the next day.

Totally agree. This is doubly so if you have childcare needs. I have 3 DCs from toddler to early primary and am unemployed - have savings but wanted to work rather than run them down until I can get UC, and thought that maybe if I'd qualify for key worker school slots at least I could work part time in a supermarket or deliveries.

It's just not possible. You need to be flexible for shifts at the drop of a hat, and then the pay wouldn't cover childminding costs, and I have no family around to help.

As it is, I'm stuck hoping that I can get a professional job, while running down the savings I worked and scrimped so hard for, and that were meant to be a house deposit. As a single mum of 3, I could actually be doing decently if I hadn't worked and got a council house and benefits, that's the background I came from and have plenty of friends living it, but wanted better for my kids. I know in the longer run its good to have a working history etc but right now it feels so unfair that there's so little payoff for working and saving hard (and paying a lot of tax while doing it).

So yes, hate 'get a job at Tesco'.

I only know of one person who managed to get to the interview stage for a job at Tesco and they were 21 and had a degree.
They failed at the interview stage as they had them down for a job driving the delivery vans and the person couldn’t drive.

My personal take is if you haven’t got a degree don’t bother wasting your time

A job in Tesco isn't necessarily suitable if you aren't fully flexible - in fact that goes for most "entry level" roles now.

It is infuriating. Pre-covid DH was s/e in a niche tech-related job, in an industry that has been totally screwed. He has been trying to find work for months, applying to all the supermarkets, delivery jobs, contact tracing jobs etc etc. No reply from 99% of them despite doing online tests and in once case a video, then randomly he will get an email 3 or 4 months later saying he was unsuccessful, by that point he's forgotten what the vacancy even was! The Argos online test was ridiculously hard, it asked you to choose what you would do in certain scenarios, and the answer wasn't obvious unless you knew what Argos's policy on the scenario was e.g. if you can't find a delivery when you get to someone's house, but then find it later, do you go back in the middle of your shift, wait til the end of the day and go back, or return it to the warehouse to be re-delivered the next day?

It really isn't that easy to walk into a NMW job, it really isn't. Plus in our case DH isn't at all skilled in working with the general public and is actually quite nervous about it, it's not the easy/default option people seem to think it is. I've worked in retail and it is fucking tough, certainly much harder than my considerably better paid office job.

@LemonSherbetFancies

Aimed at unemployed people? As if it's that straightforward and easy to just walk in, ask for a job and start the next day.

One point that hasn't been made so far is that saying things like "just get a job at Tesco" is very insulting, patronising, and demeaning to people who do actually work there. As if it's so easy that anyone can do it. I've no idea what Tesco are like as employers, but supermarket staff have worked throughout the pandemic and have probably met their fair share of absolute knobheads who object to complying with the rules, sometimes very aggressively. I've no idea if the managerial staff are well paid, but the shop-floor staff will not be. I've just looked this up, and the hourly rate is £9.30 - not exactly a fortune is it?

Needless to say that he could find no-one in any shop who could help him with this

Nobody in the supermarket would deal with recruitment at that point. All applications are online with no exceptions and the store are not involved until maybe the interview stage from what I can gather.

It's completely unethical to have people on zero hours contracts and full availability/flexibilty. That will only work if you have someone else paying the main bills and you have no childcare responsibilities, because you are working for pocket money, and you have no life. Why don't the companies offer flexibility? But that would reduce the billionaire's profits. There is no reason companies can't offer 20 hour contracts with set hours. Yep, Thatcher's ideology has taken flight, there is no such thing as society, in big corporation land, which is where we all live now.

I am also of an age when it was easy. If you could touch type you could get a job! It’s so different these days.

I'm on the fence a bit. Back in March /April /May our managers were posting on fb to come to the store with ID and proof to work in the UK and mention their name and you could start work the following day.
However I haven't seen the posts for ages and think it was all temporary contracts which isn't much help.
Generally though I agree. I applied to four supermarkets before getting my current job and it's really disrespectful to say just get a job at Tesco like it's the job an animal could do.
People who say that have no idea how many people are going for the same job or how bloody hard you have to work in one of those jobs.

Yanbu
It's difficult to get in our local one and not at all unusual for people to get knocked back.

I've never heard anyone say that. Why would they?

If someone is unemployed for a while it is nobody else's business.

My son has found that warehouse jobs are easier to get than supermarkets.

When DH was unemployed that was Mil’s helpful advice and told him to ask for an application form...she has no bloody clue how job searching works (never worked herself) but kept trying to give advice.

Yep I hate this too. The application process for every supermarket I’ve ever applied for has been rigorous and involve pages and pages of forms, several interviews and after all that, never as many hours available as you’d like.

I’m guessing the people who think it’s dead easy to get a job in Tesco or similar also think you can just make a bit of extra money by taking in ironing

The reality is supermarkets prefer to hire teens who can be paid less and people who want very few hours as it reduces their national insurance costs.

Any phrase about doing something not that easy (or not easy for everyone) that includes 'just', gets my goat!

'Just take any job!' - uhm, what about travel, any disabilities that may preclude it, caring responsibilities,, especially if it doesn't have regular hours

'If you can't have kids, just adopt!' - uhm, so many reasons it's not right for some people

'Just move to where there's more jobs' yeah, sure, and where do people find the money to move and to live somewhere that's probably more expensive?

Etc

Absolutely YANBU. Both from the aspect of applying to Tesco, Asda etc is NOT easy and also because of how demeaning that phrase is to experienced retail staff!

Why not just work at Tesco? They’ll take any old idiot you know .

The truth is the easiest job to find these days is care of the elderly. And for sure not everybody is suited to that. It’s very demanding & hard work if done well. But the number of vacancies (in my area anyway) do tend to mean that most people applying will be taken on, even if only on a trial basis.

I've never felt more like I don't belong here 😂

I'm applied for an Xmas temp job at Tesco, found the online questions in the main pretty reasonable, just one or two that I wasn't sure about. Don't have a degree. I'm fast approaching 50. I got one of the four temp jobs. My temp contract has been extended once and looks like it might be extended again.

I'm feeling very fortunate right now based on what I'm reading here. I think flexibility, as someone said, does have a lot to do with it. I'm contacted for two days per week, but I've never done two days. Every week it has been three, four or five. If you can't do extra hours at short notice, they will find someone that can.

But at the moment, it's a tough job market out there. So many people out of work either permanently or temporarily (I'm self employed usually, but currently not allowed to work due to covid). It's not as easy as 'just get a job' for anyone right now.

I work in the civil service, advertised for an admin job paying £20k in my team - over 500 applicants! Mostly over qualified people. When furlough ends and 4 million people find themselves unemployed, the situation will be worse. Friend at the Bank of England thinks the unemployment rate will be over 15%!

Supermarkets are already looking at ways to automate further so they’ll be far fewer jobs there.

It’s the modern equivalent of “get on yer bike” and the nation of window cleaners.

DD did a few of the online multiple choice quiz applications for Tesco etc a few years back - she got the whole family involved to answer their impossible questions and we all failed every time. But it was the only way you could get a job there, we were told.

A relative is a University lecturer. Made redundant last year due to cuts. Applied to every single supermarket job and got nothing.

I hate this. I find this is usually is said from a certain generation IMO.

There's some in my family who used to think jobs in supermarkets were for people 'beneath' them. They also despise people on benefits etc etc. However the same people in my family are now on furlough looking like they will be made redundant and are being very sheepish at the fact they're 50 with no hope of finding a similar well paid job/ job at all with their limited skills. Reality will be hitting loads once furlough ends.

I have 3 years experience of working in a supermarket and I couldn't get job doing the sale role in the same shop where I had previously worked when I was unemployed several years later. The online application immediately told me I wasn't suitable.
Back when I first applied I just filled in an application form and started almost straight away with no experience whatsoever. It was only 15 years ago but a lot has changed since then.

My son managed to get temp work at Tesco before Xmas....he's got a first class honours degree and is now doing a Masters and it took him several attempts to pass the online tests...completely ridiculous.