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.

Someone above posted that they got made redundant from Lidl. My local M&S Foodhall is making staff redundant.

wonder if ageism played a part?

NMW is lower for younger staff, so yes I think ageism does play a part from that perspective.

Some supermarkets don't pay different according to age-it's all the same pay (but performance related pay rises).

I used to work at Waitrose part time when doing my A levels. Left on good terms after 3 years. I re-applied when the kids were small and unfortunately I mentioned them in my 'bit about me' section of the application. They declined my application. I think because of the mention of young children. About 10 years later I applied again. I was very flexible with working hours/days and times. I was asked 'do you bite your fingernails?' on their on line application. I answered 'no' and the application was declined straight after that question as 'I didn't meet their criteria' I mean WTAF??!

The complete expectation of complete flexibility is brutal nowadays

@sittinonthedockofthebay

I have not read it, shall have to have a look.

I had that off the job centre in the recession. Tesco etc won't touch you without retail experience when I tried. They're also savvy enough to know that I'd be using it as a stop gap til my normal job market picked up. Also the job centre insisted I ring employers who did the "if you haven't heard in a week you haven't been successful " email. I was threatened with stopping my money unless I provided a name & date & time I'd called the employer , even tho I provided the email stating the a week & youre unsuccessful email . I'm still resentful to this day tbh it made the mortification of signing on ten times worse .

Never managed to even pass the online assessment with Tesco.

It all reminds me of Victorian times when workers turned up at the dock each day to find out if they would be hired for a day of work or have to go home with nothing.

Of course, people campaigned and trades unions developed to represent workers against these awful treatments...that’s how the history books present it....that progress was made in worker rights. And now there is such a move backwards towards the very things that Booth and Rowntree identified as key causes of poverty which needed to be addressed...insecure and unreliable work.

It is shocking. And leaving the EU will mean less worker rights still.
We have a 2 tier workforce - those with jobs with secure contracts, holiday pay, sick pay and decent pensions and those without any of those things.

A few years ago I failed the beginning of the Primark online application. I have years of retail experience but they'd never know that because of the screening.

Am painfully aware that my only value now, at 52, would be in the care industry, which I have only personal experience of and would not be suited to professionally.

Please God let our council give my shop some sort of assistance as we are non-essential, or I can see the rest of my working life being quite challenging....

Also agree with the person who says it's often who you know that helps you get a job as well.
In one job my DD did at a kids camp, the manager had her husband, daughter, son and 2 nieces working there.
The people who make the comments about finding work easily at a supermarket are usually those who don't work and who are a lot older and remember it as being how it was in their day.

@WombatChocolate

It all reminds me of Victorian times when workers turned up at the dock each day to find out if they would be hired for a day of work or have to go home with nothing.

Of course, people campaigned and trades unions developed to represent workers against these awful treatments...that’s how the history books present it....that progress was made in worker rights. And now there is such a move backwards towards the very things that Booth and Rowntree identified as key causes of poverty which needed to be addressed...insecure and unreliable work.

It is shocking. And leaving the EU will mean less worker rights still.
We have a 2 tier workforce - those with jobs with secure contracts, holiday pay, sick pay and decent pensions and those without any of those things.

You're so right about the 2 tier system. I didn't realise it at the time but when I finished uni i scrabbled for the "top tier" anything I could get, ended up working in a bank, nothing to do with my passions or degree. I've moved around a little but still in the same area (finance). DH however found something he loved and found a job in it (chef) he is however firmly in the "bottom tier", it's been demonstrated time and time again as he's been treated poorly, no sick pay, no job security etc. The one benefit if you like was that there were always lots of those roles around. Until now, things are looking pretty bleak job wise for him now.

@WombatChocolate

It all reminds me of Victorian times when workers turned up at the dock each day to find out if they would be hired for a day of work or have to go home with nothing.

Of course, people campaigned and trades unions developed to represent workers against these awful treatments...that’s how the history books present it....that progress was made in worker rights. And now there is such a move backwards towards the very things that Booth and Rowntree identified as key causes of poverty which needed to be addressed...insecure and unreliable work.

It is shocking. And leaving the EU will mean less worker rights still.
We have a 2 tier workforce - those with jobs with secure contracts, holiday pay, sick pay and decent pensions and those without any of those things.

Absolutely, it started going backwards again in the 1980s. The result is what we have now - a huge part of the population (the low / unskilled) with very limited protection.

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?
This comment is spot on. Thank you. Lindylou
I work in a supermarket and have been trying to find the words to explain exactly what you've posted.

@NoIDontWatchLoveIsland

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.

None of the major supermarkets in the uk pay less based on age

Also the reason supermarkets don't hire people who are over qualified i.e with a degree is they don't want to waste there time training people who will leave as soon as they get something better. If you express an interest in changing career etc you will much more likely get taken seriously. They know what they are getting with students. They will normally stay the 4 years and not complain about working evenings or weekends.

It does beg the question where have all the bloody jobs gone then? Are there simply not enough around??

Obviously I know companies are shrinking rn and positions closed. I don't know I guess I just find it so weird if there aren't enough jobs for people. Surely the Benefits system would need looking at if that's so?

I realise that sounded like a dumb question I'm not sure how to phrase what I'm trying to say.

@CorianderBee

Myself @WombatChocolate and @TheMobileSiteMadeMeSignup have all commented on this below. It's not as simple as "the benefits system needs looking at". It won't be (well it may be tweaked slightly) but our labour market has been designed to have an over supply of labour.

@museumum

Many people will say and believe that “any job is better than no job”

But in the real world a job that pays you for ten hours but demands you are available and have childcare for 8-8 7days a week is not any actual use.
Or one you have to turn up for at 8am every morning but are sent home in an hour with no pay. Again, that job is absolutely no use if you need childcare. It will end up costing you a fortune and netting you almost nothing in return.

That's true even if you don't need childcare. I mean, how do you pay your rent?

I've noticed it's now also extended to 'get a job in care'. Do you want the people caring for the most vulnerable in society there because they were forced to?

@rawalpindithelabrador

I've noticed it's now also extended to 'get a job in care'. Do you want the people caring for the most vulnerable in society there because they were forced to?

No we don't, on the face of it anyway. I don't think care should be a job you just walk into, to be a good carer you need skills, despite people thinking it's unskilled to justify minimum wage, You can do it without skills, which is what justifies the minimum wage and poor conditions, the people who are good at this job have invested their time, and quite often their own money, on training. In short, society doesn't really think carers are worth more than what they're getting, which actually speaks more to how we think collectively about our elderly and vulnerable. With the convenient scapegoat of when things go wrong, as they are bound to when a job has people's lives at stake, yet relies on an 'unskilled' workforce, everyone is up in arms about it without seeing that the way things are set up and delivered, much higher than the carers or companies, are the real problems.

The Tesco test is next to impossible to pass if you use any common sense. I tried 5 times and failed every time. In the end I asked my son’s friend (who managed to work out how to pass) to show me the answers. I was totally astonished when he passed. You basically have to continually drop your own tasks and do your colleagues job (in the hypothetical scenarios) when they ask for help, even though you have your own tasks to complete. It makes no sense at all. If you stick to your assigned tasks, you fail every time.

Btw, he didn’t get an interview, despite passing and neither did my son who ticked the Disability box, which was supposed to prioritise you for an interview.