Is working in a supermarket stressful?

[Joanna1988124]

Apart from the minimum wage element. Is the job itself stressful or is it the kind of job you just do your hours and then can relax and not think about it until your next shift?

I work in in one and on the whole I actually enjoy it. I've worked there for a long time and feel like I'm part of the furniture there lol. Its a fairly small one though, in a rural community.

My colleagues are good, its like being part of a family there. On the whole the customers are mostly OK and we can have a laugh and a moan with each other about the ones that aren't. The management are reasonable and don't treat you like shit e.g getting time off when needed is rarely a problem.

I haven't worked in one but my DD did. She loved it, even though people were annoying.
The stress free bit was not having to think or plan or do anything other than what she was told to do. She worked hard at work, but was able to forget it as soon as she walked out of the door. And not give her day a single thought until she walked in the next day.

Depends on the shop. If the management are decent / company ethos is sound, then yes it’s a fairly stress-free job. Not as much pressure as other service industry gigs.

I work in Tesco as a shelf stacker (won’t say which store!) I wouldn’t say it’s hugely stressful however it isn’t stress-free either.

You must accept overtime now-and-again as per my contract unless you work full time but full time contracts are like gold dust in my store. The work itself isn’t stressful but it is a lot of work filling shelves by yourself especially during a weekend/festive season & a high absence of covid related illnesses. The store manager was asking colleague to come into work during the ping-demic despite the government advice being to self isolate regardless of vaccination status at the time. Most of the customers are nice but you get some entitled cunts demanding this and that and just generally speaking to you like shit but that isn’t very often tbf.

Picking groceries for the online customers is time sensitive and you can get fired if you don’t keep up to speed.

Store dependent, management can be excellent or just completely useless. My manager is rare to be seen and isn’t really hands on. My colleagues often work their breaks due to the lack of staff due to so many people leaving/covid absence. It’s quite normal to work 6-7 hours without getting a break. Lots of managers in my store have left or stepped down from their role since covid struck.

My advice? If you’re very stressed, I would find a four hour contract or something very small at your local supermarket and give it a taste to see what you think of it and don’t quit your job just yet!

I do think it's worse now. I worked for a different supermarket in my 20s for a couple of years. I loved it.
Went to a different supermarket several years later and I can honestly say it's the worst job I've ever had.

The job is not stressful in itself.
When I worked on counters we ran at stretch plus 10%. Basically someone in a closed store with no customers timed how long it took to do tasks for example the cleaning at the end of day. If they took 30 mins they would set the allocated time for colleagues in a live store at 27mins for that task.

Store managers I worked for were either inept or on a power trip. I had one refuse access to water for check out staff. When I spoke to him about this saying it was against policy and the law he told me it was his store, he would do what he liked.
I escalated it via the union and rights were reinstated.
It was management attitudes that made the job stressful, not the job itself.

I think it depends on the kind of person you are. I would find it extremely stressful, but I get horribly stressed and anxious just walking into a supermarket. I’ve worked retail before and it was mostly okay, but that was a large department store. I couldn’t do a supermarket of any size.

As others have said, a lot depends on the company. My brother is a career retail manager; he did 15 years with Morrisons and there the stress was high, with him typically working 65+ hours a week. He's now with Lidl and the culture is much better; he works his contracted hours and no more, gets his days off without last-minute cancellations, and is generally much happier.

I worked in one doing shelf stacking - tbh the customers were the best part of the job, I helped some really lovely people and had some great chats with them.

Shelf stacking is incredibly boring as well as being hard work physically. You aren’t allowed to listen to music unless the store is closed which is understandable but makes it even more mind numbing. The management in my store were unfriendly and they’d all fuck off on break at the same time so if you needed one, you could never find them. There was never enough equipment to go around (for stock check and reductions) so people would hide it then get bollocked for that. There was a real misogynist culture too.

I hated it and would never work in a large supermarket again unless it was checkouts. That was the cushty job.

I did stocking shelves it's not at all stressful but very dull. I was also forever catching my feet on those cages. Bloody hurt!!

It depends on the shop.

I work in a supermarket (mainly on tills, but also stocking shelves and picking online orders) in a lovely town, and there are very, very few problem customers. We work as a team, and have a strong customer focus. Staff turnover is very low. Stress (in my role) is almost non-existent. (It's not the same for other roles though). And yes, I just leave it at the door when I leave. Management in my store are generally really good, although we have one brand new manager that the jury is still out on...

A few miles away, at the same 'brand' of shop, it's not like that. Staff turnover is much higher, it's not got nearly such a friendly vibe, and some people choose to come to the one I work in instead of their local.

I've done various jobs, most of which are much better paid, office work, civil service, agricultural work and self employment. Right now, I wouldn't swap this job for anything other than self employment.

I've always thought it looks a bit mad working at Aldi. One minute you're dragging some big pallet of stuff out in between old ladies and rampaging toddlers, then you're chucking the stuff into the shelf, then you get called to the the till to scan stuff through at 100mph, and all whilst having a jolly conversation with your colleagues on those headset things they wear. Respect to the Aldi workers!

It depends on your job role within the supermarket. Sitting on tills serving and chatting with customers and the odd customer being awful is easy enough, same with stock taking and the shelf stickers etc picking for online orders can be stressful as hell having team leaders constantly on your back to pick at an unrealistic fast rate and being called up daily to be questioned why your picking is too slow and if there's complaints about the order cause drivers have condensed two trays into one and squashed something you get a lot of hassle for that too.

Some supermarkets that do online orders have some staff cold call customers and that can cause a lot of stress as it can take days to sort out on problem or its a repeating issue and the customer is vile to you everytime you ring them.

I work on the slef checkouts at Waitrose, 3 shifts a week on top of my full tile other job, trying to max my earnings! I enjoy it. Colleagues are mostly great, managers are decent enough, and similar to a PP it's in a small "naice" town so major problems are few and far. Some rude entitled customers sure, but you learn not to let it get to you. Staff discount also great

I would think it probably depends who your customers are. Waitrose in a nice middle class area is probably less stressful than Asda in the dodgy end of town. I'm judging this by the police cars that always seem to be outside the Asda whenever I go past it.

It depends on what you're doing.

I used to work on the hot food counter and when it was busy, it could be really stressful being stuck in a hot kitchen cooking, then having also to come out, serve customers etc. that was more to do with being short-staffed though. If we'd had enough people, then one person cooking and one person serving would have made it ten times easier

However when it was quiet and I was just making the pizzas I found it really therapeutic you got into a rhythm and often worked in pairs so you could just stand and chat in between customers.

Saying all that though I'd not go back to retail again in a hurry!

I worked on the bakery department of an Asda. A girl I worked with got threatened with rape for not reducing some cake.
I got threatened repeatedly that they'll "get me sacked" etc.
Long hours. Busy whilst there. Customers, 90% fine, 9% rude, 1% absolutely horrific.
Managers rushing and often workaholics doing very long shifts. Expectation to live to work and be available when they demand.

I did not like it. I found it very very stressful.

I worked in shops for 5 years (not supermarket) I never found it stressful, I enjoyed it though there were arsehole customers occasionally. I went on to do lots of event management so in comparison to that definitely not!

I think it depends on the particular shop. When I worked in a supermarket I found it very physical work, constantly getting stock or putting stuff on the shelves. Also there was always someone breathing down your neck if you so much as spoke to any of your colleagues or if you made a minor mistake on the tills.

Some of the supervisors and managers are very high handed too.

I am currently working in a supermarket... I hate it!
I mean there are lovely elements to the job like you serve your hours and are done... we have lovely customers and my colleagues are overall great!
BUT the management is shite, we have a lot of lazy 16-20 year olds that need baby sitting. Now they want us to do some cleaning once shop is closed... it's all about keeping costs down. (I know, all this might be specific to my workplace)
I'm out! Only have a few weeks left until I start a new job far far away from retail!

It depends what you find stressful really. Due to trying to save money where they can a lot of retail now works on as few staff as possible, meaning it can be super busy- dealing with the public is also often horrible, some people are so bloody nasty or just general pain in the arses. Talking to strangers everyday is also a nightmare for some and would be stressful. It tends to be hard work, although you can usually forget about it when you finish your shift (unless they call you begging you to come in some unsocial shift the next day).

It would be fine if it wasn't for the customers.

Just a request - if you want to get something from a shelf and a member of staff is stacking that shelf, don't do the following:

Stand there in silence staring at them until they turn round and see you.

Pretend they are invisible and shove your arm in front of their face to grab your pot of yoghurt, narrowly missing their nose with the sleeve of your dirty coat.

Just say "Excuse me". The staff member does not know you are there.

If you can't find your fave product, don't bellow at the staff "Why have YOU moved the cheese from where it always is!" Ditto, any changes to store loyalty card, car park etc. None of it is their decision.

That is all.

I've often fantasised about giving up my stressful job and doing something like this. My job is never not in my head so it feels 24 7. Not worrying about deadlines would be wonderful.

I'll bet it has its own challenges though. I was in a supermarket in the evening a couple of days ago and saw a man stuffing loads of packets of batteries into his jacket. I went and grassed on him to a staff member and they said they don't have a security guard anymore so there's nothing they can do about it.

DS has just finished after 6 months doing evening shelf stacking. He wasn't at all stressed but he seemed to work with a good bunch of folk and only had limited interaction with customers asking him where stuff was on the shelves. It was only ever going to be a temporary job for him whilst he applied for something more career focused. He did find it mundane though.

I am approaching retirement, in fact I already receive a small pension from a former employer so until I reach state pension age I am working part-time in a supermarket. I would say that the managers do have plenty of stress, particularly over the last 2 years. The regular colleagues less so, certainly for us it is a job where you leave it behind at the end of your shift. Probably the thing I like best is that the buck does not stop with me and if I have a problem I can just refer it on to my manager, in other jobs I've done I have been the one the buck stopped with. It is busy and some of the work can be quite physically tiring, at least for someone in their 60's, when you are on you feet for the whole shift but I find it okay.