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 worked in a supermarket in my twenties on the checkout and the deli counter.

It was one of the most stressful jobs I've ever had. Horrible customers. Being blamed for every shelf price not matching the till price, being shouted at for going too fast, too slow, 'ripping people off' because the till didn't apply a multi buy discount, being blamed for packing bags wrongly, getting reprimanded by senior management for the till not balancing, being 'rude' (e.g. customer complained that I didn't greet them with wild enthusiasm), not knowing the exact ingredients of a certain German sausage, allowing someone with more than 10 items through the '10 items or less' (fewer) till (I think they expected me to count individual bananas as an item), throwing away some pasta salad that was past use by date, the length of the queue and the fact all the checkouts weren't open was always my personal failure, the fact that I'd failed to spot a woman with a child with three items was 5 deep in the queue and I didn't call her forward, there was no strawberries... . I could go on. It was endless. Everyday resulted in some customer or senior management attack. It was fucking awful. I imagine its much worse now 20 years later given the entitlement of some people.

If it helps I'm a senior lawyer now and that is FAR less stressful.

When i ran my own business i worked at Asda on the tills for a couple of days a week and i quite enjoyed it. You can chat to customers and you get regulars who always come to you. I cannot say i had too many horrible customers - i can only remember 1 or 2 and they were vastly outnumbered by the lovely ones. I then stacked shelves and di not enjoy that so went back to the tills.

To be honest if it paid more and i could work the hours i wanted i would probably not do my current but still do that.

Are the evening shifts stressful? I'm thinking drunk people, drug users, underage people trying to buy alcohol etc, shoplifters how do you confront them?? That's what puts me off, especially in larger stores in towns and cities. I've seen people come into a Sains in London, grab a box of beer or whatever and run for it! I'd be terrified for my own safety, knives etc, and my job if I served an underage person or forgot to scan an item.

DH was a bakery manager for Sainsburys in the 90s. It was for a store that opened regular hours rather than 24/7. He'd be expected to go in at stupid o'clock and open up. A couple of times he'd arrived to find the store had been ram raided so had to deal with the police as none of the senior management would answer their phone at 4am. Baking, getting the product on the shelves and dealing with his team were in his job description. However managing a section like wines and spirits weren't, but often expected of him. Including working on beyond his normal finish time.

Sainsbury made a lot of their specialist managers redundant (managers that were trained bakers, butchers and fishmongers) during the time he was there. 6 months later they were advertising again for these specialists .

Working in a supermarket is great but like everything, not for everyone. Customers are ARSEHOLES literally young, old, black, white, male, female the amount of people who think they have the right to talk and treat you like crap is shocking. BUT you get in, do your job, deal with the stress around the peak holidays then you're at home and as soon as I've clocked out I'm done for the day and I can work around my children because there's literally 24 hours in which you can work (I work late evenings)

I've done it and found it physically tiring but not stressful. You do get the odd rude customer though.

Like any job it depends on:
If your manager is reasonable in what they ask of you and how they treat you.
If your colleagues treat you well, pull their weight and aren't cliquey or unpleasant.
How busy it is and whether there is sufficient staffing to cope with demand.
If you feel safe at work.
The level of autonomy you get and ability to have the level of control over your day that's right for you.
How much responsibility you carry when things go wrong, and if you're supported when that happens.

All supermarket jobs, like jobs in any sphere, aren't equal, and your stress levels will be largely determined by the above wherever you work.

I worked in an asda superstore for a few years. I'm an incredibly anxious and shy person and the only bits I found stressful were when customers asked me questions that I didn't know the answer to.
It was boring though. But soooo easy and stressfree.

My 16 yr old has a part time job in a supermarket whilst doing his A levels.
He absolutely loves it, he does a bit of everything, paid £9.50 p/h.

He works around 15 hrs p/week, his manager always allows him to cut his hours to bare minimum around exams and studying and then he pretty much works full time during holidays.

He is very shy and the confidence it has given him is great. Best thing he has done.
He has bought quite a lot with his money in between saving for driving lessons and has set himself up a few regular saving accounts.

Very much depends on the supermarket and the area you work in! I once worked at a well known 'upmarket' supermarket and whilst my fellow colleagues were all lovely and from all walks of life, the management were absolutely horrendous, all on power trips. All of the staff hated them, it was that bad! The majority of customers were extremely rude and demanding too unfortunately. The employees that seemed slightly happier were night shift workers, as no horrible management and customers not there. Oh and Christmas working was sheer hell! But, on the plus side, once you were out the door, you could forget about the place you can get shifts that fit well with your needs.

Depends on where and when I guess. Crap pay, crap hours, working Christmas. But then you might get a discount which is nice. The monotony of tasks can be nice.

But there's bits that can be soul destroying. Not having enough people and having to cover three or four places. Not getting to finish a task because you're pulled in several directions. Not having control or autonomy over a section/area. Or worse being assigned a section and goals but never getting into it because of staffing levels. Going through absence procedures is a pain. Rotas coming out late or being changed. Working with staff who don't care about the job or are only there because they wouldn't be employed anywhere else.

But then you can have a lovely team and you all work together and have a laugh. You come in get your stuff done and leave. Where I worked the part time who literally did busy weekends were generally happy just came in and did it. The people who worked close to part time but in the evenings were the worse off because they were treated like a combo of the Saturday people and full time day staff except never had staffing leveled to do either well.

IME it's marginally less stressful. Though like in any industry, there are some in management who get a thrill from demoralising staff.

@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?

It really depends on the role.

Working on the shopfloor replenishing stock in dairy (fastest moving department) is stressful. Especially at Christmas when that section is chockablock with irate customers. Replenishing stock in the non-food section, in contrast, is easy going.

Online shopping delivery drivers - this is mostly a chilled out job as you're left alone to get on with it and there isn't multiple customers being demanding. Of course, it's a very different experience in big cities like London and Glasgow where its likely to be significantly higher in stress.

It really depends on role within store plus location for levels of stress.

I worked in a supermarket for a while, on the checkouts.

I'd say it's very stressful, yeah. It's a horrible mix of utter tediousness and having to be on the go and alert constantly. Most of the customers I had were really nice, but the mental toll of having to sit and scan products through for hours at a time really did me in. It depends on your personality, for me boredom and feeling like what I'm doing is pointless in the grand scheme of things is the worst thing about a job! I honestly despised it and found it stressful. Even on days off I'd be miserable knowing I was going back there the following day.

Another element that makes it stressful is being treated like a child by your superiors, who are usually people who are so delighted to have a bit of power over their prior equals they wild it at every opportunity As an adult, you should be able to use the toilet when you need to, but on the checkouts you can't. You have to put your light on or raise your hand like a primary school pupil and wait for permission, which I found quite degrading. You can't have a drink at the till unless it's water. Just lots of little indignities that add up to an awful environment.

I've worked in male prisons, on suicide lines, as a social worker, as a therapist in a deprived population, and none of the above have been anywhere close to as stressful as working at a supermarket for me.

Many supermarket workers were abused by customers across the UK during the pandemic too. All that ridiculous panic buying and nonsense like that.

It's not automatically less stressful than higher paying jobs.

I left retail 20 years ago purely because of customers. If I could do something that wasn’t customer facing, shelf stacking etc then I’d do it, but I would not be under the impression it’s an easy role.

Stressful compared to what though? Compared to being a brain surgeon...no
Compared to making a cup of tea...yes...maybe

Everyone's idea of stressful is different

It depends what you ate used to. I was front line public services as well as nhs in my past. Nothing could be as stressful. Dh works in supeemarket ( used to be senoir manger soc services on 13 hour days and looked ill) . A 6 hour shift ( were yes people can be rude) but no midnight e mails , no legal stuff, no harrowing.cases.. its bliss for him to come home and forget work and for me .!

There are stressful moments, but I can honestly say that when I worked at Sainsburys doing the online shopping I worked with the best colleagues I have ever worked with!

If I got made redundant from my job I would much much rather go back to supermarket work than call Centre work (which I have also done and hated, would not recommend to anyone!)

It's not stressful.

Mind-numbingly boring, yes, but not stressful.

I did 6 years on checkout as a student. We were always given the worst shifts and the earliest breaks. I was literally bored to tears. Honestly cannot put into words how tedious is was. We used to cover the clocks on our tills with paper in the hope that time would go quicker if we couldn't see it! All the other departments seemed to band together but checkouts was utter misery and bitchiness. We used to be elated if we got "chosen" to do a job off the till! Weighing the money was my favourite! But pouring old milk down the drain or putting cardboard in the compactor were both sought after jobs simply because you would be off the till for five minutes.

Depends on the supermarket. I work in a local version of a supermarket and it's great. Because it's small we get to know customers and they're friendly to staff. It's a great team and we all get on really well.

I was after a less stressful job after quitting a horrible office job and it's the best decision I made for employment.

It can be physically demanding and it's not exactly taxing on mental skills, but that doesn't bother me.

@Charlavail

I did 6 years on checkout as a student. We were always given the worst shifts and the earliest breaks. I was literally bored to tears. Honestly cannot put into words how tedious is was. We used to cover the clocks on our tills with paper in the hope that time would go quicker if we couldn't see it! All the other departments seemed to band together but checkouts was utter misery and bitchiness. We used to be elated if we got "chosen" to do a job off the till! Weighing the money was my favourite! But pouring old milk down the drain or putting cardboard in the compactor were both sought after jobs simply because you would be off the till for five minutes.

I found that too, hated being stuck on the checkout. Not helped by having a complete arse of a manager, who would frequently cash up incorrectly then yell at everyone on the tills for theft, before discovering the wad of cash she'd forgotten to count. Never got an apology of course.

Preferred stocking shelves or cleaning.

I'm an online delivery driver and it's a easy job. Load my van then I'm out on my own all day with nobody to answer to. I have the radio on, chat with the customers, can take my break whenever I want and no stress. And it's higher pay than shop floor jobs.

I have a colleague who was physically attacked by a customer and verbal assault is something we've all had to deal with, although since Covid rules have been relaxed I notice customers don't seem as eager to have a go at us now. First lockdown was horrendous with lots of staff ending their shift in tears.
I think the abuse is the worst thing and it stays with you