AIBU to think staff shouldn’t be searched after work?

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My 16 year old son has got himself a little part time job at a discount clothes store, beginning with M. Pay is dreadful (£4 odd an hour,) job is mind numbing, but he’s sticking at to gain experience. I’m sat waiting to collect him at 9pm last night and I wondered what the delay was for 5 mins by the door.
I witnessed the manager searching all the bags of the staff leaving. My son didn’t have a bag, but still had to wait to be let out afterwards. He said this is standard practice each shift.
I am already disgusted by the pay, finding out he wasn’t paid for his induction and chasing 8 hours pay he’s not received, to now witness this! Utterly appalled that they would treat their staff this way.
I am trying To convince him to resign but he wants to find another part time job first.

It's standard procedure in many jobs. Where dh works cars and bags can be searched going on and off site and they do random drug tests.

For me, it's just a symptom of the contempt in which retail staff are held, by employers, and indeed all the MNers on here saying it's ok.

It's this really, it's also why customers feel they can abuse any kind of staff serving them, because it's a prevailing attitude through society and boils down to the reasoning that people in these jobs can't, or are too lazy to do any better, conveniently forgetting how much we (collectively) rely on them to actually do their jobs for the essential stuff in life but also leisure experiences everyone seems to feel are also essential.
And no one really thinks twice about it until they are impacted by it, by them having to do one of these jobs, or someone they care about, outside of that the answer is always 'get a better job then'. 🤷🏼‍♀️

As a supplier to a lot of retailers theft is a huge problem - they all have 'shrink' teams to try and tackle it

We were told on average (this came from 3 different large supermarkets) that 15% of 'non/food' stock is stolen - around 5% each by delivery companies, store staff and customers

I voted YANBU. I had no idea this was standard. How humiliating.

Normal for retail. Theft of stock by staff is a huge issue in retail and whilst it's usually a more organised system than just "stuffing an item in your coat and walking out", staff searches are an easy way to deter staff theft (many staff get complacent and forget about cameras etc after a while and that's often when they're caught committing offences) as it reminds them that there are security measures in place. Should stores have to put these measures in place? No, but unfortunately evidence and experience has shown that staff theft does happen and they have to put procedures in place to combat it, including physical checks.

I used to work in Next as a student and the store didn't have a separate staff entrance so we had to walk through the shop floor and past the warehouse when starting and ending shifts. We had to have a bag check at the end of every shift before we left because it would have been so easy to steal stuff.

There were no cameras in the staff only areas (warehouse, back corridor etc) so all you'd have had to do is leave stuff you wanted to steal either just inside the warehouse door or hidden in the corridor somewhere and then on your way out grab it before you left and then walk out. We also weren't allowed to shop in our store during our shifts so that no store merchandise went up to the staff locker rooms.

Now, I work in a supermarket and we just have random colleague searches a couple of times a week - we have a separate staff entrance that every colleague has to use to start/end their shift and there are cameras outside the door and a security gate (to set off any security tags) just inside the door so they don't have to check every colleague every shift.

If they're doing a "search" then you press a button red = search, green = good to go. If you are to be searched then you just open your bag to show it's contents and they may ask you to empty your pockets if they look stuffed full (usually in winter when people have stuffed hats/gloves in a coat pocket, but it could easily be stock instead) but they don't go rifling through everything.

Everyone saying it's a sign of contempt and lack of trust - well, why are staff constantly getting caught if they can be trusted?

Some people are opportunistic and will steal if given the opportunity. Retailers would be both stupid and naive to stop searching bags in an attempt to improve things.

I worked in retail for a decade and we always got searched. Never bothered me or made me feel untrustworthy as I wasn't the one stealing anything 🤷🏻‍♀️

And yes, the searches regularly caught people out and got them fired - at least one person a month in larger stores.

Any job looks good as the start of a CV - so yes, he will go on to higher and better things.

I've never forgotten the experience of my first few jobs, and I'm retired now.

For me, it's just a symptom of the contempt in which retail staff are held, by employers, and indeed all the MNers on here saying it's ok.

As a retail worker who is subjected to these searches, I disagree. Theft is a huge issue in retail because of the nature of the sector, and companies have to do whatever they can to reduce this. Everyone wants to be able to trust their employees but nobody can 100% guarantee that no staff member would ever do something wrong and so when creating security protocols you have to assume that anyone is capable of anything and tailor the security checks to that industry.

Having thousands of items coming and going from a store on a daily basis with multiple people involved in the distribution process and knowing that it's unlikely that anyone will notice if the odd item goes missing as it will be blamed on system errors. You're not going to get huge swathes of theft by teachers from schools because they have no budgets to have anything worth stealing or office workers in a call centre purely because there isn't the opportunity for that, if they're going to commit a crime in their workplace then it's going to be something other than theft.

I have worked in many workplaces and they all have security protocols built in that are relevent to the job sector, bag searches for retail employees are just that. If you work in an office where there's nothing to steal then they're unlikely to do bag searches daily, but if you deal with sensitive or confidential information then there will be systems set up to check on staff to ensure they aren't misusing this information; if you work in a bank then they're not going to be checking your bag for rolls of money at the end of each shift but there will be security protocols to audit work to ensure there's no fraud/money laundering going on; if you work in a hospital where there are controlled drugs, then there will be a secure system set up to ensure access to those drugs is limited to specific people only, as a security measure; if you work airside in an airport then you will have to go through security every single shift not because they don't trust employees but because there is a need to ensure nobody can bring prohibited items airside, whether that's staff or customers etcetc.

I occasionally carry out such searches, I don't think anyone feels humiliated by it. I am also subject to searches.

I do object to you referring to the job as mind numbingly boring, even if that is your opinion. Without staff doing the recovery shift, ie, making the stock presentable every day, our shopping experiences would be very different.

Every time something is picked up and put back in a different place, every jumper, tshirt etc that is unfolded and then just dumped back on the table, all these things need attention at the end of the day.

My biggest gripe is when a customer opens up a packet or unfolds a towel etc chucks it back and puts a nicely folded one in their basket.

Your son is part of a team and going a grand job, I hope his manager makes him feel that way.

Your son has the right attitude, especially wanting to find another job before he resigns.

Leave him to make his own decisions now. You've said your piece.

I used to work at B&M and 'random' searches were carried on every Sunday. Empty all bags, pockets and lockers etc and they write what we have on us (phone, pen, knife for opening boxes etc).

When I had my Saturday in job in BHS in the 70s we took nothing on the shop floor apart from a pen, our till key and tissues. Saturday staff didn't have lockers so we left our bags and two staff members guarded them. We got our wages at morning break so they knew there were pay packets in our bags, there was also no system for odentifying the bags either, you'd just point and say "that blue one there". They could easily have helped themselves!

At tesco they even carry out random car searches

On the subject of workplace theft... it's absolutely rife in retail.

I once worked for a well known supermarket and the 18 year old lad who worked in the kiosk was caught with £100s of pounds of scratch cards stuffed down his socks! Someone tipped management off so they did a more thorough search than usual on his way out.

Cash less prevalent now so perhaps not such an issue but I know anyone who was working on a till was warned they could be asked to remove their socks or lift their shirt collars as these were places people would hide notes.

I always used to make sure anything I took into work, i.e. lunch or personal items was another shop's brand. Avoided having to mess about with receipts.

Yes, I remember being offered a job in Oasis (RIP) but working out that I would have to spend a significant amount of my wages on work clothes from there so it wasn't worth it.

I don't know why the different approaches. We had to wear a uniform though and there were a lot of staff so maybe that was partly it.

TBH if never bothered me. Everyone was treated the same, and it was done respectfully eg when I had my locker randomly searched, the manager and security guard were careful with my things, were laughing with me and it was very clear that it was just company policy rather than targeting specific staff groups. They went out of their way to explain that they didn't think I was a thief. As far as I'm aware, no one was ever made to feel like a thief. I worked in 3 different branches.

While I was there 2 staff members were caught stealing so...

When I worked briefly for Selfridges in the 1970s, they searched staff bags when they left in the evening. One of the security staff told me that the store lost more money through staff thefts than from shoplifters.

Working in retail is what has made me go 99% cashless - we are not allowed to carry cash on us when we are on the shop floor, especially if you are a till operator or have cash office access, to prevent accusations of theft. However, because we are allowed to buy lunch/drinks on our shift we are allowed to carry debit cards and many staff members have smart watches, so can use Apple/Android pay.

I am now just in the habit of only taking a card wallet that holds my access/clock in card, debit card, work discount card and ID to work. I used to have a bigger purse with more cards/cash but I found I never bothered taking it (half the time I could never remember where I'd left it). So now, unless someone gives me cash or I need it for a specific reason, I never carry cash because it's just so automatic to not carry cash.

Thanks for all the info. I still
don’t agree with staff having to prove they are not stealing when leaving the job they have chosen to do, but that’s my opinion.
Im really pleased that he has secured a job at Boots, paying twice the hourly rate and much better hours in a nearer location. He’s now got to just work this week and chase his 10.5 not been paid.

That’s good OP. Many of my friends worked weekend jobs in Boots when we were younger and loved it (especially the discount which was very generous 15/20 years ago!)

They did still get searched as they left though….

I worked in a place where we weren't allowed to take bags onto the shop floor. We had to use see through plastic bags. When it was home time there was random searching of bags as we left. I didn't mind one bit because I knew how much pilfering went on by the staff and that's the only reason they did it.