To be shocked by what DD told me about her workplace?

[whatinthenameofcrapisthis]

DD(17) has a part time job at Greggs around her college hours. She told me today that they (the staff) regularly find used needles in the toilets from people injecting drugs, and that it's well known that particular people spend a long time in the toilets doing that. The same people also often shoplift sandwiches and drinks. I asked DD what the policy is for dealing with this, ie do they contact the police, and she said "we don't ring the police, we just report the drug use via a specified number", ie a drug hotline for Greggs itself (?), and that some staff have protective equipment to pick up needles. I was so baffled by this.

Surely used needles being left in toilets is a matter for the police? Greggs staff are not paid enough to have to deal with this surely? I told my daughter she should not be doing this.
Granted it's not the best area where the store is that she works at, lots of poverty and crime etc, but still... This has really shocked me!

AIBU to expect my teen daughter who is paid minimum wage in Greggs not to have to handle used needles?!

I have a nmw job in retail, you wouldn't believe the amount of literal SHIT that we have to deal with on a daily basis, nothing shocks me anymore, a lot of people are vile and disgusting. I have now refused to touch anything that involves bodily fluids because I DO NOT get paid enough to clean up after people who think it's ok to dump snot covered tissues, poo covered wipes and actual poo all over the shelves! I always wonder what goes through peoples heads and what their own house must be like to do these sorts of things!

From what I hear from people I know who work in retail, shoplifting is completely rife and shops can no longer prevent it. Someone who works in a Next store says that it's a daily occurrence and they come in and steal whole rails of expensive puffer jackets. Without a security guard on the door staff are powerless and allow it to happen because there are dangers in challenging. It's organised criminals.

Another I spoke to works in a Space NK and is faced daily with groups if Albanian and other immigrants who operate in gangs targeting city centre stores. They try to control it by limiting numbers of customers in the shops at any one time to but staff are frightened and it's not worth risk trying to challenge anyone.

No I work in a job where I speak to and see these people day in and day out and try to help them turn their life around by offering them therapeutic psycho social interventions, counselling, and support alongside pharmacological treatment . I'm truly sorry that happened to you I really am it must have been terrifying. You should never judge a person until you have walked a mile in their shoes as the saying shoes.

People who are addicted to drugs behave awfully to those around them, and nmw staff shouldn't have to put up with that behaviour. People who are addicted to drugs are very likely to have experienced significant trauma. Both things can be true. Arresting people for what they do to feed addiction is pointless because the addiction is so much stronger than any deterrent effect of being arrested or fined. They need proper support to deal with the addiction and the root causes, for their sakes and the people they impact.

Oh dear you have been blinded by middle class privilege and now your daughter has to see the reality for some people you are surprised and worried.

Wake up and see the world around you outside of your protective bubble of his is life in the UK.

Without the protection of your privilege this is life for many many people trying to survive when the ruling classes that you want to be part of are - well the in the simplest terms liars bully's and thieves

Our local Greg’s is in a petrol station so there are toilets, not sure if it’s Greg’s, Spar or Euro garage’s responsibility to check and clean the toilets though.

It’s the same in a fairly large Sainsbury’s the next town over, I refuse to shop there, needles always in the toilets and baby change area.

These multi million conglomerates around the world with their supporting political allies support the wealth divide that creates the theft and drug issues the western world has
Then they hold their hands up in desperation at the exact situation of capitalism and greed they support and encourage

As mentioned thefts of under £200 aren't prosecuted.

Utterly pointless to dust a syringe for prints, all it proves is you touched the syringe, not what you did with it.

Prosecuting users for using doesn't achieve anything. They need safe injecting spaces, support and accessible rehab, not a fine.

It’s not a police matter, they have other stuff to deal with. I don’t know whether street scene would deal with the paraphernalia as it’s private property. I do think anyone dealing with sharps etc should be fully health and safety trained though, although I doubt someone gets paid more for being trained.

It’s not a nice job to pick up needles but there’s no risk if they have the proper equipment and so no reason to refuse.

Not reporting shoplifting isn’t unusual. The police are not coming out to investigate a pack of sausage rolls walking out the door.

“Surely used needles being left in toilets is a matter for the police”

Not in a million years. I had my phone snatched from my hand in London and the Met didn’t want to know anything they just said they have no resources and here’s a crime number for the insurance. Have you also seen those people repeatedly looting shops in London? Staff told not to engage, same people over and over, no police.

Hourly?! 😂😂

Police do not prosecute shoplifters if the theft is under £200

Decrimilising theft has put plenty of hard working people out of business and facilities withdrawn from decent people and communities.

I saw two lads walk into Greggs, stock up on as much food as they could carry and walk straight back out.

The staff didn't even bat an eyelid.

My dd works in WH Smith's, same age as ops dd, and some of the customers are actually unbelievable in how rude they are.

Unfortunately police don't bother to turn up for minor crimes, or even mid-level crimes sometimes.

Agree about code locks, also Greggs should put a medical waste bin in the loos for the junkies to keep it contained.

I mean I don’t think Greggs are a Good employer.. I’m not surprised what they expect staff to do. The police equally pay terrible pay and are chronically understaffed. What would you expect them to do?? Arrest the drug users and then what? There’s almost no social services or mental health services left.
Im a bit shocked you are so shocked at it all.. surely you’ve seen what has been happening politically in the UK over the last 15 years and the total lack of public services. And the erosion of employee protection. Who do you think cares about staff at Greggs on minimum wage? And drug users? Certainly not a Tory government. Come on op

What a load of sanctimonious rubbish. The vast majority of people who struggle day to day to feed themselves do not steal, do not inject class A drugs and leave needles with blood products on them for someone else to clean up. People like you normalise this behaviour by saying it's the real world. It's not. It might be for some, but that doesn't mean anyone who is shocked by it is some elite, entitled, middle class person disconnected from reality. There is no shame in working, paying taxes to fund all the services everyone demands and making society actually function. Then along come sneering people like you saying people who do this are all privileged and blinded to real life.

If it's in a high crime, dodgy area then why on earth are you allowing her to work there....?!

I work in a quaint little museum and we have to occasionally pick up needles and used condoms from our grounds.

We don't need training, we just use a litter picker and put the needles straight into a sharps box.

The language on this thread is abhorrent. Druggies/junkies, crack heads. These are real human people. The majority who have suffered incredible trauma which has led them down the path they are on. Very few people actively chose to wake up one day and have an addiction to drugs. Yes some addicts are arseholes but they would be arseholes either way.

Are you volunteering your children to clear up after them?

DD works in a nice jobs where they are expected to take in used needles, they get free boxes to put them in, most people rock up with them in their pockets and expect DD to take them off them.

She refuses as she doesn’t have the correct training or safety equipment.

How disgusting. Same thing apparantely used to happen at the job centres toilets, they got rid of them, penalising people who might genuinely want or need to use them.
Men use to meet other men in toilets for sex too, spoiling it for genuine people.
How vile, people wanting to use public toilets for these activities. Couldn't give a shit about anyone else could they?
Find someone else.

A couple of PPs have mentioned putting sharps bins in the toilet.

My DP is a tradesman who has worked in the local needle exchange….and still finds used needles in the toilets. This is a place that you are allowed to dispose of needles and not get asked questions, yet still people put their needles in the toilets not the sharps boxes.

It doesn’t give me a lot of faith that the drug users in OP’s daughter’s workplace toilets would actually use the sharps box if one was provided.

How profoundly depressing that op is considered to be naive.

What else is new, OP? This has been going on forever.