Unfair treatment at work

[Successgirl2022]

Hello All,

I work for a major retailer. Because of never-ending lockdowns for 1 year
and huge redundancies after that, I was asked if I would agree to move to my local store (no need to go by train like I've done for 6 years spending £100-120 a month on it) from clothes to food in August 2020.

I had a chance to refuse and to stay on clothes where I've worked for 15 years in 3 different stores because we moved for my husband's job and I managed to transfer which was a very stressful nearly impossible procedure but I made sure I did.

So I thought I would give it a go even if I knew straight away I preferred working on clothes 100% more. The reasons are

1. I love being warm

2. I prefer to work in clothes. I never minded helping in a food hall but I knew how much more extremely hectic it can be than clothes. Though it can get crazy on clothes during sales and offers too.

So, I've signed my contract to move to my local store in October 2020. I SO MUCH regret doing it now!

Until the Christmas craze started it was more or less ok but it took me the whole year to adapt to it.

With Christmas madness, the rules for yellow reduction stickers changed 1 month ago. They used to be done in the morning at 5 am - 8 am before the store opens. Now they've changed them to the evening. So the store clothes at 20:00 and we have to do them till 22:00,

I saw a nice new young student girl doing the deli section in 3 hours 19:00 till 22:00. That's how long it took her. The shelves are crazy full and you have to go through sliced meat and deli products looking for tomorrow's date. They obviously want nothing to be missed and avoid wasting it.

So tonight I also started doing the deli section at 19:00 and finished at 22:00.

My incompetent immature manager told me 3 hours was way too long! What??? How dare he!

I was really upset about it how ungrateful he was towards me.

I checked 1000 or maybe 2000 items. I'll count them all next time specifically to know how many.

Has anyone been in a similar position?

Thank you very much

@Allmadeoflego 🤣

Grow up ffs

So you took 3 hrs to do a task that has 2 hrs assigned to it.
In that 3 hrs, you found 1 discrepancy worth £3.50- let's say you were paid £30 in that 3 hrs.
The company actually lost £26.50 assigning you to carry out that task.

Jesus man, people in admin and physical admin jobs don't realize how much money they cost companies by being inefficient.
I'd say people in most jobs don't understand cost implications.

Also, I will never ever get faster in them. I've timed myself and tried my best to be thorough in them if they want a proper job done, speed is not the most important thing here. It takes as long as it takes. Rushing it means you can't guarantee a 100% quality check.

But they don't want a 100% quality check, they want it done in 2 hours.

How about next time you don't check so carefully and do it in under 2 hours. Win-win situation.

No job 'takes as long as it takes', realistically. Especially not in a busy environment with use by dates etc. Stipulating this does not make your manager a bully. You wish to stay until you get your shares, doing what you want, taking as long as you like with no opposition. Why would this be good business sense?

Ask your manager how long this task should take, what error margin is acceptable (one £3.50 item missed in 3 hours is not necessarily evidence of others not being efficient or thorough, it's probably an acceptable balance of timeliness/ accuracy). Then you ask him for advice getting up to this speed. If it doesn't prove realistic after taking his approach, you speak to him with a compromise.

From reading your posts, I would suggest you alter your approach here or you may find yourself heading towards performance management.

Try a couple of shifts at Aldi or Lidl, your current food hall will suddenly look a lot more attractive!

Realistically you cannot expect to be given a free pass not to do certain tasks which are part of the job, unless you are prevented from doing so by a disability. "I like to take my time and do a proper job" is not a disability, it's a personal preference.

We all have tasks in our roles which we're not going to like. That's why we get paid to work, we don't do it free. If you want to avoid all tasks that you don't enjoy then you need to seek employment where this magically happens - good luck with that! - or become self employed which at least means you can set your own targets and standards.

Would there be an option to transfer back to clothing store? I know the commute was a pain but it sounds like you were a lot happier.

At some point you have to consider if hanging on for "the shares" is worth the toll this job is taking on your mental health and happiness. I walked away from a big bonus when I left my last employed job and went self employed. If I'd stuck in there another 6 months it would have been financially better for me, but not mentally. You can't put a price on health.

I worked at Aldi a few years ago and I was expected to sort a massive palette in 25 minutes while constantly being shouted at to work quicker. And that's not the half of it. Needless to say I left after 6 months and I'm suprised I lasted that long.

I'd just let that comment from your manager go over your head honestly, it sounds like you've got it easy. Obviously it's important to you but it's not the end of the world. In that situation I would just let it go for your own peace of mind. The worst thing you can do is overreact because it will be you that suffers.

If you're only doing deli and it's taking you 3 hours then that's an excessively long time. I was working at a supermarket until very recently and I could do the entire fridge section in 2 hours - doing sandwiches took about 10 minutes.

Do you not have a handheld device that tells you what items you should be looking for?

Your boss may have been a prick but that isn’t bullying and being younger than you doesn’t count for anything, they’ve got the job they do through a recruitment process. Just say, “I’ll hopefully speed up when I’m more experienced but I’m keen to ensure i don’t make mistakes”.

Not sure why you need to make this into a drama and compare to others.

@Hrpuffnstuff1

So you took 3 hrs to do a task that has 2 hrs assigned to it. In that 3 hrs, you found 1 discrepancy worth £3.50- let's say you were paid £30 in that 3 hrs. The company actually lost £26.50 assigning you to carry out that task.

Jesus man, people in admin and physical admin jobs don't realize how much money they cost companies by being inefficient.
I'd say people in most jobs don't understand cost implications.

Yes, faffing about worrying about 1 to 5 items is costing the company money not saving it.

I know everyone is different but I struggle to understand those rigid mindsets. Unable to prioritize what is important, won't listen to feedback, then complains about being bullied when someone is telling them to do something a different way.

@Blahdyblahbla

People make life and death decisions, or close multi million pound deals with less fuss than you're making over yellow stickers.

This too. You sound like a child OP. Waah waah waah it’s not fair.

The professional thing to do would be to ask him how long it should take and what error rate is acceptable. Ask if you can observe someone else do it. If he can’t answer any of these then yes it’s unfair but your complaining sounds very emotionally immature.

Are you the woman who works 25 hours a week and seems to complain about every minute of it?

Your writing style, self-importance, and the bit about shares sounds familiar.

If it is you, you went to great lengths on your precious post to tell everyone how much your husband earns. Your child is 16 and doesn’t need childcare, so maybe it’s time to pack it in?

Did I read correctly OP that you have a second income where you earn more than the manager? Why would you keep on a shelf stackers job that makes you unhappy if you have another income earning more than the manager?

You sound very judgemental and negative.

Of course, I have hobbies but I'll ALWAYS stand up for myself and have boundaries of healthy respectful communication with me and not let a toxic environment happen around me in any area of my life - if it's work, personal life, friendship, etc.

and I'll never be a victim nodding to everything 'yes, sorry' when I try my best and it's a 99% my colleagues' result AVERAGE 99% best and it's not good enough, apparently etc

@Successgirl2022

You sound very judgemental and negative.

Of course, I have hobbies but I'll ALWAYS stand up for myself and have boundaries of healthy respectful communication with me and not let a toxic environment happen around me in any area of my life - if it's work, personal life, friendship, etc.

I never thought I'd see this in MN as it's usually full of doormats but I've found the opposite

Yesterday they gave me a reasonable area to find tomorrow's dates and to price that I could cope with and had 2 more people in + 4-night people were helping to prepare Christmas Food to Order fridges.

Thank God I have 1 last shift till 22:00 left tomorrow (until next Christmas). These 6 weeks seemed like forever :).

Then the store will close at 18:00 and I'll hopefully just have 1 late night a week till 20:00, the rest of my shifts will be in a day. My family, health, routine, and my fitness-friendly work/life balance life like I had before getting enough rest and sleep.

@Alpenguin

Did I read correctly OP that you have a second income where you earn more than the manager? Why would you keep on a shelf stackers job that makes you unhappy if you have another income earning more than the manager?

Together with my retail job & the second income I earn more than a manager.

That's why I need this job to have a happy financially comfortable life.

@VodselForDinner

Are you the woman who works 25 hours a week and seems to complain about every minute of it?

Your writing style, self-importance, and the bit about shares sounds familiar.

If it is you, you went to great lengths on your precious post to tell everyone how much your husband earns. Your child is 16 and doesn’t need childcare, so maybe it’s time to pack it in?

No, I am not.

Yes, of course, I am self intitled.

To be happy and to achieve in life everyone needs to have self-worth and high self-esteem.

@NeedAHoliday2021

Your boss may have been a prick but that isn’t bullying and being younger than you doesn’t count for anything, they’ve got the job they do through a recruitment process. Just say, “I’ll hopefully speed up when I’m more experienced but I’m keen to ensure i don’t make mistakes”.

Not sure why you need to make this into a drama and compare to others.

They started this drama blaming me for nothing and I had no choice but to defend myself because I WILL NOT get faster! It's a 99% average result!

They should respect and appreciate all the hard work that goes into it.

That's how it mainly was with all the other tasks before these yellow stickers speed judgment started.

So you would promise them/give them a hope you would get faster just for the sake of it and wouldn't actually achieve it in the long run if you were in this position?

Sorry your not putting yourself across well to us so presume this is how you come across at work.

The description of your manager and "how dare he" says it all.

food retail it's about volume and speed your in the wrong job .

Nothing unfair to be blunt your too slow and come across as though you have an attitude to being managed

@Successgirl2022

So you would promise them/give them a hope you would get faster just for the sake of it and wouldn't actually achieve it in the long run if you were in this position?

What would need to be true for you to get it done in 2 hours?

You've already told us that you'd need to drop the quality rate below 100% - so, ok, do that.

Anything else you'd need to do?

Have been a manager in a retail store. When you say Deli, do you mean a Deli aisle, or a fixture with deli stuff on?

In a big supermarket, I would do all cheese in about an hour, max - prob less.

Retail is about pace, productivity and efficiency. There needs to be compliance, absolutely, but a managers job is to manage, and if you're going too slow, you need to speed up - which surely you will, over time. If you don't, you'll be underperforming. Everyone gets better with time, it's really simple.