The most boring place to work... ever (ASDA Stores)

Member Name: Luce100

Product:	ASDA Stores
Date:	25/04/06 (4278 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A job's a job, pay is average.

Disadvantages: Mind- numbingly boring!

Okay so I am a student studying in Newcastle, and I decided to find a job to earn some money, so I could enjoy the luxury of eating once again. Living about half an hour out of the city centre, there wasn't that much around, except for a few supermarkets. I decided to try asda.

I went in and got an application form from Customer Services. It's pretty basic, Name, age, qualifications, interests, references and then a short questionnaire.. (to check your personality). I think that basically it's there to check your stupidity... ie. are you stupid enough to actually tick the box that says I have agressive tendencies. Within about a week I got a phone call inviting me to a group screening. First hurdle out of the way!

The group screening contained a lot of group activites such as building towers out of cards and straws. Just chat and be friendly with the people in your group and you should be fine. There was also an introduce yourself type thing, in which everybody was required to introduce a partner after a few minutes chatting. We had to tell the rest of the group who we were, why we wanted to work for asda, and a celebrity we admired. Finallly we were made to fill out a short test that tested very basic maths.. ie. 50% of £1.

I went home and got a call within a couple of hours asking me back for a one-on-one interview with the head of the department I would be working for (bread and cakes). The interview was pretty standard. The questions were all based around previous jobs, and you just had to give examples of things in your past jobs.. eg. a time you went out of your way to do something extra, or an example of when you worked as a team. I was offered the job at the end of the interview and told to come back on the following tuesday, wednesday and thursday from 11-3 for training.

Training was what you would expect... customer service, team work, health and safety. We got paid for it, which is pretty good, because it worked out at just over £60. Now on to the actual job, it's sad.. but I was actually excited, I had been studying for nearly 8 months, and I was realy looking forward to getting back to work. What a let down. I was shelf-stack bread and cakes, which is quite a heavy job, but that's not what bothered me. The people I was working with were morons, and the way they did things meant that your were constantly undoing work you had previously done. It was if they were making the work in order to justify their jobs. They treated me like I was some kind of idiot because I didn't know that hovis came out before warburtons, and the two guys I was working with kept making sexist and racial slurs about several of the customers. They really don't follow procedure or health and safety rules. The cakes.. which normally have like a couple of months on them (when they arrive at the store) before they run out, were all over the place and on my first day I found over 30 boxes that were 2 weeks out of date. I lasted the week, and said thanks but no thanks, not for me.

I took the job because I wanted the money, but I also wanted the social aspect that came with it. If you can take the mindless work, don't mind morons and aren't really into the social side of working then fair enough go for it. If you're anything like me you'll die of boredom. Go and waitress or get a bar job, that's what I did, much more fun!

Summary: How much do you want the money?