work hard for little pay (Tesco)

Member Name: cheesycal

Product:	Tesco
Date:	26/09/07 (14621 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: extra pay, work out of the way

Disadvantages: night shift, uncaring management

I've worked in Tesco as a nightshift shelf stacker for around 6 months and having read the other review, I thought I'd offer my experiences of nightshift work at Tesco. This review is quite long so if you'd like to cut to the chase, just read the last few sections.

The store I work in is quite large with a selection of clothes and electrical items and the approaches to work may differ depending on the size of the store.

I currently work part time (3 nights a week) in the Grocery department that includes all items that are not chilled or freshly baked. It is a fairly large department but the intensity of work is dependent on where you are allocated for the night but I'll expand on that later.


General Working Night

A normal night starts at 10pm with a break at 0030-0115 (45mins) and another at 0400-0445 with the shift finishing at 0700.

You start off with dragging all your cages of "backstock" from the warehouse and filling the gaps on the shelves. New deliveries come in at seemingly random times, dependent on delivery driver I suppose, but deliveries are generally sorted in the warehouse and will come to you in organised cages. The number of new stock arriving will generally depend on the aisle itself and promotions.

After finishing the new stock, we must clear away all our rubbish (cardboard into four sided cages, plastic into bin bags) then "condense" our cages (putting all "overstock" into "backstock" cages) and then we must "face-up" the aisle which involves pulling all items on shelf forward and making sure the labels are facing forward.



My Experience: Recruitment & Training

The standard application form from Tesco also has an attached aptitude test in which you must fill in what you are "Most like" and "Least like" from a choice of usually four very commendable characteristics. This is used for screening applicants to ensure Tesco gets the right type of employee. However I'm dubious about this sort of questionnaire since most people will not answer truthfully and opt for what they think Tesco wants to see. In addition, how much can you know of someone with 20-odd vauge questions?

Nevertheless, if you manage to get through the screening, they invite you for an interview which in my experience was rather pointless. Interview questions were once again aptitude questions such as "tell me about a time you helped somebody in detail" and such wishy washy stuff. After the interview, I was sent home and after a few days, I was requested by the nightshift (N/S) manager to do a "work sample" where under the pretense of seeing how you cope with work, you are given 30 minutes of unpaid work. The manager wasn't even around for most of that time and I was irritated to have been called out at 2330 to work 30mins without pay. However, I got the job on the spot and invited to an induction course a few days later.

The induction course involved watching a dreary video about health and safety and a tour round the store...all fun and excitement I can guarantee.. We were given an employee's handbook which was 2 years out of date and were given very sketchy details about our pay and our entitlements. One thing you notice when working in Tesco is that Tesco cares only for oneself and not for customers and certainly not for employees.

Once I started work, I was put on an aisle with someone experienced in order to familiarise me with the aisle. The colleague would "spot" the items on the floor and all I needed to do was open cases and fill the shelves. After a few days, I was given a whole aisle to myself.

Training at all levels is laughable - from induction, to on-job to further training , it seems the management do this only to tick boxes. As you work longer you will be given further "training" which involves answering a quiz. The best you can hope for is experience and that as you go along you make mistakes that people will correct for you. It seems wholly inefficient to me but this is what Tesco has gone for.

My Experience: Working

My normal working day basically involves filling backstock, filling new stock, organising overstock, cleaning up and facing up. It is as depressing as it sounds! There are some variations to this such as when the day shift decide to leave the cages in a mess or when they decide to put broken jars and packets everywhere in your cage, leaving us to clean up.

N/S is always short of staff, rather out of choice than anything, and therefore we work hard to make up for that. There is usually a "team-fill" on one of the busier aisles at around 3am and the whole "team" meets up and fills the items that have been spotted by the management. This is usually complete within 30 mins and is a very efficient method of getting an aisle finished and ready for store opening.

N/S is also very unsociable. Usually you work by yourself and if you do work on an aisle with someone, the manager ensures that you work on opposite ends. If you decide to stop for a small chat, it is never long before the manager come to berate you.

If you work hard, the management works you harder and increases your workload. I had one busy day where I worked at full pace in order to get everything done. Since then, the manager has given me another aisle to do by myself and now I work at full pace most nights.


Staff

The N/S Grocery team is composed of a section manager, a team leader and us slaves. I'd imagine it'd be different elsewhere but our manager is a poor motivator and is at best nonchalant. The team leader on the other hand is encouraging and supportive.

I've found the upper management very inefficient and unknowledgable regarding anything to do with employees unless it impacts directly on Tesco. I have asked for the exact pay rates to different people on multitude of occasions but have yet to receive a clear answer. Details of benefits and entitlements are also very sketchy.


Wages:
As i've explained above, I do not have the exact pay rates for the job. The pay slip is itself difficult to decipher and the most important figures are faintly printed on thick green borders. The managers do not understand the payslips themselves and with the most important figures illegible, all hope is lost. But I know that the base rate is £5.945 at 6 months. There are two night premiums from 10-12 (around 1.21) and then from 12-6am (around 1.41). The premiums may have gone up since I've hit 6 months but no-one can confirm this for me (!). On Sunday mornings, we get 1.5 our normal pay but the managers cannot confirm whether this is our (pay+premium) X 1.5 or (pay X 1.5 + premium)
They don't seem to think it's important but over a month it amounts to quite a big difference. If you work on mondays, you have the added perk of working on bank holidays which is paid at double but if you decide to take the day off, you still get paid the normal rate.



Benefits & Entitlements

At one year, you receive a Privilege card which gives you a 10% discount on everything in store and online including sales. You also have a "save as you earn" option which gives you shares in Tesco at market price. I don't have more information and nor do your managers..haha.

The Tesco year is the same as the fiscal year and therefore starts roughly in April. You apply for holidays in two blocks one from April-Aug and one from Sept-Mar. You are entitled to 5x your working days.

Sick pay is also available but I don't know how this is done.


Advantages

N/S is recommended if you are a student and you'd like to get all the work out of the way in the weekend. In two nights, you can get your 15hrs of work done but get paid extra (around £20) as well. I am currently in full time tertiary education and therefore it suits me well. I have the whole week to study, weekend nights to work and still have many hours of the weekend to chill.


Disadvantages

N/S is all good if you don't mind sacrificing your weekend drink binges in order to pay off money. However, it does take a lot out of you and sleeping during the day is never refreshing and I can only manage about 4 hours of sleep after my night shift. Also, I work part time so it is sometimes awkward to get into a day routine after my weekend shifts.
THe management is very poor and ill-equipped to answer your questions.
If you work hard in tesco, you will only be worked harder and all the appreciation you get is in a little slip of paper saying thank you. My friend now does the wines,beers & spirits aisle by himself and often finds that he stays up to an hour trying to finish this off.. he never gets paid for anything under an hour and yet he has a several of these thank you slips that do not mean anything to him to tesco or to anybody.

Also, be prepared to get nasty paper cuts and scractches down your arms. A few misplaced scars and people look at you differently. I have some near my wrists and down my arms and I get a few sympathetic looks from people... :( I've asked for gloves from my manager but he refused to give them to me saying gloves are only for those working in the fridges and freezers. I managed to get one from the fresh manager though..I'd recommend getting gloves..



Conclusion

The shortcomings of N/S is durable if you want to maximise your night and make extra money. It is quite convenient for me as a student and I would rather do this than work a few hours a day elsewhere. Having said that, you should be prepared to work really hard for your money. In the 6 months I have worked, I've known 10 people who've either quit or decided to take day shifts because they felt the extra pay was not worth the extra work.

In any case, I hope I've given you some insight into working the night shift at Tesco!

Summary: work hard for little pay