Supermarket folk, in ere.

Rroff · 28 Jan 2018 at 00:36

Hotwired said:
Well I don't know about that.

When I say it was bought off them it was based on time spent on nightshift I heard the number of ~30k for a manager who had been on shift for ages.

I had assumed it was slashing unsociable hours bonuses for everyone not just managers.

Schizo · 28 Jan 2018 at 01:03

We also lost our 10pm till midnight premium and this year we are having our Saturday/Sunday premium slashed also.

explicit4u · 28 Jan 2018 at 01:11

Waitrose did the same for new joiners a year or two ago, I wouldn't be surprised to see it go for everyone soon.

I was on weekend nights which attracted a decent premium, as soon as there was talk about removing it I started planning what to do after I left.

Psymonkee · 28 Jan 2018 at 03:41

Schizo said:
We also lost our 10pm till midnight premium and this year we are having our Saturday/Sunday premium slashed also.

Oh yeah we had the Sunday time and a half chopped a couple of years ago. Guess who lucked out by opting out of Sunday work 4 months earlier!?

Rifte · 28 Jan 2018 at 03:55

I used to work for Tesco in middle management about 10 years or so ago, and an old colleague contacted me recently telling me that my old job role had just been given the axe.

Retail is tough, but food retail is about as tough as it gets.

I was lucky at the time because I managed to secure myself a salary way above my banding, but I was relieved when I eventually moved on.

Sad news for anyone impacted and especially those OCUK members on this thread, I hope it all works out well for you guys!

Schizo · 28 Jan 2018 at 06:34

I was going for management a few years ago,got a week away from passing and stopped,being a manager in retail entails a lot of hours on nights (average 10 to 11 a day) but days its the normal 9 hours,I wasn't prepared to give my life up with a small child,glad I didn't now and quite happy doing my 36.6 hours a week ( plus another job)

McPhee · 28 Jan 2018 at 06:42

Hotwired said:
Heard a rumour that the store managers will be next.

The logic being some stores are not considered worth having a dedicated store manager for and one might oversee two.

I'm going to ignore rumours from now on.

The rumour leading up to this culling was that departments would be merged, the number of department managers halved, with Team Leaders taking on more responsibility to fill the void. We had Regional Managers telling their Store Managers to upskill Team Leaders to take on extra responsibility. Many stores recruited extra Team Leaders in anticipation of the change.

Turns out the assumed changes were about as wrong as it's possible to get. For Team Leaders the choice is move up, move down, or move out. There is no alternative role. In most stores, unless you want to go on Night Shift, the only "move up" choice comes with a near 50% increase in salary compared to current Team Leader wages, with the responsibilities to match.

Rroff · 28 Jan 2018 at 08:03

satchef1 said:
We had Regional Managers telling their Store Managers to upskill Team Leaders to take on extra responsibility. Many stores recruited extra Team Leaders in anticipation of the change.

I dunno (exactly) what was said but seems like a misunderstanding by store managers.

Gonna be interesting if similar happens to us - awhile back was a whole thing about cost saving measures by removing some deputy/middle manager positions when people vacated them by sharing the job between upskilled (existing) team leaders and higher level managers but somewhere along the lines we seem to have ended up with extra team leaders which kind of defeats the purpose.

GinG · 28 Jan 2018 at 08:17

satchef1 said:
I was planning to leave this year anyway; just trying to decide what to do next. Either back in to catering, in a restaurant or on my own as a street trader, or in to web development. Got some work lined up for the summer already, so I've got plenty of time to make my mind up yet. I definitely want out of retail, out of management.

I guess you are one of the lucky ones, this push could actually give you the opportunity to do the things you really want and assuming a decent redundancy may even help you out!

Good luck, street traders are very popular at the minute give that a go first as if you get back into employment you may not get another chance to do it!

McPhee · 28 Jan 2018 at 09:05

GinG said:
I guess you are one of the lucky ones, this push could actually give you the opportunity to do the things you really want and assuming a decent redundancy may even help you out!

Good luck, street traders are very popular at the minute give that a go first as if you get back into employment you may not get another chance to do it!

Yeah, that's the direction I'm leaning in. Going to test the water by setting up at some markets over the summer. That should give me an idea whether or not it's worth a go, without spending thousands on a van etc.

tom_e · 28 Jan 2018 at 09:10

Seeing the difference between how my ex and her mates worked at Tesco and how the guys on the shopfloor at the retailer I currently work at operate it's unfortunately not surprising in the slightest that the bigger players are now cutting the fat from their shop floor operations, there is just no way they could continue to compete while carrying so many staff in comparison.

Jokester · 28 Jan 2018 at 09:17

It'll get worse for everyone as well, Amazon will be expanding aggressively into the grocery delivery business the next couple of years.

Rroff · 28 Jan 2018 at 09:27

Jokester said:
It'll get worse for everyone as well, Amazon will be expanding aggressively into the grocery delivery business the next couple of years.

I'm surprised more retailers aren't doing more to pre-empt that - its pretty hard to shift an established player even with the potential muscle of Amazon except when the established players have a poor quality of service, etc.

Also noticed Amazon pantry seems to be pushing Morrisons stuff pretty hard lately I'm guessing that is a sign of things to come but seems to be at an expense of choice and some more popular products on pantry that seem to have been removed to push Morrisons alternatives which might work against them.

Hotwired · 28 Jan 2018 at 13:55

Rroff said:
I'm surprised more retailers aren't doing more to pre-empt that - its pretty hard to shift an established player even with the potential muscle of Amazon except when the established players have a poor quality of service, etc.

Eh?

Online ordering of groceries and delivery is one of the few areas that gets money these days.

Still not sure it's making anything but better your customers than someone elses.

Rroff · 28 Jan 2018 at 14:24

Hotwired said:
Eh?

Online ordering of groceries and delivery is one of the few areas that gets money these days.

Still not sure it's making anything but better your customers than someone elses.

Quality and features of many of those services are dragging along making slow progress instead of doubling down on them.

malachi · 28 Jan 2018 at 17:10

My brother is a manager at Tesco and has been working there for over 20 years. Doing all these crazy 12hrs shifts, I told him he needs to get out because Amazon will be stepping in and wont be messing around. Other online retailers will soon follow.

My other brother also was a Tesco manager, left years ago to become a social worker helping kids as he saw big retail supermarkets making cuts.

Semple · 28 Jan 2018 at 19:58

satchef1 said:
The structure for a supermarket is generally: Store Manager -> Deputy Store Manager -> Department Manager (maybe 6-11 per store) -> Team Leaders (maybe 15-30 per store). Everyone below the Store Manager had their role axed on Tuesday. The new structure basically removes the Team Leader role and rebrands Deputy Store Manager and Department Manager (with less of both in the business), with just enough changes to the roles to stop anyone having a right to them under "suitable alternative employment".

How many regular employees fall under that? From what you've said there's between 23 and 43 staff above a regular employee. Depending on the ratio of staff:management (Team leader and above), i can probably see why they've targeted out the middle management. Although i'm surprised they've not gone for the approach of keeping a deputy manager, and then having a store manager between two or three stores.

Rroff · 28 Jan 2018 at 20:03

Semple said:
Although i'm surprised they've not gone for the approach of keeping a deputy manager, and then having a store manager between two or three stores.

For some reason (big) retailers have never really gone for this - I've seen odd instances of it but its rarely used long term.

Buffman · 28 Jan 2018 at 21:15

Out of curiosity how much do team leaders, deputy store managers and store managers make? And what the hours like?

Shame that people are getting made redundant

GSXR Gaz Mc · 17 Feb 2018 at 22:52

only jobs in supermarkets not goin are the dot com delivery drivers.. like me