customer service representative

retail sales associate

manager

warehouse worker

cashier

ASDA

Having worked for 3 different retail companies since leaving school, alongside studying full-time I would definitely recommend Asda as a company to work for. 

I work at a large and busy Superstore in the East Midlands and I'm going to give a pretty detailed and honest review.

I applied for an 8 hour Sunday Checkout Operator job in November as a Seasonal Colleague (for the Christmas period) but ended up being offered a permanent contract. 

'Mainbank' Checkout Operator role:
For the first few months as a Checkout Operator my role was solely to sit on a till and serve customers who come through for the entire shift. The till systems that Asda use are very old and literally just a keyboard with a tiny two-line screen, but they work fine and once you've learnt how to use it properly then they are quite efficient. 
Asda are really big on giving good customer service and they expect 100% effort at all times when it comes to service. Checkout Operators are trained to follow 'Easy, fast and friendly', 'Greet, Help, Thank' and 'Six Ahead' which are Customer Service ways of working. The ways of working are assessed regularly by mystery shoppers and if a colleague fails a mystery shopper audit then the whole store will lose out on the bonus and it usually leads to some kind of disciplinary hearing. Audits can be failed for something as simple as forgetting to give a warm and friendly parting comment to a customer. Asda make no secret of the fact that they are determined to be distinguishable from competitors such as Aldi and Lidl by giving amazing customer service. 

Once you get the hang of mainback checkouts there are opportunities to work on the Self-scan and Hybrid checkouts where all the same policies apply but the till systems are completely different. Working on self-scan/hybrids tends to feel a bit more fast-paced and less boring than being sat at a till, so it's good for colleagues who prefer being a bit more active at work. The downsides are that the systems are pretty terrible and always crashing, customers don't always know how to use them which can get irritating, customers are a lot ruder and very impatient on the tills, sometimes getting angry. 

I realised that if you get the basics right and do your job properly and competently you'll be given more opportunities within the department and I was offered training on the Kiosk and Customer Service Desk which I was really happy with. 

At my store there is a huge amount of overtime available for me because I can cover any checkout roles so when I'm not at uni I can work up to 70 hours a week. Most weeks when I'm not at uni I do 50+ hours a week. 

Working on the Customer Service Desk:
After being trained to work on the Desk I found that I actually really enjoyed it and time was flying by. Working on the Desk is great for anyone who likes to be busy and active at work. You're given a lot of responsibility including the discretion to give up to £50 goodwill to customers on your own volition, a supervisor override key and code, tannoy announcements, returns and exchanges (makes up the bulk of the work), responsibilities with store evacuations, lost children in store, dealing with complaints, visitors and being a general point of contact/reception for colleagues. Store management were very helpful for the first couple of months and I was always paired with an experienced CSD colleague for the first few weeks but eventually you are expected to resolve things without involving management. The best thing about working on the desk for me is the variety and responsibility of work which you don't really get with other jobs in store, but that's not great for someone who just wants to come to work and get paid to do the bare minimum, which a lot of colleagues want. 


Pros of Customer Service Desk:
- Variety of work.
- Time flies by.
- Being able to 'wow' customers with goodwill to keep them happy and coming back when we've got it wrong. 
- You are trusted by managers and they will normally support your decisions.
- You generally have a good relationship with all colleagues.
- Being friendly (even though it's forced) all day is good for your mood
- When customers are aggressive or generally being out of order you can ask them to leave the store and ban them for life, if they refuse then security/management will back you up.
- Once you've worked on the desk you can work anywhere in services including being a runner, host, nights etc. 
- Puts you in good place for promotion to section leader
- You learn a lot about Asda 
- Learn to deal with conflict and how to argue but in a corporate way.
- Learning to be firm with people such as when you need to explain that we won't refund something for whatever reason and your decision is final.
- It's really good for improving your confidence, you learn how to talk to all types of people from all walks of life. 

Cons of Customer Service Desk:
- Colleagues aren't always helpful and responsive, sometimes ignoring tannoy callouts and calls to the desk to help customers with enquires on their department.
- Colleagues always tell customers to 'go to the customer service desk' if they don't know the answer to something. 
- Can't sit down (but you get used to that) 
- When the store is short-staffed or busy you might be working on your own and have queues to manage without support.
- Can be extremely stressful when you're busy and customers won't be understanding. You'll sometimes be surrounded by people who all want your help at the same time. Then when (if) it quietens down you have to remember everything that you need to log. 
- If a customer is overcharged because a multi-buy deal didn't come off then you have to do the maths which is sometimes really complicated. 
- You're expected to keep the desk looking clean and uncluttered which is impossible when you're busy.
- There is a lot of paperwork for different things, and if you forget to log anything you'll be accountable. There is logging for all refunds over £25, voids/aborts over £20, defective/faulty returns logging which takes a few minutes per item and has to be done on the computer, goodwill logs, cash loan logs, lost property etc etc.
- There are a lot of policies and procedures to know and memorise (but they are available on the computer if you forget)
- Colleagues who have worked on the desk for years can be quite patronising and have different ways of working to you which can cause clashes.
- Asda don't have a system for searching stock availability in your own store or any other store, its all by phone which is time-consuming and irritating for you and the customer. 
- Customers (and some colleagues) expect you to know absolutely everything about everything. They will expect you to know where exactly where everything is located in the store. 
- Customers do come to the desk who are angry and sometimes aggressive/threatening but this is quite rare and there are procedures for this but it is does happen from time-to-time and can ruin your day. 
- Some customers will lie and try to scam you, such as trying to return things fraudulently or making false complaints for goodwill. 
- Your customer service skills have to be 100%, all the time. Standards for customer service at the customer service desk are obviously a lot lot higher than for anyone else in the whole store. 
- You have to deal with rotten food that's returned which is pretty smelly. People will return dirty underwear/clothes and claim that its faulty and you have to handle it with your bare hands. 


Other points about CSD:

The level of enjoyability of duties depends on how friendly and helpful colleagues and managers are, it is also a physically demanding job. I was lucky enough to make friends with my colleagues and was able to enjoy most of the job. However, the job itself can be stressful due to the unpredictability of online orders and the usual understaffed nature of store jobs. The job requires excellent teamwork or else you may have to pick up someone else's slack. Ideally, all colleagues should be provided with some form of communication device for better collaboration however this is not the case for many stores. Expect to work across different departments and sometimes even manage the entire department with no extra pay or benefits. The trollies provided are most likey dirty easily so please always follow bagging procedures and wash your hands throughout the shift when possible. You may have to handle really tall and heavy trollies so watch your blindspots, look before turning into an aisle (basically car procedures) and don't go too fast. Make sure you have the right shoes for you to avoid injury. To get the most out of the job, try to learn what you think will be useful to you in the future, such as asking to have a stronger management or administration duty or learning more about the merchandise business behind it etc. But if you want to do a job just to do it and go home, I suggest not trying to do much more than you're expected to because you'll never get proper recognition for it and you may feel burnout, try to keep busy with light work on the shop floor. Learn to say no when you can't pick up an extra shift because you'll just be resentful at the end of the day. Delivery drivers can be very impatient and rude and they may be expected to be prioritised over in-store customers, stand your ground but also still remain personable and calm because the delivery drivers are also your customers in a way. If you receive any harassment by them, keep a record of the date and time and their details so you can ask your supervisor to help you report them through provided reporting systems. Your manager and supervisor may not likely know the ins and outs of the new express order systems as they may not have been given the proper time to learn it themselves, so you may have to take the initiative to learn them yourselves. Information can usually be found on the given devices by respective express companies. In the end my problem with the job was its repetitive and unpredictable nature, I found that it was no longer stimulating for me to do the same thing over again and wanted something new entirely. As you work in the same place over time, repeat customers recognise you and you may even make friends with some however, it does feel a little too exposing for me. Delivery drivers may notice you in public and give you a wave, and if you're extroverted then that may not be an issue for you. At times you may feel humiliated by staff and customers, I suggest making sure you have a decent level of self-esteem and confidence if you want to work full time. Remember to not take things personally as many customers and staff are rather focused on their own internal lives and what they deem as important and not and unfortunately, you may not be seen as a priority or taken seriously because of your role. But know that you did what you could in situations, give yourself some slack when mistakes happen and learn from them. Know that you may have to make compromises with colleagues and staff, even if you believe in what you were doing, but also know when things are unjust enough to raise it as an issue. You will come across a multitude of personalities and unfortunately, some may be uncomfortable for you which I suggest to report it to your supervisor, if you don't think enough action was taken, I'd suggest you to report it straight to the store manager and your department's manager. 

In the beginning, I suggest to try and introduce yourselves to many colleagues across departments as much possible when youre new which will keep the job stimulating and also may help you in the long-run. Stay out of gossip and any drama, take any rumours you hear about someone with a grain of salt, keep busy but don't overwork yourself, learn as many things as you want to about the business and try to develop your interpersonal, teamwork and verbal skills to managers, staff and customers. Overall your experience with the job may depend on how the store is run, the colleagues that work there and how managers treat you along with others. I had a mixture of friendly colleagues but unhelpful and somewhat insensitive colleagues that work above you. There are expectations to keep a consistent workflow throughout the day but can be difficult due to how labour intensive it can be. You will have to learn on the job and may face uniquely odd and stressful issues that may or may not be out of your control as certain systems can be flawed which you will have to work around with. 

OVERALL-
-Labour intensive 
-May have to manage the entire department yourselves with no benefits.
-May have to resolve issues on your own.
-There are nice and rude customers.
-Managers for the most part don't want to resolve issues they deem too minor or irrelevant to themselves.
-Not enough staff.
-Gossip can go around the store which is best to avoid. 
-Lack of proper training on delivery systems. 
-You may feel overworked at times due to lack of collaboration/communication from your team, or unpredictable amount of orders or a general lack of staff or others. 
-You may have to juggle multiple types of orders which can be overwhelming if you lack staff and support. Learning the new system can be confusing at first.
-May have to work a little more overtime than expected. 
-Certain digital systems may be flawed which you will have to work around.
-You aren't supervised constantly meaning you may feel less pressured but you may feel like there isn't enough support for you for the very same reason. 
-Unrealistic standards to reach picking goals. 
-Might hit a dead end in terms of learning anything new.
-Repetitive and can get boring
-stressful in terms of workload
-You can burnout very easily
-You wont get recognised for achievements most of the time. 


I began working for ASDA in December time 2018, busiest period of the year for them & thrown right into the deep end. As Security the job was constant, firedoor runners, pushout attempts, lots of problems with the homeless, the list goes on. I had no issue with the job itself or completing the tasks. The issue is being left on your own for 8 hour shifts and expected to stop and detect any theft occurrences.

It's an impossible task do so such a thing working on your own, barely on with another security colleague because managment claim they do not need more, yet when a basket full of JD goes through a firedoor while your dealing with other issues they soon enough come running with 300 questions such as "What have they stole" Who was it" Did you see them" Where did they go" Why didn't you stop them". Again if I wasn't left on my bill all shift and while I'm dealing with other issues things like that wouldn't happen as often but yet they don't see things that way.

Management expect you to be sat at the podium for the full 8 hours staring at CCTV despite the training videos stating your only supposed to spend around 35% of your shift looking at CCTV and the rest walking the shop/assisting with other duties. But again impossible to do when there's just 1 of you on.

Then shift changes happen all the time, mostly to suit managements needs or section leaders needs. Countless times my shifts where shuffled around last notice despite the fact there supposed to give minimum 3 weeks notice of any contractual shift changes or overtime. E.g. one security colleague left early 2019 and they decided to dump all the late's Fri & Sat every week on me (14PM - 22PM) despite me being contracted to 6AM - 14PM on those days. When I brought this up after the first few weeks all they kept feeding me was that "They where recruiting and it would only be for another 2 or 3 weeks"
Just for the record this went on from Feb 2019 right through till July 2019, so much for only a few weeks. Also this issue I brought up to them very often and made it clear I was not happy with it.

Then there's the "special circle" as I called it, where all the bottom lickers mingled with management. Of course this was a special circle of which only certain people where allowed to be a part of. Making sly jokes on the sly towards other colleagues and special treatment towards others. So much for their policy on equality in the workplace.

Arranging holidays was a big pain too, they claimed to have a system of which no 2 colleagues in the same department can be off at the same time due to conflicting shifts (fair enough). So I asked for some time off in the summer and what a train ride that was. Juggling dates for a few weeks to try and not conflict with other colleagues time off. E.g. My 2 week break couldn't happen due to a night security colleague already booking 1 day off in the 2 week period I requested. Now considering I was not contracted to nights I didn't see it as much of an issue but hey it got delayed anyway.

Then as I returned from my holidays my section leader took 2 weeks off at the same time another security colleague took 1 week off and another took a weekend off..... See my issue here? special treatment. And to top that off they dumped a load of overtime on my head last notice and expected me to do it all as they would be "struggling" otherwise. And I was told if any of the dates I couldn't do, I would have to sort it out between me and my other colleagues. In which I did try to re-arrange some as I had things planned for my days off that they happily dumped the overtime on last minute. So I asked 2 other colleagues about swapping shifts etc. as they have previously claimed wanted to do more overtime and never get any, and low and behold they turned down any shift changes. So I told management I couldn't do them and he put it all on my head.

Finally on the road towards me quitting, I called in sick one week and was pulled to one side a week later to discuss the absence of which it was resolved. Then they brought up a day that I requested off due to a dentists appointment but they denied me (Again due to section leader and other colleague off at the same time) the dentist appointment was for 11AM and I was contracted in for a 6AM - 14PM on that day, now in the past I've seen colleagues come in at 8AM no issue with no one on between 6AM and 8AM so personally I found no issue with me having the day off as they can get a porter to sit at the podium till 10AM when cover from the warehouse would have been on. But they insisted I come in at 6AM till 10:30AM that day. Which I saw no point in doing due to the fact that the shop is dead, and they had cover anyway. So I said I couldn't do it but they would not listen.

In the meeting they claimed I seemed uninterested in the job, and said I'm never writing in the occurrence book, nor doing anything. I would seem more interested if I had co-workers to converse with, anyone at all really besides staring at CCTV like a robot for 8 hours, and having shifts dumped on me. Who wants to be sat in ASDA 8 hours a day 5 days a week. and the fact that they had the cheek to say I never do anything despite me jogging down the center isle a few weeks prior to stop 2 people running out of the firedoor with baskets of spirits & retrieved the good (Over £700 worth) and other countless times I stopped thieves from stealing or trolly pushouts and denying known thieves from coming into the store, but yet "I do nothing all day" as they say.

Also before I finish, they even in the past had me finish a 14PM - 22PM shift, and expected me back in at 6AM the following morning to do a 6AM - 14PM. Which is illegal I might add. your supposed to have at least 11 hours rest between shifts. And then them swapping my shifts up again to suit management, having me come in at 13PM till 22PM on many Saturdays so that our section leader could go for their dinner at 13PM....

Think I've had my rant now, but overall it was a horrible place to work. I enjoyed it at first but over time they took advantage of my good nature and shown their true colours. I've never felt so good in a long time since I left that place, no more dreading work and I can focus on doing something I'll enjoy again. Best part of this job was being pulled into that meeting a week back and quitting finally.

Pros

- The people I've met whilst working at Asda are some of the most funniest and humble. Had some really good times along with them and I still see them from time to time. 

- Some of the perks are pretty decent if used on a consistent basis such as the 10percent discount (20percent at certain times of the year) and the Asda Perks website which gives you discount to cinema tickets and days out events etc... 

- The hours are there if wanted (well the store I was in had hours due to their recruitment policies which I'll explain down in cons later). So basically, I had a contract which was part time but from time to time I used to do full time hours with the added benefit of my holiday allowance being adjusted for the extra hours I have done. 

- Even though I had a contract, section leader allowed me to be flexible in terms of my working hours. This allowed me to take care of some of my personal stuff that needed my attention. 

- There are people who have worked at Asda for years and know the colleague hand book inside out and are willing to help you out once you are in trouble. 

- I have had the pleasure of working under some of the best line managers you could ask for. They would guide and encourage you in order to be best in what you are doing. That encouragement is all that is needed in order to feel appreciated. Some managers have even agreed with what cons I will mention soon as they believe the shop floor workers are getting the short end of the stick such as Sunday pay. 

- With it being local to me, I had literally no cost. This is an advantage for those who want the benefit of a local job. 15-20 mins walk depending if i was in zombie mode. 

- Booking of annual leave is easy enough. Except for one time, all my annual leave request had been accepted. Only time you can't book annual leave is Xmas week and new years for obvious reasons.


Cons

- Pay was a bit lacking. They tried to con you with "Paid Breaks" when they compared themselves alongside Tesco. Also, there was a reason why most people would try and avoid working Sundays due to no extra supplement on Sunday working - which personally I thought was a bit of a sad thing. 

- When I first started, training was decent. You budded up with someone for around a week as you get to know the store and the way Asda expects you to provide customer service. When I went back for my second stint, I was in a batch of people that Asda was their first job and training was non-existent. Literally, they struggled to find their feet and confidence. Don't get me wrong it's not hard working in a supermarket. However, you need the training and guidance if it is the first job you've had. 

- As time went on, people left without being replaced (I understand the landscape for shopping has completely changed with the internet and the smaller stores such as Aldi picking up some of the business that Asda would've always had therefore there needs to be a limit of staff). This made existing workers pick up 2+ people worth of work which sometimes could be accomplished while other times could not be. Due to the expectation for you to do this by certain managers, people used to get fed up and ring up sick or go awol which made those who were already in be bogged down in more work. 

- "We listening" survey. Each year Asda conducts this. Now in the store I worked at, rumours were flying about regarding the survey results being "modified". This was also confirmed in confidence by a deputy store manager, fresh trade manager and a section leader. I have pulled managers regarding the end results and how each year you have different ways of showing the stats and how its convenient that certain departments are being clumped together in order to get a decent score of morale etc... No one's ever replied back to me with a answer to it. Basically "We listening" survey is a CON. 

- Certain section leaders need to get a life and learn how to people manage. This job is about management of people and goods. If you don't have people then you won’t have the goods in store in order for the customers to buy. Problem is there is a stigma with section leader’s job. Good people with good sense won't go for it as there is HARDLY any career progression. I should know as I have seen it with my own very eyes.


Advice to Management

- Listening to its employees. Lack of interaction from upper management with the shop floor workers has made Asda what it is. Literally no morale. 

- Stop changing the "We Listening" results and show it in one consistent way year in and year out. So people can understand where the store is going wrong. And if people request the raw data then give it them. Stop using Data Protection Act as a cop out in order to stop giving that information away for people to understand what is shown by management on the colleagues huddle board. 

- Hire additional staff whether it be seasonal or permanent because you will need them as the industry settles down a bit. 

- There needs to be a clear training strategy for newbies. School leavers will need the most help in gaining confidence at work otherwise there is no point hiring school leavers if all the company shows you is everything in 4 hours. 

- Need to have a better career prospects. Just showing the route you can take is not enough. You need to be realistic in the time specified & when to expect for the worker to become fully fledged section leader/ manager etc... 

- The board and it's directors need to visit each store without telling anyone to see what it's like. Then they'll get to grips on what is happening in the business because looking at the business as an outsider, personally believe the board ain't got a clue what is happening as everything is being hidden.

So I've worked for Asda for close to a decade now, and my experience probably reflects what it is like as an employee that works in the home shopping department. If your instore the job is good, you know you'll be working for a set time, you get your breaks and have a comfortable area to take that break, along with access to facilities should you need them. If your not in store though, for example a delivery driver, none of that applies.

If your out on your own the only access you have to facilities entirely depends on what is available to the public, which in most cases means not very much. Management seem to care more about those in store than those actually out doing the deliveries, your often out later than scheduled resulting in either working longer hours or as is the case more often than not, you end up skipping your break to make up the time. 

The expectations on a delivery driver are ever increasing, I have seen this job change so much in the past 10 years it is vastly different now than it was back then, 10 years ago you had proper support, your vans were pre-loaded ready for your shift, you had proper support in store, vans were rarely out late and you often had enough time for a break. Delivery loads weren't excessive and most people were reasonable in their expectations. For example a block of flats, people would come and help, now they expect you to carry larger deliveries up multiple flights of stairs without so much as a thank you, obviously if the customer has a reason to not offer any help, ie they are disabled or have young children then it's not a problem, but that isn't the case most of the time.

Today, the job is so different and expectations so high, you start on average 30 minutes before you van is due out, you have to load your van yourself, which takes at least 20 minutes if not slightly more, you then have to do your van checks which according to them takes at least 10 minutes, leaving very little time for much else, the routes are pre-planned but do not factor in local traffic conditions so if your area is riddled with road works, expect to be running late. A typical day for me can have roughly 16-27 deliveries, with a typical van load of around 670kg, if your on a split run which involves doing maybe 10 deliveries and then returning to the store to reload your van and do some more deliveries, these could involve loading and delivering up to 1400kg of shopping and if you have flats on your route it can be a physically exhausting shift.

If you return to the store, unload your van and return equipment/paper work, usually 10-15 minutes before your shift ends, you are expected to return any rejected items (substitutions/returns) back onto the shop floor, if its a couple items its a quick task, if its significantly more, it can take some time, which could mean working past your contracted finish time, which you may not get paid for if "management" don't approve it.

Overall though the impression I have had over time is that management don't really care, for far too long the availability of drivers has been plentiful and you were nothing more than a number to them, now that the tables have turned and drivers are in short supply, rather than offer increased pay to existing drivers, they have chosen to outsource delivery driver jobs to agency workers which are often significantly more for the same job, without any of the annoyances/bureaucracy that employees have to deal with. As of September 2021, an agency driver can earn up to £11.50 an hour for most shifts and up to £17.50 on a Sunday/bank holiday.

maybe not just asda, but when  new starter comes into a business, it is hard to make new friends from collegues.  your staff collegues are bored, and can do their job very easy, and expect a new starter within zero seconds on the shop floor to know as much as their experience over their 8-10 yrs experience.  as you show willing to work faster, harder, rushing, lifting, pushing and doing more, either to keep up, or to show willing,  this becomes the new norm.   and is expected as well as taking on more duties, all for the same pay.   A Manager may see that an area does not need 3 people, when a new starter has been shown to run around like a high speed robot, so the job role is now that of 3 people.   Thinking about it logically, 3 people moving things from a to b will move more produce in a work shift, so how can 1 person be expected to match this?   Then when you master the act of coming in early, working through breaks, staying over 2 hours  a day, the next new starters see you and the exising staff working like this and it becomes the normal culture.   It is expected and no one likes a slacker... or a normal person with a real life outside of work.  If you show that you have ambition, and would like to move up in the company, everyone you speak to are just the same, you are not special, and you realise they want to move up also.  and you get the feeling that it is pointless, it is a lottery, even some very pretty young ladies who could take the pick of the crop of young suiters, are settling for older worn out male members of staff, who are in a position of seniority, so they have some kind of respect as they are an extention of the so called boss.  The old worn out males who are a supervisor, team leader or manager is very grateful for his new puppy, with the promise to the young girl, stick with me, and XYZ... sadly these bunny gals` get older, much older, and it downs on them thatthey need to jump ship, and try another department, a new manager, and over time, their youth and value goes away, and all along, they were just an instrument of pleasure for the seniority, almost like a concentual grooming, and passing around of a play thing.   Older males with plenty to offer the company are over looked by bitter older women, and these men with previous business experience are over looked  simply because the new staff who are willing to work, harder, faster, longer who have no boundaries, or self respect will wear many hats and do more, with the hope of moving faster up the ladder.   All employees are equal, unless your face fits, or there is something about yourself, personally, that people want.  plain jane or plain jack will end up a shelf stacker even past retirement, with no way of getting up the ladder.  there has to be something personally magnetic about you, looks, height, physically attractive, if not, just stack the beans and shut up and put up.
               
.If on paper you are the best person for the job, from past experience, new acquired skills, then that means nothing.   I have seen idiots with very low mental capacity poor working attitude jump with leaps and bounds, over the rest, as they have had something about them, just what the seniority requires.   They even slip passed the old misery guts who pulls people down, and the competitive wannabe managers, just because they have something about them, that fits interpersonally with the senior staff, and absolutely nothing about their work.     

The driving aspect of the job in itself is great, I was lucky enough that my delivery route was a very pretty area of the country and I got to deliver to some great locations and meet some decent customers.

That, however is where the good parts end really. The management at the store I worked at were appalling, there was little to no communication between management and section leaders and between section leaders and drivers. So much so that I was rung up on the day of my driver tech test to be shouted at to why I wasn't there only for me to tell them in return I had not been told of the date. I later found out two different section leaders had both known the details and neither had told me.

I saw so many bad managerial practises in the time that I was there that I really don't have space to put them all here. I was regularly given broken/faulty hand held computers to work with which were the primary way of me knowing what drops I had to make and my navigation, I relied upon my own phone most of the time for navigation purposes and to call the customers. I was sent out on multiple occasions on vans which had defects, including an oil leak, cracks on windscreen etc. when I raised these issues with a section leader I was basically told to shut up and go away. The vans that I drove were always filthy, I delivered to primarily rural areas and there was no way of cleaning the vans off when back at the depot, the best they could do was get the store cleaners to go over them with a damp rag and the interiors were never cleaned! There was also a van on my fleet which had faulty fridge and freezer doors which would randomly swing open, this issue was not addressed by the time I left a month later!

I was sent out on multiple occasions with no sack truck as some other drivers would selfishly take two or they would be broken and not replaced. Meaning I would be carrying upto 60kg of shopping at a time and working at a slower pace.  Items would regularly take too long to be picked prior to them being loaded on the vans, meaning in some cases drivers were delayed by an hour before they had even set off (not the pickers fault, but procedural errors). Fuel cards would regularly "go missing" leaving a fleet of 7 vans with 3 cards and if you were unlucky enough to go out in a van with half a tank then tough luck... Other drivers who were unfortunate enough to have had crashes or had injured themselves were openly berated by management before their welfare was questioned. I could go on and on... But by far the worst thing was the nonsensical delivery restrictions put in place by Asda management... in essence this meant you were either sat in your van for up to 2 hours at a time doing nothing or running around like a headless chicken... Asda have a policy whereby you cannot deliver to a customer more than 19 minutes early even if you ring the customer ahead and confirm this is ok... You also could not wait within 500 yards of the customers address, this meant sitting sometimes for hours on end with nothing to do, good value for money eh?

Your experiences may vary depending upon your store, I unfortunately was at a particularly badly run one... There are enjoyable aspects to this job but really they are few and far between. Generally the other drivers you work with and the warehouse staff are the best people who work there and always look out for each other. All things considered though there are a lot of jobs that pay far more for doing far less where you get treated far better. Including many other supermarket roles...

Job was alright at first, then slowly started to realise things that were flat out rediculous.

Higher ups with no clue about real working life setting rediculous numbers and making the job insanely stressful and making you work through your breaks.

There are no chargers in the vans, so when your palm dies (provided by the company) you have to use your phone...

No PHONE MOUNTS... Only 2 of the vans had PHONE MOUNTS. This was completely rediculous and my own phone mount couldn't properly hold the device needed to do my delivery.

There response to not providing the bare neccessities was "well people keep breaking them so" - and? Thats not my problem? GO TO THE STORE AND GRAB ONE, YOU ARE A SUPERMARKET. I CANNOT DRIVE SAFELY WHEN THE PALM KEEPS FLYING EVERYWHERE.

Section leaders seem to never have any clue of whats going on. I was told I was doing one shift, then to come in and find im doing something completely different. Funny thing about this was, I came in at 7:00am to do my job (Click and Collect), then was told I was driving at 10:30am, and they WONT PAY YOU if you come any earlier than 45 minutes before your VAN LEAVES, and 45 minutes is no where near enough time to get in, clock in, see what you're doing and load and leave. Not enough time. So I had come in, 3 and a half hours early, when i was told to come in at this time, only to not be paid until 9:45. I quit after this, as this was not the first time they have completely messed up my shifts.

There is no work life balance. You work 6-7 hour days every day, with a day off here and there which makes you very slowly deteriorate in performance because all they care about is getting the deliveries out, and it is knackering driving all day loading and unloading repeatedly. You need that time off to recharge.

I once said I didn't feel comfortable driving because of a rough night the night before so I couldn't sleep. I was then made to feel guilty because now I have messed up the flow of the day, and was told to carry on and deliver. I then smashed someones side mirror off while I was out driving, and I have been on the road for 5 years+, and I have NEVER hit anything.

If you have new medication and you're unsure of how you'll be affected in terms of driving, best assume that you'll be pressured to provide information and told that if you don't start to get better very quickly than they'll boot ya. They created a big fuss about me and my medication, even though there was loads of other work I could do. The section leaders couldn't care that I didn't want to work evenings for a while until my medication is sorted (for my own safety) but they made me feel like such a pain in the a@@ about it.

I have never felt more stressed in my life. The most important part of this review is this:

They do NOT care about your wellbeing
They ONLY care about deliveries going out on time
They don't provide the bare minimum to do the job and expect you to provide.
They will make up rules (like you can do double shifts) and then a week later be different.
They will find every possible way to not pay you your breaks EVEN if you worked over

Don't work here unless you need to. Terrible for my mental wellbeing.

HOWEVER - the other workers I worked with were amazing and lovely, so were the section leaders, it's just that there is too much going wrong all the time.




The job itself was quite fun, you get the usual things you'd expect in a  role like this such as people who live in hard to find houses who simply won't use the delivery notes options to let the drivers know ( "ooh- everybody struggles to find our house!" ) , people who order their shopping for a specific hour then go out at that time and can't understand why you won't wait for them ( oh yes- we know your "I'll just be 5 minutes" is more often than not the best part of half an hour ), and my personal favourite- the people who order, aren't in and then expect you to deliver to a different address ( "What do you mean it's 40 minutes out of your way- I always see your vans around here! " ).

Whilst that's a bit annoying overall the good far outweighed the bad, I met some really great people and had some very interesting conversations whilst delivering and the other drivers I worked with were brilliant guys you could have a good laugh with so on that basis I'd say it was a fairly ok job.

What really ruined it was the running of the department. Much has been said in recent times regarding the company and it's contract changes. Whilst workers are now expected to be flexible it would appear that somewhere along the line something got lost in translation and "flexible" morphed into " go out of your way to make the job as unnecessarily annoying as you possibly can". If you get asked to cover a shift  make sure you tell them you can do that shift only- because what they won't tell you is that they then take it as granted you will then cover it for the following week or longer. Without telling you.

The pay is pretty poor for what you're doing, ASDA made a big fuss about the wage going up but there's no difference if you're on the shop floor or out driving. What is really annoying is if you are out on a quiet night you don't do a full shift- one night I was finished after just over 2 hours so it wasn't worth the money for that shift. I honestly would not recommend this job if you have commitments which require a regular amount of money coming in.

The sat nav systems they use are dreadfully inconsistent, they will usually try to take you to the rear of the property which on many occasions will mean a completely different street. In sunlight that's not too bad but at night time when you're extra reliant on a bit of help it's extremely frustrating. The set delivery times are a best- a tad optimistic, especially at peak times. 
                                                                      
They also make you take the vans out illegally when it suits them, one of the vans had a massive bald patch on the tyre and then they will lie to your face saying that the technicians passed it and that you're covered by this so as to get the deliveries out and hit those targets.There was often faults on the vans which were just shrugged off- if an official body were to do a snap inspection I'd wager they would b in trouble. 

Speaking of which-they are absolutely obsessed with those targets to the point of detriment to staff morale and customer service. My overall impression that I left with was that the team leader is overly ambitious to progress up the ladder and the department manager is stuck  there in a role he really doesn't care about and wants away from it.

If you're sensible you'll want away from it too.

When is started in 2016 Asda was a great place to work. My department (fruit & veg) would have minimum 2 sometimes 4 staff members working on every shift. The work was heavy and physically tiring but that'd what's I like — being a member of a team kept morale high and we'd be proud to get it done and keep the department looking tidy and well stocked for the customers. 

Everything changed when Walmart sold the company in 2021. Things had declined gradually over the covid period, but work-life hit a rapid decline when the Issa brothers took over the reigns.

Redundancies didn't occur, but departing staff members were rarely replaced. Being high in student employment, departures were a regular occurrence, but whereas before those numbers would be filled, now a departing staff member just meant one less body on the department.

Before long, most departments, including my own, were operating with just one member of staff per shift, two if you were very lucky. This not only meant that standards of work dropped significantly and so the pride we'd felt in the past was no longer achievable, customers complaining, but also, every shift was reduced to little more than a boring chore. 

Where previously friends had been made and our spirits were high, now those relationships were broken and we were left just chatting to those we'd pass on our way from other departments rather than working hard, side-by-side with a pal.

There are still some positives though. The 10% staff discount is a lifesaver for a family of six like mine. Three times a year (including late November) that would increase to 20% for a week also, which was great for stocking up for Christmas or maybe making a large purchase.

We'd regularly have first dibs on some crazy food reductions also. My late Saturday shift I'd almost always come home with a whole bag full of meat or whatever for the freezer which I'd barely paid anything for — once I was able to buy 72 cans of tuna for £16. 

The managerial style was pretty relaxed also. Friendly, supportive and not prone to solution undue pressure. They knew we were up against it with being understaffed and they were suffering just as much as we were — management pay is barely any more than anyone else's. 

Here's the thing though — all the good managers were clocking the declining situation and getting jobs elsewhere. By the time I left twelve months ago many of the good ones had gone already, and the rest talking about leaving. Same could be said about the good members of staff (myself included lol).

So overall, if you're offered a job at Asda I'd say think carefully about it. It's still better than many places out there who only want to rinse you until you drop, but know that you're going into a place that's riddled with poor morale and where you're gonna be working 8hrs a day largely on your own. The customers are always chatty and upbeat, generally speaking, but they come and go... nothing makes up for a good work buddy to get you through the day, and they're few and far between here these days. 







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