deputy manager

store manager

customer assistant

shift manager

retail sales associate

Lidl

The pay is very good, and goes up with every full year you work for them, so that is a great positive of this company, but there are a lot of negatives too.

You can be hired for a part-time (say 20 hour) contract but given 39+ hours a week every week (good for some, but less so for others), and then every closedown shift you will probably finish late (but get paid for it). You will also sometimes have to attend for staff meetings outside of your shift pattern (you might say finish a closedown after midnight, then have to come back for 9am for the staff meeting, then return again at 2pm for your actual shift). So overall you do more than full time hours, but on a part time contract, meaning your holiday benefit is poorer than it ought to be if you were accurately contracted to your hours. Management (which I never was) somtimes have to do a closedown shift (potentially post midnight finish in worst case scenario) followed immediately by an early morning (5am start) shift. On one occasion we closed down the store on a Sunday, finishing about an hour later than planned, only to be told we had also been rota-ed on for several hours that evening for a full stock count. The only indication on the rota on the board was that they had put a single letter (I think 'S'?) underneath the shift times (i.e. the regular Sunday shift times, bearing in mind the shorter trading on Sunday), and we were expected to just know that the one letter meant several extra hours of stock counting was also rota-ed in. The rota itself could change multiple times inbetween the first version (about 3 or 4 weeks in advance) and the week itself, even changing multiple times during the actual week on some occasions, with the result that you ideally need to check the rota every single day, preferably in the evening when the store manager who did the rotas had gone home for the day, and that includes on your days off (which surely no one actively wants to feel they are forced to do). I once turned up at 5am to be told I was now on the late night shift as the rota had been changed the previous day after I had checked it that afternoon at the end of my shift! I would suggest that if such regular changes are a necessary part of their rota they move to an app based system to allow colleagues to check their rotas from home (or perhaps they have now, since it's been several years since I left). They also had a tendency to not communicate with you regarding whether or not your chosen holiday dates had been booked, causing many colleagues to get caught out when their foreign holiday was only a few weeks away and they found they had been unexpectedly rota-ed on those dates, and were then in the position of having to either lose expensive, and much needed holidays, or else indvertently leave Lidl in the lurch and face the inevitable disciplinary action afterwards even though the holiday dates had been submitted in writing many months beforehand, and the asbsence of communication about holiday was supposed to indicate they had been accepted (we usually got told you only get the holiday forms back if the dates have been rejected). We would be asking management about our holiday dates week after week, without getting any useful answer, before the relevant rota finally went up and either reassured us or sent us into blind panic when we realised the problem.

The work is very fast paced and you can be asked to work in any part of the store on any shift. On busy days you can be allocated to say Bakery, or to Fruit and Veg checks, or the Chiller/Frozen deliveries. You can then spend most of your shift manning your checkout due to the level of business, only to then be held firmly to account for the section of the store you had been allocated to but unable to actually get off the checkout to get to. Having said that it all depended on which manager was in, and, in particular, having worked in other stores on a couple of occasions, my impression was the company in and of itself was probably fairer and more realistic with expectations than the specific store manager I spent most of my time with Lidl working for, who very much had an over assertive disciplinary style of management (to the say the very least) and exceptionally high expectations, that on one or two occassions I was able to prove were far higher than what the company itself stated as its expectation.

I would only recommend this job to the most able bodied and athletic of people, as it's notable that very few people above their 30s work for the company at store level due to the very fast pace of the work, and the consistently high stress levels. I wouldn't recommend the company, at store level at least, for anyone who has any kind of disability or specific needs, since everyone has to be able to do everything, and do it within the exact same highly optimistic time limits, and even the checkouts would probably not accommodate anyone with a physical disability, such as a wheelchair user. I would also advise being thick skinned if you want to work there, as there is very much a culture of copious assertive negative feedback, but very little positive encouragement.

Well, where do I start.

The role of a Customer Assistant will completely ruin you. It will effect your health (mentally and physically), financially, you will be sworn at, insulted, witness racism, sexism and incredible amounts of back stabbing

I’ve worked in 4 different stores and it’s always the same.

Physically, I know of at least 2 people who are not only in their twenties but also have to wear back supports. God knows how they will be in their 50’s or up

Pallets can weigh in excess of 250 kilos each so if you are pulling 6 of them around the store. Well, you do the maths...

There is constant pressure to stack the pallets in a certain time. Mixer pallets are the worse, they can take ages and the stuff on there is in different parts of the store.

It is relentless. You rarely get a chance for a breather. There’s is a constant diet of energy drinks and ciggies in the mornings to get you through it. This is the 5am shift. 

By 8am, you then have to prepare yourself for the customers despite being physically exhausted. 

At least 80% of them are the worse that this country has to offer. You will serve rude, impatient and at least one drunk customer a day and a majority of them pay by cash which looks like it’s been buried in a garden for the last couple of years. Customers moan about everything especially the queues. Store theft is rife. You have to say good morning and most will just ignore you. 

You have to scan 30 items a minute. You can’t win, customers complain you are scanning to fast for them to pack but they fail to understand that they are supposed to pack their bags on the shelf behind the tills. An 80 year old woman cannot pack quick but lidl don’t care. Queues also build up due to customers struggling to understand that you need to pay for the shopping. They never have enough money so ask you to scroll through the list to delete the item. That item will be a ‘put back’. Unfortunately, it will then turn into a ‘write off’ as you won’t get time to put it back! 100s of pounds of goods are wasted each day.

Card declining is commonplace as well. Woe betide you if someting is 5p too much. Customers will argue for ages (and let the queues build up) about any discrepancy. 

Oh, there is no customer service desk. If a customer wants a refund they have to queue up. When it’s their turn you have to call the manager down to authorise it. The rest of the people in the queue will then get irate.

You may end up on the till for 5 or more hours straight. It drives you crazy but you can’t get off. I’ve known someone who has wet themselves as they wasn’t allowed off the till to go to the toilet

Financially, you cannot rely on a constant wage each month due to  hours being cut if the store is doing poorly that day or for other reasons. 

Let me explain,  you are on a 30 hour a week contract. Lidl pay you on the basis that you will do 130 hours a month. However, this starts to fall apart if it’s a 4 week month. You cannot do 130 hours as you can only do 120 hours. Lidl will pay you your contracted hours that month. Sounds great doesn’t it? , the following month they take that 10 hours back off you. This is over £100 if you are in London. Can you afford to take a hit of £100? Of course, you can try and make up that 10 hours but chances are you can’t  if the store isn’t making any money. Lidl will do all they can to save money and as a customer assistant, you will be the one to pay for it.

As for racism and sexism, it is rife. From abusing the delivery driver for being late (despite bad traffic) to making lewd comments about female staff.  Women spend most of the days on till. 

You don’t get shoes supplied so you have to buy your own. You will probably get through 2 pairs a year. They don’t give you any uniform allowance on your wages either.

Oh, it’s not all great for store managers either. 
Area managers will come in to rip apart all your hard work despite having no idea how to run a store themselves.

There is a real problem with people ringing in sick or just not turning up having left for a better job. 

Seriously, don’t join Lidl. Yes, they pay a bit more but if it’s at the cost of your health, mental well-being, social life, relationship and financial situation it’s not worth it. Look elsewhere.

There is very little i can say that is positive about working here i'm afraid. I was an ambient warehouse colleague and the environment was pretty awful. If you have matters on your mind it may be best not to come to work or else this place could really send you over the edge, either through the complete silence, an incredibly annoying (quite possibly faulty as they never replace them) headset which infuriates you further knowing they have touch screens which they only allow certain colleagues to use or someone coming up to you every hour telling you your pick-rate (although in fairness this colleague has now left). The equipment given to perform your duties was shambolic and needs replacing ASAP, it was like you were given the rejects which other company's no longer use. I have several years experience working in warehouses and this was by far the worse. It was just so amateurish, it really had to be seen to be believed. I think there main problem is that the personnel who recruit people don't have the first idea about who is acceptable for the job role, they just seem intent on recruiting people who are young with no previous experience. I am 30 years old and i could count the number of colleagues on one hand in my department who were older than me. In the period of time i was there they recruited every month simply because they could not retain staff. But god forbid you ever mention they have problems, they'd have you believe you were working in Lapland. People were very inexperienced and training was pathetic. First time use of picking trucks consisted picking up a pallet, driving through an isle with this and returning it to where you picked it up from. End of training. No manual handling training was given, resulting in many injuries amongst colleagues and people who just didn't have the first idea how to perform the role safely. Health and safety has clearly gone out of the window here and some of the colleagues who were allowed to drive reach trucks should never be allowed near a LLOP let alone a reach truck. You literally were taking your life into your own hands if you were down an isle with them. 

This was the very first warehouse i'd ever been in where no background music was allowed and benefits for colleagues were nill, unless you class free food near it's sell by date as a benefit. No overtime pay, No bank holiday pay, No full days pay if work finished early, a measly 10 days sick pay per year and that wasn't until you had been there for 6 months, i could go on. There is no union in the workplace and that allows the company to be getting away with literally anything. It was about as bad as it could get.

On a slightly more positive note, i think i was very lucky to be working in the department that i was as the management in this department were very kind and friendly. I would go as far as to say that one particular female manager in this team is quite possibly the kindest most polite individual i've ever had the fortune to work with. There was one manager in this department who was a complete wally, literally running at full speed around the warehouse at times and acting like a complete fool, but he has now left the business. I do feel sorry for the team on this department as you can't help but feel they deserve much better. Other members of management higher up are varied at best. You either come across some who from the first time of meeting them you realise they must have failed their Argos exams or one in particular who thinks because of their position it gives them the right to be arrogant, rude, disrespectful to both colleagues on the floor and fellow managers and has an ego bigger than hump-back bridge. I had quite possibly the most unpleasant experience i've ever had with this member of staff and what they did to my shift manager was degrading and belittling at best.

So in summary, It would be best to avoid this place unless you have no previous work experience, enjoy the challenge of seeing whether or not you make it out of there alive at the end of the day or are just looking for something to add to your C.V.              

I have mixed feelings about the past two years at this company.  On the one hand, I had the pleasure of working with the best group of colleagues you could ever ask for in a job. On the other hand, my experience at Lidl was a pure nightmare. The only reason I stayed on was because of the lack of jobs during the peak covid time and also because I was currently saving up money for university. 

I don't know where to begin with this but let's start with positives.

Pay* - Pay is actually pretty good considering other retail jobs but the asterisk is there for a reason and I will explain later 

Colleagues - Always fun speaking and talking with other people and learning more about them. It can be quite a social job if you're on a till with someone else and it can make the hours fly by

Now for the cons...

The Customers. This is a customer-orientated role, so you'll be speaking to and serving customers 95% of the time. Most of these customers are rude and aggressive for no reason, they will treat you like dirt. They expect you to serve them fast, but not too fast, and to immediately hold the answer to every question or query they have. In my many years of retail experience, Lidl customers are by far the worst customers you can face in a job. That said, the occasional funny or polite customer will keep your spirits up for the rest of the shift but it's a dime a dozen unfortunately.

This is also a physically challenging job as you will have to balance between working stock, lifting heavy products, working on tills and the self checkouts. It can also be very mentally taxing as well having to constantly be aware that you do things 1000% by the book or be told off by the manager. 

There is no regard for employee health, as I suffered from back pain and asked to change the chairs on the tills to accommodate, a reasonable request my manager said he would fulfill, however weeks had gone by even with chasing it up, no changes were made.  The company treats you like a machine and you will be expected to act like a machine, operating at 100% efficiency otherwise you will be reprimanded by the SM or AM.

There is no work/life balance, you will be called up last minute to cover shifts, which is okay occasionally but everyday is ridiculous. You're expected to cover each shift too and if you do not then expect some grief from the store manager or possibly even having holidays changed 'as punishment'. Likewise, if you are asked to start early or finish later, you're expected to do so, with no regard for any plans or commitments you may have outside of work. You have to beg your manager to let you leave on time as they will tey and get you to stay 15, 30 minutes or even an hour after you were meant to finish. 



The Rota. The Rota will change every single day you go in, don't expect it to stay the same. Your Holidays that have been approved for months in advance can be cancelled up to the day before.

Management - This will make or break your experience. The Area Manager will enter your store, look all intimidating and create problems for the store that need solving. Problems that never existed, nor pose any importance in the grand sceheme of things, but will require an urgent response. Very rude and if you don't jump up immediately as the commands levae his mouth, you get told off.

Pay - Although the pay can be good, you essentially do the work of 2-3 people. And as the job can be so physically and mentally demanding, it's not actually worth it. 

Overall, I would avoid working at Lidl again. There are books and articles recounting past employee's experiences working for this company, and just how evil they are to their own staff. In my experience, I got off lightly compared to some of the stories I have heard, but that said, a job should not make you hate waking up every morning and you shouldn't be spoken to like dirt. Only work here if you have absolutely no alternative, if you can get a job somewhere else, then take it because you deserve it.

And to my former colleagues, good luck, I wish you all well

Typical day at Lidl

On a 5 am start? Enjoy seeing a manager lose his temper when the previous shift didn't do all what they said they would and take it out on you.

Realise that at least one person hasn't turned up due to lateness or calling in sick

Doing Meat? Prepare to move incredibly heavy TKT's full of meat on an pump truck that has seen better days.

Open the TKT to be confronted with overloaded trays that are either impossible to pull out, or packets of meat that that just been thrown in there by the depot as they couldn't be bothered to stack it properly.

What's that on the floor or over your hands? Oh, its blood from a split packet.

Have said managers constantly challenging you to stack quicker while he or she is having a smoke outside

Remove out of date meat that wasn't removed the previous shift

Realise you haven't got enough time to do it so you just chuck it into the chiller anyway.

Doing fruit and Veg? Enjoy pulling a 6ft plus pallet of goods on a dangerously leaning tower on another pump truck. There could be 6 of them. Better be fit / strong. You will be physically ruined after it and you day has just begun.

Enjoy further harassment from managers in between their 'off the record' smoking breaks to make sure everything is ready by 8am

If you are not in the 'gang' you will then be destined to spend the rest of the day on tills dealing with constant abuse, inane questions and customers who treat it like a bank by throwing change at you. Best to wear gloves. Customers will complain about queues no matter what. They complain, complain and complain. 

Try and squeeze an UNPAID break in and of you are really lucky, you may not get asked to come back from your break early. Oh, you will be sitting there on your own. There is no 'social' aspect to Lidl

Bit quieter? Close your till and then try to stack a 6ft pallet of ambient goods that has turned up late (again) Get used to the boxes collapsing that you are trying to stack due to poor quality cardboard. 

Just started the pallet and suddenly queues are building so you are called back on tills. Spend 45 mins clearing the queue then get back to the pallet. Manager will then ask you why you haven't finished it. You try and tell them you were called back on tills but they wont hear you as they have already judged you, walked off and are now going for another smoking break.

Oh, the shops gone quiet again. That's effecting profit. Any chance you can go home early? (loss of money or hours or both) Yeah, thanks for your hard work but you are no longer needed as we need to save hours.

Get paid at the end of month, then realise they have made an error so you are a day's shift down (£80 - £100). Its ok, you'll get it back in 4 or 5 weeks.

Add to the casual racism throughout the organisation, sexism and being shouted at / humiliated by managers you then realise what a terrible mistake you have made.

You then leave and try and forget about Lidl.

This is just a snippet of the daily nightmare that is your working day. I've witnessed people in tears (when being abused by a customer or shouted at by a manager), people physically destroyed by the weight of the items being lifted or dealing with a stream people who will abuse you at the tills

Don't be fooled by the slightly higher wage. They want their pound of flesh from you. Don't be fooled by the offer of shift manager either, for the princely sum of £1 per hour extra, you will be doing more that the store managers and will be mentally ruined by the end of your shift

I cannot put into words what a nightmare working at Lidl is. For your sanity, cashflow, physical wellbeing don't do it.

The typical day at Lidl is a monotonous one, with very little variety in the job whatsoever. Although this could be seen as the nature of the job, opportunities for change appear few and far between. Team members are expendable. And there's nothing to stop them training another person to take your place - You'll be reminded of this constantly. Health and Safety standards are appalling, where the only days you feel you work in a safe environment are the days there's a Health and Safety related site visit happening.

The training in Lidl is minimal, with their apparent objective to have you in and on the job as soon as possible. On numerous occasions we have witnessed unprepared members of staff being sent onto the shop floor to carry out the job they haven't been appropriately trained to do. 
Management will try to defend this by saying it's the best way to gain experience, however, putting somebody into a live work place, with other members of staff who are forced to hit targets and where the aisles are filled with moving machinery may not be the brightest solution. 

The highest levels of management no doubt have great intentions for all members of staff, this is definitely lost as lower levels apply their personal touches to things.
The lower levels of management in Lidl can be best described as reactive (Def:, reactive management is characterised by lack of planning) - although they lead you to believe they're ahead of the game. This is made blatantly apparent in their rota planning, assigned roles, staff training and the rock-bottom levels of motivation plaguing every shift. 
 In addition to the above, performance required can change from shift to shift and person to person. Although their is a set rate which is expected, this will only apply to those who management choose. (performance and attendance)

The staff who work with you will be the highlight of your day. Lidl attracts people from different walks of life and eventually these people will help you take the job less seriously, Thus releasing some stress from your day.

There is few challenges that come with this job, you can almost be certain to take minimal stress home with you after a shift. This applies to most people within the workplace. Some do see this as a plus, but if you're the kind of person who is driven by chance of career progression, learning new skills or just generally taking home a sense of achievement after a day at work - you'd be disappointed to find whatever you did yesterday, last week, last month will have swift vacated the minds of everyone upon exiting the building. 

The few limited perks the job has include; Fair number of holidays at sacrifice of bank holidays, staff discount, reasonably flexible work times (providing you work the full 7 hour shift), above national minimum wage (clutching at straws here).

Having worked for Lidl for a short time I can say that my interview and application is still quite fresh in my mind and much of the polish has eroded away.

The Lidl open day is great! thereafter is questionable.

I applied for a set 16+ hourly contract in order to fulfil my requirements and have been rostered on in excess of 26 p/week on unsociable shifts which are not very family friendly. Whilst I don't mind on occasion helping out. I'd rather stick with my contracted hours as the taxman claws anything above a certain limit.

The training received is often overlooked and practices are open to interpretation depending on your line manager / store manager / shift leader/colleague.

Very hard manual work but at least you wont need a gym membership!

If you're looking for work/life balance forget it, although it is achievable if you have the right manager. Our store is a very busy one and I am finding it increasingly difficult to complete my work within the time I am required to do so. This story continues with other staff.

Current managers have lots of experience but lack of understanding when it comes to the daily grind and often berate employees for the smallest mistake, I have seen staff crying for the smallest issue being highlighted.

Eg, 20 minutes to unload a 10ft chilled delivery box is not doable by one person if the box has been incorrectly packed at the distribution centre and customers are getting in the way. This time also fails to include the stock rotation required within the display cabinet.

 Pallets of fresh goods are often 9ft and over and often include 10kg loads which if you are of challenged height like me, could be a problem, again these need to be unloaded and stock rotation of pallet full 5 kg bags of potatoes takes it out on your body.

As for the health & safety side of things, I have to provide my trousers and footwear PPE, Lidl provide a T shirt and fleece jacket, gloves. I have seen lots of H&S mistakes and am certain that accidents will happen if not addressed soon. Having raised this with my line manager several times, it's normally shrugged off.

You will be expected to remember lots of item numbers for till work but I am told that once it's been done for a bit I'll get used to it. Not so If you have a short memory like me!

The earpiece is another thing, communication device which doubles as a security piece, it gets sore so you have to swap ears and if ,like me you are not great at hearing then you may be considered as ignorant as the piece impedes your hearing in one ear.

Overall I am dissatisfied with Lidl and am taking steps to find another job which is sad, but I really do hope they can sort out the issues, as the potential to be a good employer is but within a hands reach if they only tried.

The pay isn't that great either considering it has just gone up, its only 35p odd above the nat min wage at £9 p /hr

I like working at Lidl, that's why I still work there, but I can share my honest opinion about this job so that people know what to expect.  Pace of work and challenges: First of all, this is not a job for weak people, in this job you have to be strong both mentally and physically.  Be ready to lift heavy pallets and walk quickly around the store between the pallet and the cash register.  You must be strong, fast and agile.  Mentally, you have to run against the clock and sometimes you feel pressure from management, which has pressure from above.  Customers are mostly nice, but sometimes you will encounter unpleasant situations, this is a great job to develop assertiveness.  Also be ready to act as a security guard and argue with shoplifters.  If you do something human at the checkout, such as yawning, be prepared for jokes from customers, to which you must be able to respond.  If your private life is bothering you or you are having a bad day like everyone else and it's hard for you to smile, be prepared for jokes (I'm writing this sentence to everyone not to expect an eternal smile from cashiers, because when someone is in trouble, even a fake smile is devastating  for someone's psyche).  For many people my opinion may seem negative, but from my perspective it is positive.  Because I like challenges, and working at Lidl allowed me to develop a strong character and assertiveness.  Management: Managers are different, depending on the store, I have already worked in many stores and generally most of the managers were ok. However, I also met some who could not stand the pressure and put the pressure on the employees, which instead of motivating, was very demotivating.  But most of them are highly cultured and professional, the management always observes your strengths and weaknesses and will assign you tasks that you feel best at.  So if you like sitting on the cash register, you will be on the cash register, if you like on the shop floor, you will be on the shop floor more often, and if you multitask, you will work on both.  They also try to adapt days off and hours to your needs, if you prefer morning shifts, you will often start in the morning (around 5AM), and if you prefer late shifts, you will often close (finish around 11PM).  Salary: The pay is generally good, however if you live in a large city like Bristol, Manchester etc. it may be quite low, the pay is great for medium sized towns like Newport, or rural areas like Somerset.  In a big city, to make a living, you need to have at least another working person.  As for London, I don't know, they pay more there, but I don't know the cost of living.  If my opinion discourages you and you find it negative, do not apply for this job, it is a waste of your time, Lidl's time, and the management's time.  If you think all of what I wrote is positive, like I think it's positive.  WELCOME TO THE TEAM!!!

Lidl? Where to start? Lidl is my worst experience so far in the UK. I didn't like the way they worked, the management, or the pay. I worked during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the only good thing was that my work there was an occasion to leave home (and during the lockdown it was like "salvation"). Most colleagues were OK. No one treated me badly or ignored me in any way. The Deputy Store Manager didn't like me - I don't know why she was conspiring with one of the Shift Managers. The manager of the store - an extremely good man, but because of his kindness he has completely lost control of his employees. 
In the store they bet only on speed. The quality is under any criticism. The new product is placed in the front and the old one is buried in the back. Tons of food are thrown away. Would you say that it is normal for this to happen? No. It is not normal. This is a bad practice, lack of rotation and absolute carelessness, which can make someone sick at some point. You need to be very vigilant and watch the expiration date of everything you buy. You can find many expired products on the shelf and this is considered absolutely normal. Fresh cream expired 1 month ago, Bacon expired 2 weeks ago, raw sausages from 3 weeks ago? No problem, everything is correct. When products with an expiration date are re-evaluated, they are collected from the shelf and sometimes stand for hours in the warm warehouse before someone comes to put labels with a 30% discount and return them to the refrigerator. You will never see this store tidy, someone making it easy for you to get bottles of soft drinks off the stacks, etc. Everything will just be thrown on the shelves and that's it. Because this is Lidl - doing maximum work with a minimum of people. Their working principles are an absolute joke. I had never encountered such carelessness. 
As far as I'm concerned. I did not receive ANY training, but was expected to work and be familiar with everything as a long-term employee. I didn't get enough hours to work. In most cases, I was given a Saturday or Sunday, or a total of 4 hours of work for a whole week. I had unpaid hours, wrongly written breaks, for which I asked 4 different managers for 4 months, established a connection with their office and nothing. I was not paid for the missing hours.
Absolutely incorrect employer! The management is poorly organized, they did not submit the adjustments to my working hours on time. I guess it's intentional because I'm not the first one to have it happen. How is it going? Well, they ask you to work from 6:00 to 10:00. Before 10:00 someone comes and asks you to stay another hour. You agree and you work. However, someone is not recording this extra time for you. Then it is impossible for you to correct this missing hour. Nobody cares. An absolute waste of time and a really bad experience. If you like to work extra hours for no money - this is your place 
Lidl? NEVER AGAIN!


The main role of the job is to organise and run the floor. Delegate and get stuck in with normal tasks, such as counting the safe, running breaks, stock work, cleaning and orders etc.

There are only two shifts as a manager 05-00 until 15:00 or 13:00 until 23:00, this gives no time to see your family or friends. The worst part is this isn’t consistent so you may be in until 23:00 then your next shift that week is 05:00. To me that isn’t healthy.

Running the store is very enjoyable and you learn a lot of valuable life lessons doing it. Shifts can be tricky especially with sickness as there is a lack of any forward planning and you are just left short of staff instead of getting a replacement. But on the whole satisfyingly challenging.

However. Prepare to be micromanaged!! All senior management, whether that be store Manager , area manager or above want you to do tasks based on what they are getting assessed on at that time. If this means a worse experience for the customer then so be it in their eyes. If it means you have to stay until 2am to get something done they do not care as long as they can say that box is ticked. So you can pretty much forget running the store normally, instead you will have someone over your shoulder telling you what they would like done.

Sickness and leaving on time is made to feel like you are committing a crime. 

For a lot of my Customer assistants they would have to sit on till their entire shift because the company runs on bare bones staff. There is no fulfilment in growing a person because you are the only free body on the shop floor. This leaves staff Understandably unmotivated and therefore harder to manage.

Many store managers will not help with customer face to face satisfaction despite it being their store, and would rather sit in the office doing a rota on a busy Saturday afternoon on pay day weekend.

Training is the worst in any environment I have ever seen. You sit on a computer and press buttons for around 12 hours and that’s it; apparently you know what you are doing. Due to the tight staff it means spending time with or having time spent on you is very difficult and you end up just learning things on your own. 

As a side note, there is a really bad blame culture in the company. Maybe this is because everyone is trying to get so much done with so little time but instead of assessing what has happened and how it can be avoided in the future you are just moved up or down the ladder or even to another store. So the issue is never resolved....

In summary, do this job for about a year to learn some good interpersonal, high pressure environment and management skills and move on because you will not get a thanks for doing anything more.





Top Job Titles	Average salary
Deputy manager 27 salaries reported	£40,271 per year
Store manager 17 salaries reported	£54,735 per year
Customer assistant 26 salaries reported	£13.86 per hour
Shift manager 39 salaries reported	£15.22 per hour
Retail sales associate 22 salaries reported	£29,675 per year

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