Unbelievable. - werkgeversreview Customer Assistant bij ASDA

This is by far the most disgusting, toxic, dangerous, unbelievable place I have ever had the displeasure of working at. If it wasn’t for the lovely team I worked with I would have left a long time ago. Coupled with the Covid-19 pandemic and the takeover of Asda by the Issa brothers I am in utter disbelief that this store is still open. Things have gone shockingly downhill and morale is at an all time low because of this. -We have lost many hours across multiple departments. We would often have to borrow people in order to keep some departments running, for example home shopping taking people from checkouts. Departments are closed off entirely or closed prematurely during the day due to lack of staff, such as checkouts often being closed after 7pm. -Many people have left over the years but are not replaced with new ones, therefore things get tighter over time and we are expected to take up multiple positions in order to keep the shop afloat, e.g. security having to face up shelves, section leaders covering breaks, etc. -Rotas are in shambles. Due to the loss of hours and/or staff there is never enough people. Management claim that we are doing fine apparently? Yet they don’t seem to twig that holidays and sicknesses are not covered properly, and people are always called in to work overtime at the last minute because we are struggling? -We have to take equipment from other departments just to keep our department running as there are not enough telson machines or printers to go around. This has created a situation now in which we have to hide equipment from other departments just so we can keep on using them. -Aside from the training videos on induction there is zero training given, we are expected to help each other when we do not know something. Often thrown into the deep end on things. This is due to poor communication between staff and management, for example when we are expected to provide a new service to our customers that none of us know about! -Cleanliness standards have dropped significantly, there are many occasions now where we have no cleaner in at all, and we have had to shut certain areas such as the customer toilets if a mess occurs as there is nobody to attend to it. That means we often have Human waste sitting waiting to be cleaned the next morning when the cleaners are in. -The shop itself is rarely maintained properly. For example regular leaks occur when it is raining heavily outside, multiple issues with the toilets, and tills that constantly break down or freeze in the middle of customers using them. -We have had to go shifts without a security guard present due to staffing issues, and clearly management do not care about their staff being protected. Many times in the past ordinary staff have been made to stand at the door in order to pretend that there is security present when there isn’t. Due to this I and many others have voiced our concern at feeling unsafe in this environment, especially considering we are in a prime city centre location that has multiple issues with crime and drug addiction. -Lied to people about there being a thorough clean of the store when Covid-19 began its outbreak within the store; that never happened. Our Covid outbreak was swept under the rug by telling people that if we spoke about it then we would be severely disciplined. -On the subject of the pandemic we were lied to about employing Safety Marshals to help with the queues outside, face-masks, and disinfecting. We each had to take turns being a “safety marshal” despite that not being our job description, no security training, and the barrage of abuse we endured. Furthermore hours that were supposed to be dedicated to employing safety marshals were instead taken by a different department to cope with rising demand. -When special visits by higher management are scheduled, staff will be asked to do overtime that day so it looks as though we have more staff on rota than what we actually do.