I work as a store assistant in an Aldi store in northeast England. I have worked for other retailers and Aldi are by far the worst.
When I started with the company I was working 40 hours per week, just what I wanted, but in the last few months my hours have been cut to around 24 hours per week, meaning that my outgoings are more than my take home pay. This is mainly due to a recent mass recruitment campaign where many stores have doubled their staff numbers, but hired too quickly and taken on many poor and incompetent staff.
The management do not care about staff, if you question any policy you are shot down and have your card marked as a complainer, meaning that you get your hours cut further and have even less chance of promotion.
The stores are really run by area managers who are usually 21 year olds fresh out of uni, who have no idea about retail and have never had a job. They have no personnel skills and no idea on how to treat or speak to staff.
Aldi will cut staff hours right back, but still expect you to be 100% flexible and will rota you to be off and then call you into work at the last minute. They will guilt trip you and you'll go to the bottom of the overtime list if you can't or won't come in to work.
The final straw came this week when staff were told that they would not be allowed to park in the shop car park over the 2 week xmas period, meaning staff now have to find a parking space elsewhere in a very run down area and will have to walk long distances to the shop. Aldi really couldn't care less about their people.
