Ridiculously stressful. With 5+ online delivery platforms there were often times I could not leave the shop floor for a minute to breathe for over an hour. As they have added more tasks to complete for workers they have also reduced the hours received to accommodate that work, and it feels like they have also majorly increased the pressure for workers to achieve results.
In my time I never met a member of management or supervisor who would take their full break which they were entitled to as this was the norm for all Co-op stores.
No contingency allowance for when delivery's come late, staff call in sick and you have to replace them, except you can't because no one wants to come into work, and majority of stores have only 2 people working at a time. So it is down to pressure someone to come in, or make yourself unhealthy and work it yourself. No recognition for doing extra hours unpaid. Pressured to work illegal close-open shifts by upper management. Absolutely no consideration from high-ups as to what it's like and the amount of pressure you're put in.
I worked in a store with no online platforms and then a busier store with many online platforms. I can only feel as if Co-op are greedy with the amount they push additional online ordering platforms with no consideration of their staff. If we are receiving little just-eat orders a day why not just get rid of it? The only recognition we received was from customers who were astonished at the multiple devices beeping at once as they have waited 20 minutes in line because there are only two people working at the time.
The working in environment is also absolutely disgusting. You are encouraged to report broken fixtures and objects but they are properly fixed about 10% of the time. Staff areas are always disgusting (unless you are lucky enough to work in a new store) dusty, mouldy, falling apart, small spaces with little room to work when a delivery comes in.
The performance of co-op has truly fallen company wide due to staff realising how stressful it is, leaving, and being replaced by staff that you can not properly train. The only way to not be stressed in this job is to detach yourself and adopt a "what can you do" attitude. There is insufficient time to get anything done. It once took me two hours just to get milk on the shelf because I was running around like a chicken. It's just absolutely not worth it.
I want to do well and be efficient but I did not have the space to get what I wanted done in this job. You think you are ahead of yourself then realise you have to spend an additional 3 hours doing a task because something has gone wrong, which again, there is no contingency for.
The only times I have felt like i've made good progress, is when I have gone home and felt like I could collapse.
There needs to be a greater consideration for management training, so many managers in the business that do not know what they are doing, I will include myself as I could not even take the time to go into other stores and shadow others as I did not have any staff to cover me in my own store. No support or even availability for this, company-wide. I tried my best but maybe I would have a different opinion of co-op if I had received the training I needed.
I will add, in my time I had worked at over 5+ different co-ops. All have the same stressful environment, unpleasant surroundings, poor pressure, and staff who are at their last straw.
