Farmfoods reviews

Management can forget about important things.

I don’t usually write reviews, but after my experience here, I feel like people genuinely deserve to know what it’s really like before accepting a job. A typical day at work was chaotic, stressful, and honestly overwhelming from start to finish. From my very first shift, I was thrown straight onto the tills and the chilled section with almost no proper training. Things were shown to me quickly and rushed, with the expectation that I’d just figure everything out, so when things went wrong customers would take all their anger and impatience out on you and getting help after ringing the bell would take a while, and instead of being shown how to not make a mistake again they would rush showing me, which would be hard to remember on a outdated old fashioned till like the ones they had. Even the e-learning training for the tills was poor and incomplete, I wasn’t even shown all of it properly, which left me feeling unprepared and anxious. I was even told that management have a group chat where they say people are too slow even the experienced ones. Certain staff would back talk about the managers in-front of me like this all the time. What I learned? Mostly how not to treat employees. There was no structure, no patience, and no real support system in place for new starters. Customer service alone can be tough, but here it reaches a point where you’re left to deal with rude and difficult customers with no backup. I understand that rude customers are everywhere and i can deal with them because I’ve worked before, but it gets to a point when the workplaces entire system is bad overall, and you have no support. The area itself is rough, and customers can be extremely disrespectful, yet they’re allowed to return no matter how bad their behaviour is. That makes an already stressful job even worse. The management was one of the most disappointing parts. They genuinely did not seem to care about staff wellbeing. You’re thrown into the deep end with unrealistic expectations, and when you raise concerns, they don’t want to hear it. When I explained my issues on the day I left, they didn’t even ask which employees were causing problems, they just tried to make excuses. On top of that, they would give me extra hours without even asking, despite knowing I’m a university student with exams coming up. My message explaining my situation to the manager was ignored, yet other staff somehow knew about it, which says a lot. The workplace culture was toxic. Staff openly spoke badly about previous employees in front of me, which immediately made me feel uncomfortable. I was also told that people regularly leave within three days, which is not something to be proud of, but rather a huge red flag about the company. Unfortunately, I quickly understood why. I didn’t even get my uniform even though i had ordered it when i started, so i assumed it’s probably just a slow system, but now that i think about it, it’s probably because people leave so quickly they don't even want to give it to them. The hardest part of the job was the lack of support and the way staff treated you. I was constantly made to do heavy work while being rushed, with one specific staff member standing next to me repeating “quick, quick, quick” in my ear despite the fact I’d had no proper training and was just trying my best. Instead of helping, they added pressure. On stock days, even small things felt unfair, like having your new box knife taken and replaced with their old one (The same staff member telling me to be quick). It might seem minor, but it felt like deliberate disrespect and borderline bullying. This same staff member said that i cant just stand and wait for customers at the till, and that i had to do other things too, mind you i’m new and i don’t know what else to do, i would have done it if she had told me beforehand or told me nicely, she acted as if i was lounging around on purpose and was rude about it, she always acted like she was my mom. This shows that a lot of staff took advantage of the fact i was young and assumed i was dumb and weak, the same goes for some certain customers. There was another staff member that tried to make it look like i rudely walked away from customers on purpose when i didn't even see them approaching, i was just trying to sign out of my shift on time, i did in fact go back and i served them nicely, even after that he tried making me look bad in-front of another staff member by mentioning it again, and i had to say that again, it was not on purpose. One of the worst experiences I’ve ever had at any job happened here, a customer completely lost his temper and crashed out on me because someone kept telling me that they hadn’t used their USED coupon. It was honestly one of the worst verbal confrontations I’ve ever experienced in my life, especially in a workplace where I expected at least basic help. What made it worse was that no staff properly supported me afterwards. I had customers helping me instead of my own staff, Instead, I was questioned about why I didn’t ring the bell on my third shift (by the same staff member who rushed me with heavy work and took my knife), as if that justified the situation rather than checking if I was okay (except for one staff member that did ask if i was okay). The most enjoyable part of the job, if I’m being honest, was leaving. I came into this role excited and grateful to finally have a job again while studying at university on the side, only to feel completely disrespected and undervalued and having to leave within 2 weeks of starting. You’re treated more like an animal or worse, like you don’t matter at all, rather than a human being, in-fact i don’t even think an animal would be treated like this. In the end, I chose not to work my notice period because the environment was genuinely affecting me mentally. When I explained everything I'm stating right now calmly and respectfully on the day i gave my notice, management admitted they already knew how bad things were and even held back a laugh when I mentioned that people leave within days. That reaction alone says everything. There’s clearly a reason they’re constantly short-staffed, and it’s not something they should be brushing off. It reflects serious issues within management and workplace culture. I would strongly advise anyone considering working here to think twice or at least be prepared to stand up for yourself. No job is worth being treated the way I was. You’ll always find a better opportunity. Id rather be unemployed than ever have to work here again. To add on, there was another university student that told me that the place would only get worse and you'd be made to do extra work that you don't get paid for, and how the payment system is awkward. I will be looking into reporting this to the head office, because people deserve better than this kind of treatment. It would make me happy knowing people will see this and save themselves. It’s also a lesson to read company reviews before starting a new job, because 80-90% of the reviews for Farmfoods are terrible. It’s just not fair, and it’s the fact that i couldn’t even fit everything here or it would be even longer than it is.