Life after Sainsbury's
Hi, randomly came across this sub and wanted to share my experience, in case it helps someone.
I was part of the massive redundancy event that happened a couple of years before COVID, basically a big restructure that got rid of team leaders and gave department managers more work, whilst getting rid of a load of them too. This was just after they bought Argos.
I was there for around 10 years, on Entertainment (when we used to have full entertainment aisles) and GM. I actually really enjoyed it for quite a while. Customer service was always at the forefront of everything we were taught and that positive interaction was encouraged. Slowly, budgets became tighter and practices started to shift a little, but it was still ok.
We then ended up with a psychopath store manager (when he was announced, we received "condolence" phone calls from other stores). Paired with easily pressured deputies, this led to a rapid decline in the store morale, due to his bullying tactics. I was miserable, but was terrified of making the leap to actually leave. Bills, kids etc needed to be paid, the thought of dropping to a lower wage, just to get out of there, made sure I never did it.
Then came the announced mystery meeting. It had been decided that team leaders were just "overpriced shelf stackers" (our store manager's words, just after he told us about his new car, from his recent pay rise 😐), which is a far departure from their view a year or so beforehand. The previous vision was to give more responsibility to team leaders, there were conferences and renewed training. Now we were no longer needed.
There were 3 choices. Take a redundancy package (boosted a bit, because they weren't giving us the proper notice), apply for one of the new roles or step down to colleague level, but effectively still do the stuff we were doing as team leaders, for less money.
The next couple of months was a lesson in corporate disdain. The people who chose to stay were officially referred to as the "winning team". This made the rest of us "losers". It turned out that around 90% of the managers and team leaders decided to leave. Those that decided to do a trial period of the new roles were screwed out of part of their redundancy package, without being notified. The HR team were treated even worse over their redundancy period, which overlapped with ours.
But what was unexpected for me, was...... relief. I was actually happy at the end of that meeting. I had an excuse to change my future. Being able to stand up to that store manager and watch him squirm was one of the most liberating feelings ever! "No, I'm not doing the RGIS count", "no, I can't do my delivery, tidy the shop floor and sit on a checkout, all at the same time".
After my last day, I went on holiday, then came back and started an apprenticeship in Horticulture. It was hard being on minimum wage for 2 years, but I'm now in a job that I genuinely love. My self worth and mental health have never been better.
So, whilst this may initially seem like a "Sainsbury's bashing" post, it's not. I genuinely enjoyed it for a few years and still hang out with some of the great people I met along the way. But for anyone feeling trapped in the retail grind, don't leave it as long as I did. Apprenticeships aren't just for young people, I was 36!
Sorry for the long post, just realised I've never really expressed all that before 🤣