Oh boy, where to begin. Don't be fooled by all the media attention over the living wage. I was on a 30 hour contract supposedly but kept getting between 20-25 hours a week as they are constantly looking to cut hours to save money and meet 'productivity' targets. You can get a phone call last minute saying they need you to come in early, You feel pressured to do this as you already have less hours than contracted that week. But the next day they can easily phone last minute and say they don't need you or just come in at 17:00 instead of 14:00. So you never really get on top of your under-hours. Eventually, you will accrue -30 hours that YOU owe THEM! Even though you are supposed to be on a contract! It is at this point where they will deduct hours out of your flat salary. Once you get in this cycle you can't get out of it properly and you never know exactly what you are going to be paid as their payroll is the most convoluted, backwards system that I have ever seen. Someone off sick? You better cover them to claw back your hours just to meet your contracted hours, the hours you are supposed to be getting anyway as standard. This is why I say don't listen to the living wage brag. I got more per hour in theory, but realistically as I was always given under my contracted hours I was getting less in total. I worked out once that I would have been better off in a minimum wage job where the hours were honoured. Believe me also that they will squeeze you for every drop of sweat as you really are doing the workload of 2 people. Always rushed, things never done to a good standard subsequently. There isn't a proper cleaner for the store and you will be brushing and mopping floors and wiping spillages while trying to be at the till and serve an every growing queue of annoyed people (and so they should be!) Staff shifts and changeover is handled stupidly. Some staff will go home, leaving 1 (me!) on the till at the busiest time of day serving a queue that reaches half-way down the store at one point, while we wait on someone to come in in about another half hour. Understaffed, understaffed, understaffed. I always got the late shifts as you will do when the manager isn't bothered with you. The late shift can have really busy peak periods, yet you will be left with 3 or sometimes just 2 staff in the entire store (and this is inclusive of the duty manager on). This is to cover serving customers, de-carding the whole store, doing write-offs and date-checking, bakery close-down and cleaning, office duties, cashing up, stock from outside brought in, all tills cleaned, the entire floor brushed and gone over with the hako machine and delivery pallets and tkt containers wheeled on to the shop floor ready for the morning. I sometimes got out 30-60 mins later than my shift end. It was paid, but you got told off for not being fast enough. The duty manager would often clock out and continue to work for an hour for free, just to complete the tasks and not get in trouble with the manager the next day. Make no mistake, they don't care about you and progression is rare to non-existent. I was there 2 years and never did get the full training. Not that it matters when they stick you in one role and forget about you. You are expendable and the living wage fallacy is only further used as an excuse to push you harder. As I said, now that I am in a normal, decent job with properly contracted hours, free coffee, a relaxed atmosphere and actually given respect and a voice, I look back at Lidl and wonder why I became stuck there so long. Then I realised how much damage it does to your motivation, self-worth, self-respect, pride and dignity. Run, run far away. Please.
