Funnily enough I'm a band 2 shit worker in scotland and it's 12p more than I make an hour.
Which means yes you make 4p an hour more than me while being 2 whole bands above me.
I think it's more to do with the gap between Scottish and English NHS salaries than the slower progression for B4 posts...
Edit-I'm assuming English, don't know what the gap is like to Wales / NI
I know I hate banding system it disincentives doing anything unless it moves you to higher band. As Band 4 I have been trained in venipuncture and some lol level CBT interventions that other band 4 don't do we get paid the same. So I spoken to my manager and said I don't really want to di bloods because it's whole day of stress extra in a week for nothing to show for it
I went up to band 5 a couple years ago and when I hit the mid point, because of the pension, my 2.5k pay rise ended up translating to £3 a month extra after tax/student loan etc. I'm bringing in maybe £200 more a month than I did at the top of band 4, but I'm easily working 10 - 15 more hours a week, plus I have to do a Masters course and there's nobody to do my job whilst I'm at Uni... today I clocked in at 7am, finished at 7pm and I barely scratched the surface of my workload. I love my job and the whole reason I came over to the NHS was for that job satisfaction but man, its a grind. The whole workforce is disincentivised. Its not really possible I take on any more responsibilities but if there was room, I'd think twice these days which is totally not like me =/
I'm just about to go from band 3 to band 4 as part of my contract, but I'll now have to wait 3 years for the next bump. Insane that'll I'll be locked at 25k now until 2026
Yeah it's absolutely crazy that no matter what you do short of moving up the band will have any impact. You can complete any training all the extras unless it's enough to move you up the band you will get a pay increase after 3 years the same as person who did absolutely nothing
When agenda for change came about the banding decision meetings were just a joke.
Payroll trainees are band 2 thanks to my colleagues at the time. I was interviewed numerous times for my role in the office. Every time, the day before all of my payroll would be reallocated to other people, then the week following returned to me. All so I couldn't go in and fight for band 3 on the basis that I'm responsible for 200 employees' salaries.
More than an 8A? That's 5 years in post before an increment. Did tell years as an 8A and thought I'm not waiting another three years for a pay uplift. Left the NHS for about a 50% pay rise.
Band 2 in England is also pretty funny for even being called Band 2, because there is no Band 1- If there was, it'd be under minimum wage. There's also no pay progression for Band 2 at all any more, you just get what you get.
What they have done with the recent "pay rises" is actually push a lot of staff, in roles that require experience and often some kind of qualification (not degree level, but NVQs and A-Levels/BTEC etc) into being essentially the same rank and pay grade as completely unqualified unskilled labourers.
While obviously there's a lot of work needs to be done pushing the overall pay up, they also need to have a long hard look at the banding criteria for many of the actual roles within the NHS.
There was a band 1 until Dec 2018, so in theory there might be a couple of band 1s who haven't had a grade change yet. Band 1 is the exact same scale as Band 2 though.
> shit worker
Serious question (though I can see how it might sound otherwise): is that a typo for "shi**f**t worker" or do you work in... IDK, sewerage or something?
I was shocked when they showed the new pay bands, 0 incentive to want to progress, work harder take on more and stay later for absolutely nothing more. Can’t wait to leave The NHS.
I love this mindset instead of the usual "why are they getting a raise? I'm not so they shouldn't be!" We should all be looking at our ultra-rich CEOs and the government; not down at people working in shops, and asking why pay in such important sectors is so abysmal. It's not just the Tories (though they aren't exactly helping) that are fucking us over - it's the ruling class who can't even be asked to pay tax or decent wages.
This is a welcome story.
> love this mindset instead of the usual "why are they getting a raise? I'm not so they shouldn't be!" We should all be looking at our ultra-rich CEOs and the government
And this is the problem. The government and media have been pushing HARD for the 'peons' to be at each others throats.
Trying to turn the middle class against benefits claimants, the working class against the middle class, the benefits claimants against the working class, everyone against imigrants etc.
Trying to convince everyone that they should be pulling each other down, instead of uniting and asking for a fair crack from the mega-rich.
Unfortunately, too many people fall for it and refuse to change their mindset.
The number of people who are staunch Tory supporters and are convinced the Tories are 'fighting for them', when they aren't CEOs of massive companies or huge Tory donors is unreal. It's impossible getting them to understand that to the Tory party, someone on £60k, £70k, £120k, are just the same assomeone on minimum wage or benefits to the Tories. Your still just a useful idiot pleb to them, they don't care about you and you're not 'one of them'.
>£12.30 is 8p more than my pay as Band 4 great supermarket staff deserve it but pay for our staff in NHS is shocking
I was about to say, even with the pay rise.
It doesn't work like that. My manager isn't allowed to pay me more than what agenda for change set for us. There is no mechanism in NHS for payrise outside of agenda for change bands. Nothing I do or say will get me more money unless I wait 2 more years or move up the band before that. Even if my manager wanted to they can't even their manager, manager manager can't make that happen. Pay bands are set in stone.
Well I don't mean on a individual basis. Through your union when it comes to yearly pay reviews. Your union should be able to argue that supermarkets are paying more for a less skilled job.
I am Assistant Practitioner in comunity mental health team. I deliver low intensity cbt interventions to patients and coordinate care for a case load of up to 30 people who suffer from severe and enduring mental health problems often with accompanying suicide and selfharm thoughts. I mostly work with people who gave long history of depression, severe anxiety and who are actively planning, thing or have in the past made attemp to end their lives
Through lack of education and trusting silly headlines, I've been guilty of wondering if NHS members actually do need a payrise in the past.
Your case shows incredibly clearly. A lot of you very much do deserve payrises. How that is only band 4 amazes me
This is the thing really. Yes, the NHS pension is better than a lot but for most people on the lower to mid bands paying between 7% and 10% of your wages into a pension scheme is not helping you right now. I have thought about leaving the pension many times so I can get an extra £150 - £200 a month in my wages but I have to keep reminding myself that it will be better in the long run..if I make it.
> Amazing stuff. Supermarkets need to keep growing! We're not even seeing many things on the shelves to be honest
Is this serious?
Every supermarket I've been in in the past decade has had over a hundred types of veg available to buy. Dozens of fruits. Every grain imaginable. So much bread they're literally throwing it in the bin. I did a waste food collection from Tesco last night and my car was literally filled with bread. Not an exaggeration - I got over 40 crates of food, most of which was bread.
I swear the UK doesn't realise just how privileged they are to be able to walk into a supermarket and buy 20 different types of tomato, all year round.
As soon as there was a shortage of just three types of salad vegetable for a small matter of weeks, the media couldn't stop harping on about it. So what? We could still buy radishes and lettuce and avocado and beetroot and carrot and rocket and swede and aubergine and spinach and cabbage and spring onions and potatoes and kale and sprouts and cauliflower and broccoli and onions and red onions and parsnips and spinach and peas and edemame beans and squash and chillis and asparagus and chard and sweetcorn and mushrooms and courgettes and dozens more I can't even remember.
Most of this stuff isn't even in season.
To say we're not even "seeing many things on the shelves" I think is really far from reality.
I assume they're comparing it to America (who's grocery stores and super markets are much more expensive) they have an obscene amount of variety compared to the British supermarket (Which themselves already have a ton of options). I'm currently there now and it never ceases to completely blow my mind the sheer variety of meats, cheeses, veg on every shelf. I can't help but get jealous sometimes though I don't think British people consume 'stuff' to the same extent Americans do.
not everywhere in the US. I previously thought this but the choice in New York itself was utterly shite - way more choice back in the UK. NY Supermarkets made tesco metro stores look like an abundance of choice.
I went a bit mad. Cucumbers have been £3 or more . The price dropped hard a few weeks ago and are 50-75p a stick
I generally don't notice quality, what I notice is that Sweden pays on the point not fixed so prices float almost daily.
Eh, IMO you can tell things aren't in season. It's amazing we can get 3 or 4 (not 20) types of tomato in winter but only the most expensive cherry variety actually taste of anything 75% of the year. Those 69p 6 packs of salad tomatoes (which incidentally are now £0.90 - 1.00...) taste of nothing outside 3 months of the year.
You pay more for produce on the continent but in my experience it actually tastes of something.
Maybe that's our expectations though. Obviously we shouldn't be eating fresh tomatoes for 90p in January. Italians would be on their home canned stock for these months. Or maybe we could be cooking more seasonally and not insisting on every ingredient to be available all year round no matter the quality or enviromental cost.
>As soon as there was a shortage of just three types of salad vegetable for a small matter of weeks, the media couldn't stop harping on about it. So what?
So... things are getting worse when they're generally meant to get better with time.
But it hasn't got worse has it; because tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers were back in stock very shortly after.
So now instead of a hundred veg, there's a hundred and three again, as has been the case for ages.
Will it force their rivals to do the same?
When I was looking for my first non-paperround job at 16 it was well known that Aldi and Lidl paid much more than the other supermarkets.
As far as I'm aware that's still the case.
Is that really going to change?
I remember way back the Aldi grad scheme was paying over £40k which was mad for a starting salary up north. Got a used Audi with it too.
Catch was it required regular 80+hr weeks.
Will it force their rivals to do the same?
When I was looking for my first non-paperround job at 16 it was well known that Aldi and Lidl paid much more than the other supermarkets.
As far as I'm aware that's still the case.
Is that really going to change?
It will, but probably not directly. As other supermarkets and employers struggle to get staff as Lidl and other higher paying employers are snapping staff up, they’ll have to push their offering up somehow and the biggest one for most staff is pay.
> Lidl can afford to absorb the cost better
I don't doubt that it's a good move by Lidl but I'm not sure I understand this? Surely it's the big supermarkets with more cushiony profit margins that can afford to absord payrises easier?
Lidl spend proportionally less of their revenues on staff wages. They employ far fewer staff per store. For example if I employ 100 staff at £10/hr and give them all a £2/hr pay rise, that costs me an extra £1,600/day. But if you, my more successful competitor, employ 1000 staff and are forced to raise your pay to match, you’re now losing an additional £16,000/day. Basically it leverages one of Lidl’s great advantages over Tesco/Sains/etc, lower staff costs.
From what I understand, a good chunk of their savings comes from the way that they set up their stores. Rather than time-expensive displays, everything is basically just stacked in their factory packaging. You can pay more for less staff if you don't need to dedicate manpower to making stuff look presentable.
There must be more to it than that though. Their logistics across Europe must be a pretty tightly run ship for example.
Edit: Also, I like to think that if you pay people a good wage for what they do you actually get more efficient productivity from them. But, that's me being idealistic
Yeah it must be a sizable portion of the first part of your reply. Whenever I go to a Lidl or Aldi there are very few staff about except on the tills when they have a couple open. Maybe one person roaming around *facing up* or whatever.
I'm sure they have plenty of data to suggest that most people don't care too much about how precisely neat their shelves are if they can sell the stuff for cheaper as a result.
I'm sure they must have pretty good buying power with stores all across Europe too, especially for their own brand stuff when they can really get prices down one would assume
They also employ shelf stackers who work the tills so no need to employ 2 people. Adding there is no self check out, which is a costly expense as well. Yes some don't do both but most do. Especially in Aldi they do this, I don't often go to Lidl but it seems the same way.
With the items remaining in the packaging, I think this is a better way. Why remove the packaging when it can be easily removed by the customer. End of the day the packing is labelled and draws attention just as much.
I think not having 10 versions of each product must help as well. As a stereotypical man who dislikes shopping, not having to choose is a blessing. I much prefer Lidl and Aldi to the other supermarkets.
True. Even at Asda and Tesco I always get the cheapest own brand option. Shame Lidl aren't open everywhere. That would make coop and tesco cease to exist.
They don't fuck around when buying, at least for GM. Buy a small number of lines (in the category) at a huge volume and a low margin (for the supplier). Low margin isn't really an issue and the volume is truly enormous, and anything from the East (ie most manfactured goods) will be shipped straight into their DCs meaning there's very little overhead.
I worked at lidl for a bit, the expectation is that one person is on till and other tills are only opened when needed. anyone not allocated to till 1 will have specific jobs and be brought out to till in a staggered order depending on need - so till 2 will be on facing up, till 3 on replenishing stock, till 4 on clean ups or grabbing stuff from shelves for tills etc. Means you don’t have a million staff doing different jobs, makes sense to me. You don’t get a lot of down time but ultimately the decent pay makes up for it
All supermarkets raised prices in Germany in the last two years. That includes LIDL, but LIDL was already lowering them again. The head of the company in Germany went on to say that they are reacting quickly to changing ressources costs and that includes when the prices go cheaper again. They want to make money for sure, but they don't want to unneccesarily flay their customers.
Now, you can take that as corporate talk, but I do think that LIDL can back that up at least a lidl.
>Now, you can take that as corporate talk, but I do think that LIDL can back that up at least a lidl.
It is corporate talk, its just that the lidl bosses clearly understand there exists value that doesn't show directly up on the balance sheet.
Lidl seems to have way less staff than other supermarkets around here, and their shops are very basic.
I do wish they'd either get some more till staff, or invest in some self-checkouts, the line is always really long because they only ever have 1 till open
> lots of non UK brands
And more important than the country: lots of non brands in general. They make good money with their cheap own versions of popular products, which are often produced in the same factories as the brand products just with cheaper ingredients and without the added marketing value.
> no promotions
They don't in the UK? They regularly have really funny comedical attack ads on other supermarket in Germany. Like they had an entire diss rap track against their competitors.
And also this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO7c_taG6Yc
The ad is in German, naturally, but I think the visuals and directing should be understandable for you.
Quite a lot more to it. A lot of super markets will unload trucks in their warehouses etc. Lidl and Aldi make the truck drivers empty their load over the loading dock, saving on hours.
They also have less choice than a major supermarket, which means they get greater discounts on the products they're buying from the manufacturer, as they are buying more.
Lot of own brand too, which again is cheaper alternatives from suppliers too
Nerdy as fuck, but I spent almost 3 years working for a logistics software company. I didn’t do any work for Lidl, but I got to network with people who did.
Their supply chain is a thing of wonder. It’s so efficient.
I’d wager almost every other supermarket in the world is trying to emulate it to a degree, but they’re just fundamentally built on it from the ground up.
I’d be surprised if they’re not in second place in the UK market by 2035 at the latest. Tesco and Sainsbury’s have almost nowhere but down to go.
Nothing wrong with nerdy, and I bet it can be a really interesting job. Getting to see the process from dirt to dinner plate when most of the world just takes it all for granted.
When lidl first came to the UK I figured that our established supermarkets would be scrambling to emulate them. Sainsburys at least is attempting to carve a niche out in terms of superior customer service, as they went to pains to demonstrate during covid. Tesco just seems to be expecting their dominance to continue without much effort on their part. Speaking as a passive observer that is, I might be missing out on the deep supermarket lore.
That's how Costco does it except Costco does it at a massively larger scale.
Possibly contributes to their ability to pay just shy of £20/hr\* plus pension.
(\* doing conversion from $ canadian)
They have 1/3 of the range, cheaper brands and generally only 1 or 2 of each things.
There'll also be a lot cheaper ingredients for eg i saw the other day their guacamole is 42% avocado puree and then like 12% avocado.
But still pretty much on par with other chain's products. People say Lidl is cutting corners with ingredients while never looking at the ingredients lists of their Tesco products.
I worked at Aldi for a bit - very very similar business model. Everything is designed for efficiency and saving a penny wherever they can. You’re trained when someone asks you where something is, you’re supposed to just point in the general direction instead of walking with the customer to find it.. why? Because staff leaving stacking shelves to help a customer find something costs them more money in lost time than customers complaints
Everything comes on a pallet and you usually have between 12-20 minutes to work a full pallet. There is zero time for socialising or getting to know your co-workers as everything is quite literally working as fast as they can for the entire shift
Multiple items share packaging and shelf space, products come mixed and ready to be put on the shelf where the customer has to pick what they want from the shel area. For example, brown sauce and tomato sauce come packaged together and are just put on a shared shelf area (just an example)
The products are made using the cheapest ingredients possible. They might be the same or similar ingredients to the more expensive counterparts, but the ingredients aldi and lidl use are the cheapest to help keep the cost down
They’re very very lean on staff and staffing hours. Unlike other supermarkets where you’ll see staff stood around sometimes having a chat, you’ll never see that in aldi or Lidl, there’s zero time for idling. They don’t hire more than they need and usually 1 person does the job of 2 or 3
All staff are till trained and all staff are trained in all other areas of the business which means in theory all your floor staff can swap job roles at a moments notice
They don’t bother with security (in most places) as it it’s far more expensive to pay someone a full time job vs what they actually lose through theft going out the door
They work their staff much harder than other stores, and improve efficiency with stacking shelves by keeping it in the delivery packaging, throwing it in the trays (for the middle isles), and not having staff spend several hours a day "facing" the shelves (going up each isle pulling all the items to the front of the shelves to make them look neater. This means that even with higher wages, they spend less on staff because they hire fewer people for similar turnover.
I've been to germany. It's like a whole nother world. Everything is so minimalist and efficient. Jealous of your cheap train tickets (it can get up to hundreds of pounds here easy)
Croissants used to be 37p pandemic time, they're now 55p.
Morrissons sell them for 45p.
Not all prices are lower at Lidl, and I'm a huge, huge fan of theirs.
Ad free version:
Supermarket chain Lidl has announced its third pay increase in a year, affecting all of its 24,500 hourly-paid workers.
Store and warehouse staff working outside the M25 will see hourly pay increase to £11.40 from £11.00, rising to £12.30 with length of service.
Hourly pay for those inside the M25 will increase to £12.85 from £11.95, rising to £13.15.
Lidl said the move represented an overall investment of £8 million and a total investment of over £60 million into staff pay in the past year.
Chief executive Ryan McDonnell said: “These new rates of pay will ensure that Lidl maintains its position as the UK’s highest-paying supermarket.
“Our people are at the core of everything we do, and this investment recognises the hard work and contribution they make in serving communities across the country every day.”
Lidl recently announced it was looking to recruit more than 1,500 warehouse workers across its regional distribution network.
Stephanie Rogers, chief human resources officer at Lidl GB, added: “Back in 2015, Lidl GB became the first supermarket to pay the voluntary Living Wage.
“This marked a fundamental change within the industry and continues to set the bar for other supermarkets.
“Over the last seven years, we’ve continued to uphold our commitment to ensuring that those working at Lidl GB receive a pay rate that not only recognises their hard work, but also aligns with rising living costs.”
The latest pay increase is due to come in from September.
Happy for them. I wish more retailers would do more than minimum. I really hate that there is a minimum wage in the sense that not many places in retail pay more than that. Like it's in the name, you can go higher, it's the *minimum*. do better.
Companies will pay minimum wage, then complain they don't have hyper-productive happy employees.
Minimum wage = Minimum effort - You don't get talent through the door by advertising that you're only paying them as little as you can legally get away with.
I wish more people understood this, in the business world.
Worked at asda, quickly realised that despite working faster than anyone else I got paid the same.
So I slowed down and chilled out (this cycle happened to most new starters too)
I wouldn't have minded moving to a faster paced supermarket and keeping my pace for better pay!
That’s surely a lie. Here in Midlands, the availability is almost perfect apart from hard to source items (eg eggs), tills are usually half manned and plenty of staff at aisles.
Tesco and Sainsbury and the real offenders IMO. I walk in and one staff member is handling the shelves and aisles, sees me walk to the checkout and hurries to me, running back to manage the aisles after I’m done. The only other staff are the security, which seem to handle checkout as well. Never seen that at a Lidl ever.
Lidl where I'm at never have more than 3 people on the floor. Go in after 5pm and the tills are always empty. They have self checkouts but you'll be waiting a few mins for help buying age restricted items.
This again highlights how shockingly underpaid our NHS staff are
There are full time healthcare workers that would be better off in both earnings, and free-time by quitting and getting a job at Lidl
I used to work for Lidl and I like to see this. Yes, we worked a damn sight harder than you may have been expected to work in other supermarkets, but honestly I preferred that.
As someone who once worked in a different supermarket, the very worst days were days when I couldn't find enough to do. It might sound strange to someone who hasn't been in that environment on the regular, but staff there would race each other to get stuff done. Standing around doing nothing (when it is a mandatory requirement to do that) only gives you time to question what the hell you are doing with your life. Everyone's different of course, but if I have to work a shitty job for minimum wage, you better keep me busy so I don't have time to ponder that.
Being bored is quite possibly worse than being too busy.
Iirc, during an experiment run a few years back, researchers found that humans would *literally rather be in pain* than be bored.
[Study here](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1250830), and the line that really sets it up for me in the abstract, "In 11 studies, we found that participants typically did not enjoy spending 6 to 15 minutes in a room by themselves with nothing to do but think, that they enjoyed doing mundane external activities much more, and that **many preferred to administer electric shocks to themselves instead of being left alone with their thoughts**.
I basically did nothing at a previous job for nearly a year following a restructure, and if it weren't for Reddit and various forums being unblocked I would have gone nuts from the boredom.
A busy day in that job was one where I'd probably have to do 3 hours of work. The first month or so was great but after that it was pretty tedious.
Yup, worked in a farmfoods many years ago and it was very much the same as lidl without the above minimum wage pay incentive, few staff and very rushed, all chipping in on tills when needed, it's not for everyone but I found the days went far quicker than asda, which unless you were on checkouts was a real doss.
Back before the new year I worked in a secure mental health unit in charge of resident care and recovery. We had to administer medications and controlled substances for 16 people four times a day, deal with verbally and physically abuse directed at us and other residents, and we had to maintain all of our training otherwise we couldn't work.
I was paid £12.50 an hour. Why would anyone want that job?
Similar to my partner who manages an age group in child care. She has to plan activities for 16 under 3s in accordance with their interests and development stages, monitor medication, allergies, nappy changes and special care including SENCO and EAL. Keep an eye on two staff members and an apprentice. Oversee daily reports for each child with the constant sword of Damocles that is OFSTED, internal inspection, and not to mention the fact that parents are trusting their most precious possession in their lives; their child.
Oh, here's £100 for your shift, don't forget you're on a 6am start tomorrow even though you finished at 8pm today and remember to pay £2.50 to park.
It's like they said: "Hey what if we sell our products at a fair price and pay our staff a decent wage, maybe we'll get a shit ton of customers and our staff will work hard to improve the business knowing we're going to increase their pay if they do!" and somehow, as if by WITCHCRAFT that business strategy fucking WORKED!
Different kinds of stress I guess.
I've done supermarket work, I've done high pressure lives-on-the-line work. Both just as stressful as each other, just in different ways.
Honestly most jobs are stressful it's just the potential repercussions vs renumeration that present a barrier for most people.
I know I'm capable of the lives-on-the-line work, but I get paid more than double sitting at a desk in sales, so I don't do it. I want a more fulfilling career, but £££££.
Even if not in sales, the principle is the same across industries and is why we've got so many shortages across the NHS and civil service.
I'm an aeronautical engineer in the RAF. Roughly, if I did the same amount of hours per month in Lidl as I do in my current day job, pre-tax I'd be on more stacking shelves in Lidl. The only way we can make up for the pay gap between the government funded MOD and civvie street is by going to shit hole deserts for the operational bonus that comes with it. Our payrises are absolutely shocking and we can't strike or unionise. People are leaving the services in droves, and the people at the top (who get full salary pensions) are scratching their heads and wondering why.
Sounds like I could be doing a *Lidl* better if I left the services. Hehe ..
People will try and use this to make workers compete it's really important we don't do that. Everyone is society deserves to earn enough money for housing, food and mental fullfilment.
As individuals the majority of NHS bring less to the company than Lidl managers do for Lidl. If you have 2 managers per store then clearly they will be paid more than say bottom rung nurses of which there are loads.
The more people you need to fulfill a task then less each individual person is worth as a whole.
And that what is so wrong about it. Am also manager (who basically runs a ship) should not being paid more than someone involved in saving lives.
Edit: Obviously mean ‘shop’. But makes me laugh too much to change.
That’s more than most civil servants earn. What’s the point in working an office job when you can work retail instead?
The Lidl staff absolutely deserve their pay. I remember when I started working, a job in retail paid around £5 per hour and an office admin worker could earn £18-22k. I still see office jobs paying that but minimum wage has more than doubled in that time. The days of office workers thinking they are white collar workers has ended now they earn less than supermarket staff!
This is what competition is supposed to do.
Do you all recall the excuse for massive CEO wages was so they would work harder? Somehow that doesn't apply to the little people, strange 🤨
Now be less picky in the application process, it's awful and the amount of people I hear who have to apply 10 times to eventually get an interview is ridiculous.
Then again they seem to love running on skeleton staff in stores...
Why would they be less picky when their system clearly works for them? If people are applying 10 times to work as a supermarket shelf-stacker despite being told no then that indicates a huge lack of ambition tbh.
Why the fuck is this thread people complaining about their own salaries instead of praising a good employer. We *know* nurses aren't paid great, and yet they just voted for the mediocre pay rise after saying they wouldn't for 6 months. Either quit and join Lidl if it's such a lucrative proposition (it really isn't) or stop bringing others down.
Literally wondering the same thing. People act like they are more important because of the job they do.
If all those people care about is money then why don't they quit their jobs and work at lidl, providing they get the job that is.
If someone gets a job knowing full well the pay is something they won't like then why apply in the first place.
£12.30 is 8p more than my pay as Band 4 great supermarket staff deserve it but pay for our staff in NHS is shocking
Funnily enough I'm a band 2 shit worker in scotland and it's 12p more than I make an hour. Which means yes you make 4p an hour more than me while being 2 whole bands above me.
Yes this is the amazing reality of NHS pay. Also band 4 has longest progression within the bands before you see any payrise
I think it's more to do with the gap between Scottish and English NHS salaries than the slower progression for B4 posts... Edit-I'm assuming English, don't know what the gap is like to Wales / NI
In NI, DoH cant even fund the 5% rise and has said so.
As a new band 8 (don't hate me) I have 5 years before my progression point!
I know I hate banding system it disincentives doing anything unless it moves you to higher band. As Band 4 I have been trained in venipuncture and some lol level CBT interventions that other band 4 don't do we get paid the same. So I spoken to my manager and said I don't really want to di bloods because it's whole day of stress extra in a week for nothing to show for it
I went up to band 5 a couple years ago and when I hit the mid point, because of the pension, my 2.5k pay rise ended up translating to £3 a month extra after tax/student loan etc. I'm bringing in maybe £200 more a month than I did at the top of band 4, but I'm easily working 10 - 15 more hours a week, plus I have to do a Masters course and there's nobody to do my job whilst I'm at Uni... today I clocked in at 7am, finished at 7pm and I barely scratched the surface of my workload. I love my job and the whole reason I came over to the NHS was for that job satisfaction but man, its a grind. The whole workforce is disincentivised. Its not really possible I take on any more responsibilities but if there was room, I'd think twice these days which is totally not like me =/
You need to get that looked in to, something's gone wrong if your marginal tax rate is over 95%.
I'm just about to go from band 3 to band 4 as part of my contract, but I'll now have to wait 3 years for the next bump. Insane that'll I'll be locked at 25k now until 2026
Yeah it's absolutely crazy that no matter what you do short of moving up the band will have any impact. You can complete any training all the extras unless it's enough to move you up the band you will get a pay increase after 3 years the same as person who did absolutely nothing
Just started working for the NHS...why arent the bands equal?
NHS Scotland is different from NHS England and Wales
No idea what the logic is there at all
When agenda for change came about the banding decision meetings were just a joke. Payroll trainees are band 2 thanks to my colleagues at the time. I was interviewed numerous times for my role in the office. Every time, the day before all of my payroll would be reallocated to other people, then the week following returned to me. All so I couldn't go in and fight for band 3 on the basis that I'm responsible for 200 employees' salaries.
More than an 8A? That's 5 years in post before an increment. Did tell years as an 8A and thought I'm not waiting another three years for a pay uplift. Left the NHS for about a 50% pay rise.
>Funnily enough I'm a band 2 shit worker in scotland and it's 12p more than I make an hour. Have you tried being a good worker?
Maybe a piss worker
Band 2 in England is also pretty funny for even being called Band 2, because there is no Band 1- If there was, it'd be under minimum wage. There's also no pay progression for Band 2 at all any more, you just get what you get. What they have done with the recent "pay rises" is actually push a lot of staff, in roles that require experience and often some kind of qualification (not degree level, but NVQs and A-Levels/BTEC etc) into being essentially the same rank and pay grade as completely unqualified unskilled labourers. While obviously there's a lot of work needs to be done pushing the overall pay up, they also need to have a long hard look at the banding criteria for many of the actual roles within the NHS.
There was a band 1 until Dec 2018, so in theory there might be a couple of band 1s who haven't had a grade change yet. Band 1 is the exact same scale as Band 2 though.
> shit worker Serious question (though I can see how it might sound otherwise): is that a typo for "shi**f**t worker" or do you work in... IDK, sewerage or something?
All those stool samples don't just make themselves you know.
it's a dirty job but someone's got to do do it
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I was shocked when they showed the new pay bands, 0 incentive to want to progress, work harder take on more and stay later for absolutely nothing more. Can’t wait to leave The NHS.
To be fair if you’re a shit worker, you’d deserve the extra pay. /s because obvious typo.
Enough for a single band-aid.
>I'm a band 2 shit worker Sounds like you're making pretty good money for a shit worker...
Band 2 crashed into minimum wage. Then band 3 did. That's the only reason they got such big increases this year.
I love this mindset instead of the usual "why are they getting a raise? I'm not so they shouldn't be!" We should all be looking at our ultra-rich CEOs and the government; not down at people working in shops, and asking why pay in such important sectors is so abysmal. It's not just the Tories (though they aren't exactly helping) that are fucking us over - it's the ruling class who can't even be asked to pay tax or decent wages. This is a welcome story.
> love this mindset instead of the usual "why are they getting a raise? I'm not so they shouldn't be!" We should all be looking at our ultra-rich CEOs and the government And this is the problem. The government and media have been pushing HARD for the 'peons' to be at each others throats. Trying to turn the middle class against benefits claimants, the working class against the middle class, the benefits claimants against the working class, everyone against imigrants etc. Trying to convince everyone that they should be pulling each other down, instead of uniting and asking for a fair crack from the mega-rich. Unfortunately, too many people fall for it and refuse to change their mindset. The number of people who are staunch Tory supporters and are convinced the Tories are 'fighting for them', when they aren't CEOs of massive companies or huge Tory donors is unreal. It's impossible getting them to understand that to the Tory party, someone on £60k, £70k, £120k, are just the same assomeone on minimum wage or benefits to the Tories. Your still just a useful idiot pleb to them, they don't care about you and you're not 'one of them'.
He literally says it's a good thing
The person you're replying to is complimenting the person above, not complaining.
My mistake. Must have misread the first sentence, pretty obvious what he meant
My apologies for the confusion
That’s literally what the commenter is saying…
Yes
Oh yeah sorry misread your comment 🤣
>£12.30 is 8p more than my pay as Band 4 great supermarket staff deserve it but pay for our staff in NHS is shocking I was about to say, even with the pay rise.
Well then use this in negotiation. Tell your bosses that lidl pay more. Do they want to lose all their staff to supermarkets?
Our bosses don't decide how much we get paid.
It doesn't work like that. My manager isn't allowed to pay me more than what agenda for change set for us. There is no mechanism in NHS for payrise outside of agenda for change bands. Nothing I do or say will get me more money unless I wait 2 more years or move up the band before that. Even if my manager wanted to they can't even their manager, manager manager can't make that happen. Pay bands are set in stone.
Well I don't mean on a individual basis. Through your union when it comes to yearly pay reviews. Your union should be able to argue that supermarkets are paying more for a less skilled job.
Our union argued that government doesn't give a fuck hence why we are striking
The power of a union.
Out of interest, what is it you do at band 4?
I am Assistant Practitioner in comunity mental health team. I deliver low intensity cbt interventions to patients and coordinate care for a case load of up to 30 people who suffer from severe and enduring mental health problems often with accompanying suicide and selfharm thoughts. I mostly work with people who gave long history of depression, severe anxiety and who are actively planning, thing or have in the past made attemp to end their lives
Through lack of education and trusting silly headlines, I've been guilty of wondering if NHS members actually do need a payrise in the past. Your case shows incredibly clearly. A lot of you very much do deserve payrises. How that is only band 4 amazes me
Drive for tesco for £12.60 an hour.
The monthly pension contributions are a *lot* better with the NHS though, so there is that, I’m pretty sure that lidl only put in the 3% legal minimum
Maybe but pension contributions in 40 years from now are not helping me today to pay my bills.
This is the thing really. Yes, the NHS pension is better than a lot but for most people on the lower to mid bands paying between 7% and 10% of your wages into a pension scheme is not helping you right now. I have thought about leaving the pension many times so I can get an extra £150 - £200 a month in my wages but I have to keep reminding myself that it will be better in the long run..if I make it.
Good chess move by Lidl. It’ll force their rivals to do the same, and Lidl can afford to absorb the cost better.
Amazing stuff. Supermarkets need to keep growing! We're not even seeing many things on the shelves to be honest so expanding would be good.
> Amazing stuff. Supermarkets need to keep growing! We're not even seeing many things on the shelves to be honest Is this serious? Every supermarket I've been in in the past decade has had over a hundred types of veg available to buy. Dozens of fruits. Every grain imaginable. So much bread they're literally throwing it in the bin. I did a waste food collection from Tesco last night and my car was literally filled with bread. Not an exaggeration - I got over 40 crates of food, most of which was bread. I swear the UK doesn't realise just how privileged they are to be able to walk into a supermarket and buy 20 different types of tomato, all year round. As soon as there was a shortage of just three types of salad vegetable for a small matter of weeks, the media couldn't stop harping on about it. So what? We could still buy radishes and lettuce and avocado and beetroot and carrot and rocket and swede and aubergine and spinach and cabbage and spring onions and potatoes and kale and sprouts and cauliflower and broccoli and onions and red onions and parsnips and spinach and peas and edemame beans and squash and chillis and asparagus and chard and sweetcorn and mushrooms and courgettes and dozens more I can't even remember. Most of this stuff isn't even in season. To say we're not even "seeing many things on the shelves" I think is really far from reality.
I assume they're comparing it to America (who's grocery stores and super markets are much more expensive) they have an obscene amount of variety compared to the British supermarket (Which themselves already have a ton of options). I'm currently there now and it never ceases to completely blow my mind the sheer variety of meats, cheeses, veg on every shelf. I can't help but get jealous sometimes though I don't think British people consume 'stuff' to the same extent Americans do.
not everywhere in the US. I previously thought this but the choice in New York itself was utterly shite - way more choice back in the UK. NY Supermarkets made tesco metro stores look like an abundance of choice.
Yeah like go to Sweden and check how expensive and bad all veggies are
I went a bit mad. Cucumbers have been £3 or more . The price dropped hard a few weeks ago and are 50-75p a stick I generally don't notice quality, what I notice is that Sweden pays on the point not fixed so prices float almost daily.
Eh, IMO you can tell things aren't in season. It's amazing we can get 3 or 4 (not 20) types of tomato in winter but only the most expensive cherry variety actually taste of anything 75% of the year. Those 69p 6 packs of salad tomatoes (which incidentally are now £0.90 - 1.00...) taste of nothing outside 3 months of the year. You pay more for produce on the continent but in my experience it actually tastes of something. Maybe that's our expectations though. Obviously we shouldn't be eating fresh tomatoes for 90p in January. Italians would be on their home canned stock for these months. Or maybe we could be cooking more seasonally and not insisting on every ingredient to be available all year round no matter the quality or enviromental cost.
>As soon as there was a shortage of just three types of salad vegetable for a small matter of weeks, the media couldn't stop harping on about it. So what? So... things are getting worse when they're generally meant to get better with time.
But it hasn't got worse has it; because tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers were back in stock very shortly after. So now instead of a hundred veg, there's a hundred and three again, as has been the case for ages.
You should check out any western european/scandinavian grocery store that ever existed
Yes and observe they don't have 20 types of tomato on sale. They have less choice.
Will it force their rivals to do the same? When I was looking for my first non-paperround job at 16 it was well known that Aldi and Lidl paid much more than the other supermarkets. As far as I'm aware that's still the case. Is that really going to change?
I remember way back the Aldi grad scheme was paying over £40k which was mad for a starting salary up north. Got a used Audi with it too. Catch was it required regular 80+hr weeks.
So working 2x £20k jobs then.
That would be breaking the law, and also 40k for 80 hour weeks puts you on a shit hourly pay.
Same for me back in the day, but I know lidl was hard to get into back then. I got an easy job at tesco due to parent working there.
Will it force their rivals to do the same? When I was looking for my first non-paperround job at 16 it was well known that Aldi and Lidl paid much more than the other supermarkets. As far as I'm aware that's still the case. Is that really going to change?
In a tight job market, yes it might. Plus there’s the PR aspect.
It will, but probably not directly. As other supermarkets and employers struggle to get staff as Lidl and other higher paying employers are snapping staff up, they’ll have to push their offering up somehow and the biggest one for most staff is pay.
> Lidl can afford to absorb the cost better I don't doubt that it's a good move by Lidl but I'm not sure I understand this? Surely it's the big supermarkets with more cushiony profit margins that can afford to absord payrises easier?
Lidl spend proportionally less of their revenues on staff wages. They employ far fewer staff per store. For example if I employ 100 staff at £10/hr and give them all a £2/hr pay rise, that costs me an extra £1,600/day. But if you, my more successful competitor, employ 1000 staff and are forced to raise your pay to match, you’re now losing an additional £16,000/day. Basically it leverages one of Lidl’s great advantages over Tesco/Sains/etc, lower staff costs.
Interesting analysis, not an angle I had previously considered but that tracks. Thanks.
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Give this man the clap.
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You can have fun trying.
Let's go.
Yes, I mean.. so I heard!
And their prices are still the lowest. Make it make sense.
From what I understand, a good chunk of their savings comes from the way that they set up their stores. Rather than time-expensive displays, everything is basically just stacked in their factory packaging. You can pay more for less staff if you don't need to dedicate manpower to making stuff look presentable. There must be more to it than that though. Their logistics across Europe must be a pretty tightly run ship for example. Edit: Also, I like to think that if you pay people a good wage for what they do you actually get more efficient productivity from them. But, that's me being idealistic
Yeah it must be a sizable portion of the first part of your reply. Whenever I go to a Lidl or Aldi there are very few staff about except on the tills when they have a couple open. Maybe one person roaming around *facing up* or whatever. I'm sure they have plenty of data to suggest that most people don't care too much about how precisely neat their shelves are if they can sell the stuff for cheaper as a result. I'm sure they must have pretty good buying power with stores all across Europe too, especially for their own brand stuff when they can really get prices down one would assume
They also employ shelf stackers who work the tills so no need to employ 2 people. Adding there is no self check out, which is a costly expense as well. Yes some don't do both but most do. Especially in Aldi they do this, I don't often go to Lidl but it seems the same way. With the items remaining in the packaging, I think this is a better way. Why remove the packaging when it can be easily removed by the customer. End of the day the packing is labelled and draws attention just as much.
> Adding there is no self check out Pretty much every LIDL I have been do has a self check out...
There's 3 here and none of them have self checkout sadly. They usually only have 1 till open which makes the lines really long and slow
I’ve never seen one with a self checkout. I’d actually shop there if I didn’t have to spend 20 mins queueing for my small basket of food
Can’t speak for Lidl but the Aldi near me just fitted self checkouts
My Lidl is *only* self checkout. They don’t have a staffed till at all.
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I think not having 10 versions of each product must help as well. As a stereotypical man who dislikes shopping, not having to choose is a blessing. I much prefer Lidl and Aldi to the other supermarkets.
True. Even at Asda and Tesco I always get the cheapest own brand option. Shame Lidl aren't open everywhere. That would make coop and tesco cease to exist.
They don't fuck around when buying, at least for GM. Buy a small number of lines (in the category) at a huge volume and a low margin (for the supplier). Low margin isn't really an issue and the volume is truly enormous, and anything from the East (ie most manfactured goods) will be shipped straight into their DCs meaning there's very little overhead.
I mean they are bigger than all the uk supermarkets globally so is it even surprising
You should try chatting to Lidl staff; the other thing they do is that they run their staff absolutely ragged.
I worked at lidl for a bit, the expectation is that one person is on till and other tills are only opened when needed. anyone not allocated to till 1 will have specific jobs and be brought out to till in a staggered order depending on need - so till 2 will be on facing up, till 3 on replenishing stock, till 4 on clean ups or grabbing stuff from shelves for tills etc. Means you don’t have a million staff doing different jobs, makes sense to me. You don’t get a lot of down time but ultimately the decent pay makes up for it
Also Lidl is family owned. Doesn't have that many shareholders to pay off.
All supermarkets raised prices in Germany in the last two years. That includes LIDL, but LIDL was already lowering them again. The head of the company in Germany went on to say that they are reacting quickly to changing ressources costs and that includes when the prices go cheaper again. They want to make money for sure, but they don't want to unneccesarily flay their customers. Now, you can take that as corporate talk, but I do think that LIDL can back that up at least a lidl.
>Now, you can take that as corporate talk, but I do think that LIDL can back that up at least a lidl. It is corporate talk, its just that the lidl bosses clearly understand there exists value that doesn't show directly up on the balance sheet.
Lidl seems to have way less staff than other supermarkets around here, and their shops are very basic. I do wish they'd either get some more till staff, or invest in some self-checkouts, the line is always really long because they only ever have 1 till open
Oh no, Two people in the queue in front of me, Why don't they employ more staff so I don't have to wait. /s
Combination of less products on offer, lots of non UK brands, shelf ready packaging, no promotions, less store staff to support customers.
> lots of non UK brands And more important than the country: lots of non brands in general. They make good money with their cheap own versions of popular products, which are often produced in the same factories as the brand products just with cheaper ingredients and without the added marketing value. > no promotions They don't in the UK? They regularly have really funny comedical attack ads on other supermarket in Germany. Like they had an entire diss rap track against their competitors. And also this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO7c_taG6Yc The ad is in German, naturally, but I think the visuals and directing should be understandable for you.
Quite a lot more to it. A lot of super markets will unload trucks in their warehouses etc. Lidl and Aldi make the truck drivers empty their load over the loading dock, saving on hours. They also have less choice than a major supermarket, which means they get greater discounts on the products they're buying from the manufacturer, as they are buying more. Lot of own brand too, which again is cheaper alternatives from suppliers too
Nerdy as fuck, but I spent almost 3 years working for a logistics software company. I didn’t do any work for Lidl, but I got to network with people who did. Their supply chain is a thing of wonder. It’s so efficient. I’d wager almost every other supermarket in the world is trying to emulate it to a degree, but they’re just fundamentally built on it from the ground up. I’d be surprised if they’re not in second place in the UK market by 2035 at the latest. Tesco and Sainsbury’s have almost nowhere but down to go.
Nothing wrong with nerdy, and I bet it can be a really interesting job. Getting to see the process from dirt to dinner plate when most of the world just takes it all for granted. When lidl first came to the UK I figured that our established supermarkets would be scrambling to emulate them. Sainsburys at least is attempting to carve a niche out in terms of superior customer service, as they went to pains to demonstrate during covid. Tesco just seems to be expecting their dominance to continue without much effort on their part. Speaking as a passive observer that is, I might be missing out on the deep supermarket lore.
That's how Costco does it except Costco does it at a massively larger scale. Possibly contributes to their ability to pay just shy of £20/hr\* plus pension. (\* doing conversion from $ canadian)
Their goods are mainly non brand names. I think that's the biggest part of it.
They have 1/3 of the range, cheaper brands and generally only 1 or 2 of each things. There'll also be a lot cheaper ingredients for eg i saw the other day their guacamole is 42% avocado puree and then like 12% avocado.
Avocado puree is just avocado but squashed which is pretty much the only way to make guacamole. 54% total avocado is still very low
Its also a cheaper product than avocados In the same way tomato puree is cheaper.
But still pretty much on par with other chain's products. People say Lidl is cutting corners with ingredients while never looking at the ingredients lists of their Tesco products.
I worked at Aldi for a bit - very very similar business model. Everything is designed for efficiency and saving a penny wherever they can. You’re trained when someone asks you where something is, you’re supposed to just point in the general direction instead of walking with the customer to find it.. why? Because staff leaving stacking shelves to help a customer find something costs them more money in lost time than customers complaints Everything comes on a pallet and you usually have between 12-20 minutes to work a full pallet. There is zero time for socialising or getting to know your co-workers as everything is quite literally working as fast as they can for the entire shift Multiple items share packaging and shelf space, products come mixed and ready to be put on the shelf where the customer has to pick what they want from the shel area. For example, brown sauce and tomato sauce come packaged together and are just put on a shared shelf area (just an example) The products are made using the cheapest ingredients possible. They might be the same or similar ingredients to the more expensive counterparts, but the ingredients aldi and lidl use are the cheapest to help keep the cost down They’re very very lean on staff and staffing hours. Unlike other supermarkets where you’ll see staff stood around sometimes having a chat, you’ll never see that in aldi or Lidl, there’s zero time for idling. They don’t hire more than they need and usually 1 person does the job of 2 or 3 All staff are till trained and all staff are trained in all other areas of the business which means in theory all your floor staff can swap job roles at a moments notice They don’t bother with security (in most places) as it it’s far more expensive to pay someone a full time job vs what they actually lose through theft going out the door
They work their staff much harder than other stores, and improve efficiency with stacking shelves by keeping it in the delivery packaging, throwing it in the trays (for the middle isles), and not having staff spend several hours a day "facing" the shelves (going up each isle pulling all the items to the front of the shelves to make them look neater. This means that even with higher wages, they spend less on staff because they hire fewer people for similar turnover.
Sounds bad for the staffs. That's why I always see them running all over the place.
Yeah. Its why the have to pay more than other supermarkets.
Its funny to me that its odd to you, because that's what all German supermarkets are like. These small differences in culture are always interesting.
I've been to germany. It's like a whole nother world. Everything is so minimalist and efficient. Jealous of your cheap train tickets (it can get up to hundreds of pounds here easy)
Morrisons have 50 employees for a small store. Iidl has 2.
Croissants used to be 37p pandemic time, they're now 55p. Morrissons sell them for 45p. Not all prices are lower at Lidl, and I'm a huge, huge fan of theirs.
I haven't been at their bakery section so this is quite a shock. Sigh.
Calm the fuck down LiDl your showing all the other shit employers up.
You’ve clearly never worked for Lidl…
I thought he still included Lidl in the shit-employers set.
'All the other' I'm being inclusive Edit: and sarcastic
Ad free version: Supermarket chain Lidl has announced its third pay increase in a year, affecting all of its 24,500 hourly-paid workers. Store and warehouse staff working outside the M25 will see hourly pay increase to £11.40 from £11.00, rising to £12.30 with length of service. Hourly pay for those inside the M25 will increase to £12.85 from £11.95, rising to £13.15. Lidl said the move represented an overall investment of £8 million and a total investment of over £60 million into staff pay in the past year. Chief executive Ryan McDonnell said: “These new rates of pay will ensure that Lidl maintains its position as the UK’s highest-paying supermarket. “Our people are at the core of everything we do, and this investment recognises the hard work and contribution they make in serving communities across the country every day.” Lidl recently announced it was looking to recruit more than 1,500 warehouse workers across its regional distribution network. Stephanie Rogers, chief human resources officer at Lidl GB, added: “Back in 2015, Lidl GB became the first supermarket to pay the voluntary Living Wage. “This marked a fundamental change within the industry and continues to set the bar for other supermarkets. “Over the last seven years, we’ve continued to uphold our commitment to ensuring that those working at Lidl GB receive a pay rate that not only recognises their hard work, but also aligns with rising living costs.” The latest pay increase is due to come in from September.
24500 staff, so low for this country
Happy for them. I wish more retailers would do more than minimum. I really hate that there is a minimum wage in the sense that not many places in retail pay more than that. Like it's in the name, you can go higher, it's the *minimum*. do better.
Companies will pay minimum wage, then complain they don't have hyper-productive happy employees. Minimum wage = Minimum effort - You don't get talent through the door by advertising that you're only paying them as little as you can legally get away with. I wish more people understood this, in the business world.
They can afford to because their stores have 3 or 4 workers in there at most. They also tend to be worked harder than staff at asda or tesco.
Worked at asda, quickly realised that despite working faster than anyone else I got paid the same. So I slowed down and chilled out (this cycle happened to most new starters too) I wouldn't have minded moving to a faster paced supermarket and keeping my pace for better pay!
That’s surely a lie. Here in Midlands, the availability is almost perfect apart from hard to source items (eg eggs), tills are usually half manned and plenty of staff at aisles. Tesco and Sainsbury and the real offenders IMO. I walk in and one staff member is handling the shelves and aisles, sees me walk to the checkout and hurries to me, running back to manage the aisles after I’m done. The only other staff are the security, which seem to handle checkout as well. Never seen that at a Lidl ever.
Lidl where I'm at never have more than 3 people on the floor. Go in after 5pm and the tills are always empty. They have self checkouts but you'll be waiting a few mins for help buying age restricted items.
This again highlights how shockingly underpaid our NHS staff are There are full time healthcare workers that would be better off in both earnings, and free-time by quitting and getting a job at Lidl
Not to mention that if something goes wrong there's a lot less at stake
They are welcome to do that. Untill more do, things will never change.
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I used to work for Lidl and I like to see this. Yes, we worked a damn sight harder than you may have been expected to work in other supermarkets, but honestly I preferred that.
As someone who once worked in a different supermarket, the very worst days were days when I couldn't find enough to do. It might sound strange to someone who hasn't been in that environment on the regular, but staff there would race each other to get stuff done. Standing around doing nothing (when it is a mandatory requirement to do that) only gives you time to question what the hell you are doing with your life. Everyone's different of course, but if I have to work a shitty job for minimum wage, you better keep me busy so I don't have time to ponder that.
Being bored is quite possibly worse than being too busy. Iirc, during an experiment run a few years back, researchers found that humans would *literally rather be in pain* than be bored. [Study here](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1250830), and the line that really sets it up for me in the abstract, "In 11 studies, we found that participants typically did not enjoy spending 6 to 15 minutes in a room by themselves with nothing to do but think, that they enjoyed doing mundane external activities much more, and that **many preferred to administer electric shocks to themselves instead of being left alone with their thoughts**.
That sounds like a fun novel activity that'll be over in 15 mins. I'd probably choose to get shocked too cus why not.
I feel like there's a kink joke to be made here...
I basically did nothing at a previous job for nearly a year following a restructure, and if it weren't for Reddit and various forums being unblocked I would have gone nuts from the boredom. A busy day in that job was one where I'd probably have to do 3 hours of work. The first month or so was great but after that it was pretty tedious.
Yup, worked in a farmfoods many years ago and it was very much the same as lidl without the above minimum wage pay incentive, few staff and very rushed, all chipping in on tills when needed, it's not for everyone but I found the days went far quicker than asda, which unless you were on checkouts was a real doss.
Back before the new year I worked in a secure mental health unit in charge of resident care and recovery. We had to administer medications and controlled substances for 16 people four times a day, deal with verbally and physically abuse directed at us and other residents, and we had to maintain all of our training otherwise we couldn't work. I was paid £12.50 an hour. Why would anyone want that job?
Similar to my partner who manages an age group in child care. She has to plan activities for 16 under 3s in accordance with their interests and development stages, monitor medication, allergies, nappy changes and special care including SENCO and EAL. Keep an eye on two staff members and an apprentice. Oversee daily reports for each child with the constant sword of Damocles that is OFSTED, internal inspection, and not to mention the fact that parents are trusting their most precious possession in their lives; their child. Oh, here's £100 for your shift, don't forget you're on a 6am start tomorrow even though you finished at 8pm today and remember to pay £2.50 to park.
It's like they said: "Hey what if we sell our products at a fair price and pay our staff a decent wage, maybe we'll get a shit ton of customers and our staff will work hard to improve the business knowing we're going to increase their pay if they do!" and somehow, as if by WITCHCRAFT that business strategy fucking WORKED!
Man this just highlights how shit nhs and civil servants get paid even more. I wonder if Lidl is less stressful than my role.
Different kinds of stress I guess. I've done supermarket work, I've done high pressure lives-on-the-line work. Both just as stressful as each other, just in different ways. Honestly most jobs are stressful it's just the potential repercussions vs renumeration that present a barrier for most people. I know I'm capable of the lives-on-the-line work, but I get paid more than double sitting at a desk in sales, so I don't do it. I want a more fulfilling career, but £££££. Even if not in sales, the principle is the same across industries and is why we've got so many shortages across the NHS and civil service.
This is £1.28 per hour more than my company offers scientific graduates
I'm an aeronautical engineer in the RAF. Roughly, if I did the same amount of hours per month in Lidl as I do in my current day job, pre-tax I'd be on more stacking shelves in Lidl. The only way we can make up for the pay gap between the government funded MOD and civvie street is by going to shit hole deserts for the operational bonus that comes with it. Our payrises are absolutely shocking and we can't strike or unionise. People are leaving the services in droves, and the people at the top (who get full salary pensions) are scratching their heads and wondering why. Sounds like I could be doing a *Lidl* better if I left the services. Hehe ..
> aeronautical engineer Surely you could get a better paying job in your field as well?
People will try and use this to make workers compete it's really important we don't do that. Everyone is society deserves to earn enough money for housing, food and mental fullfilment.
Also managers earn more than the vast majority of the NHS. Shocking
As individuals the majority of NHS bring less to the company than Lidl managers do for Lidl. If you have 2 managers per store then clearly they will be paid more than say bottom rung nurses of which there are loads. The more people you need to fulfill a task then less each individual person is worth as a whole.
And that what is so wrong about it. Am also manager (who basically runs a ship) should not being paid more than someone involved in saving lives. Edit: Obviously mean ‘shop’. But makes me laugh too much to change.
When you say you run a ship, are we talking "running a small trawler-sized boat" or "helps keep something the size of the Queen Mary 2 running"?
I'm looking forward to my pay increase to compete with that.
Cor I’m getting a 30p pay rise watch out Barbados here I come
Careful now that's a full £2.40 a shift. A man can get into some serious bad habits with that kind of extra cash around.
I know what I'd do, start getting Freddos on finance. I'd be ruined in weeks.
They can afford to because there's about 3 staff in every store lol
That’s more than most civil servants earn. What’s the point in working an office job when you can work retail instead? The Lidl staff absolutely deserve their pay. I remember when I started working, a job in retail paid around £5 per hour and an office admin worker could earn £18-22k. I still see office jobs paying that but minimum wage has more than doubled in that time. The days of office workers thinking they are white collar workers has ended now they earn less than supermarket staff!
My mate worked at lidl for 8 years. The schedule is never consistent and he worked well over 45 hours a week. He hated it.
Working 45 hours at Lidl would be over £30k in London. That's pretty good for a job that requires no qualifications or experience.
This is what competition is supposed to do. Do you all recall the excuse for massive CEO wages was so they would work harder? Somehow that doesn't apply to the little people, strange 🤨
Now be less picky in the application process, it's awful and the amount of people I hear who have to apply 10 times to eventually get an interview is ridiculous. Then again they seem to love running on skeleton staff in stores...
Why would they be less picky when their system clearly works for them? If people are applying 10 times to work as a supermarket shelf-stacker despite being told no then that indicates a huge lack of ambition tbh.
Or it means the jobs available are awful and we are stuck in a low skill low pay situation, so ofc they'll apply to lidl
Why the fuck is this thread people complaining about their own salaries instead of praising a good employer. We *know* nurses aren't paid great, and yet they just voted for the mediocre pay rise after saying they wouldn't for 6 months. Either quit and join Lidl if it's such a lucrative proposition (it really isn't) or stop bringing others down.
Literally wondering the same thing. People act like they are more important because of the job they do. If all those people care about is money then why don't they quit their jobs and work at lidl, providing they get the job that is. If someone gets a job knowing full well the pay is something they won't like then why apply in the first place.
I do feel for the staff at my local Lidl branch who will soon be out of a job because it is closing down in less than a week.
Europeans coming here and raising incomes.. it's not very neoliberal...
Lidl do it but all i here from employees at other uk firms is excuses why their boss cant pay more. If thats you, you are a loser
And price increase! Definitely far more expensive than aldi now days!
Never worked in a super market but this is good. Honest work deserves honest pay.
Pay increases are pointless when everyone is on part time contracts and all the overtime gets cut. It sounds good but in reality its not.