Tesco - despicable Christmas temp recruiting practices

Ibrahim5

I retired early and remember saying to the staff that I would probably do temporary Christmas jobs. They laughed saying they would see me in M&S or delivering the Christmas mail. The problem is that I don't need the money so I would want to work on my terms. Employers want someone to boss around and work on their terms. I have now given up and I am not bothering. It sounds as if Tesco are saying "We will look for some desperate young people to boss around. If we can't get enough we'll consider some old folk".

Thrugelmir

Ibrahim5 said:

Employers want someone to boss around and work on their terms. 

Never knew paid work to be any different over my working life.  

Dakta

"...and work on their terms. "

I might have misinterpreted this statement but on how I read it - I do wonder what anyone would expect from something called work?

People only get employed because a firm wants a job doing, it is otherwise far cheaper not to bother with having said staff.

 I think it's fair to say a company will, for the sake of the business need want to set the terms, like what hours the job is done, and even how the job is done - for business and operational reasons. 

Not all jobs suit everyone so if it's not a match then you just have to move on.

Carrot007

Thrugelmir said:

Ibrahim5 said:

Employers want someone to boss around and work on their terms. 

Never knew paid work to be any different over my working life.  

That is very depressing and not my experience.

Dakta

being 'bossed around' is in all fairness quite subjective and for some people it can be the worst of bullying all the way to 'they force me to work the shifts where the work is but i'd rather do the other shift why aren't they doing what I'm asking' or 'they wouldn't let me have the holiday where the only other person able to do my role was also off'.

I'm not all for the employer, there are some bad ones but jobs exist because someone wants a task doing and those bosses are the subject matter experts for knowing what needs doing, how it needs doing and when it gets done.

Thrugelmir

Carrot007 said:

Thrugelmir said:

Ibrahim5 said:

Employers want someone to boss around and work on their terms. 

Never knew paid work to be any different over my working life.  

That is very depressing and not my experience.

I think that you've misinterpreted my response.  

theoretica

Interviews are a two way process - during this one they successfully gave you a better idea of the job and what they would be like to work for than you had before.  You decided you didn't want to work for them - little lost other than an evening of your time and your hopes that turned out to be false. 

jonesey1985

PS123 said:

Dakta said:

PS123 said:

prowla said:

Thinking about it - if you have some staff an say "Who's available for Thursday and Friday night this week?" and one says "Me!" but another says "Nah, sorry.", which are you going to want on-board?

I think as far as seasonal work goes, a lot of folks would have the attitude of grabbing as much work as they can.

You missed the point. They are advertising a role as being part-time but yet they want someone full-time.  So why not advertise the role as full-time?  It saves the whole argument of "we expect you to work the hours that you will be given", which is their way of saying "we expect you to work full-time hours even though we advertised the job as being part-time".

To me it more says 'we expect you to work the hours we have' - they probably know they will require at least part time, but whether the workforce will need to work beyond that is an unknown.

the christmas period is a bit special where workload goes up exponentially for an almost nothing of time relative to the rest of the year  and its a management nightmare, especially as its hard to predict what resources will be needed. This company will be amongst hundreds or thousands looking for people to jump in and take on as much hours as they can get depending on company workload. Given the nature of christmas I don't actually think this is all that despicable, companies do have to find a way to economically cope and whilst it might seem a bit demanding, it's to deal with a demanding situation.

Ultimately you found something that suited you better so it's no deal. 

Actually it is a big deal for me.  If the job advert clearly mentioned that they expected the individual to work full-time hours even if it was advertised as a part-time role then I would never have wasted my time applying for the role, give them an hour's worth of free labour and sit down in an interview where they wanted me to tick all of the boxes for availability and I felt pressured to do so.  Yes, my intention was to work only part-time and not be expected to work all the hours offered to me but rather be able to freely accept any additional hours given to me without having to worry that they would "let them go" if I did not want to work the additional hours.

Funny that your experience seems to contradict their website

Festive Colleague -Coventry 4

Hours: Various shifts available - to be discussed

Salary: Competitive

Location: Coventry 4 CV4 7EH

United Kingdom

Apply by: 25/11/2021

They certainly did discuss it with you so what's the problem?

RogerBareford

PS123 said:

Dakta said:

PS123 said:

prowla said:

Thinking about it - if you have some staff an say "Who's available for Thursday and Friday night this week?" and one says "Me!" but another says "Nah, sorry.", which are you going to want on-board?

I think as far as seasonal work goes, a lot of folks would have the attitude of grabbing as much work as they can.

You missed the point. They are advertising a role as being part-time but yet they want someone full-time.  So why not advertise the role as full-time?  It saves the whole argument of "we expect you to work the hours that you will be given", which is their way of saying "we expect you to work full-time hours even though we advertised the job as being part-time".

To me it more says 'we expect you to work the hours we have' - they probably know they will require at least part time, but whether the workforce will need to work beyond that is an unknown.

the christmas period is a bit special where workload goes up exponentially for an almost nothing of time relative to the rest of the year  and its a management nightmare, especially as its hard to predict what resources will be needed. This company will be amongst hundreds or thousands looking for people to jump in and take on as much hours as they can get depending on company workload. Given the nature of christmas I don't actually think this is all that despicable, companies do have to find a way to economically cope and whilst it might seem a bit demanding, it's to deal with a demanding situation.

Ultimately you found something that suited you better so it's no deal. 

Actually it is a big deal for me.  If the job advert clearly mentioned that they expected the individual to work full-time hours even if it was advertised as a part-time role then I would never have wasted my time applying for the role, give them an hour's worth of free labour and sit down in an interview where they wanted me to tick all of the boxes for availability and I felt pressured to do so.  Yes, my intention was to work only part-time and not be expected to work all the hours offered to me but rather be able to freely accept any additional hours given to me without having to worry that they would "let them go" if I did not want to work the additional hours.

So your complaining that they misrepsented the job in the advert while in the interview you misrepresented the hours you were willing to work by ticking all the boxes when you wouldn't want to work all those times.

It sounds like they told you exactly what they expected of you in the interview which is good as you knew the job wasn't for you and is part of the reason they have job interviews.

Just take away from this that you need to work on your self confidence so you don't feel you have to go along with what people expect of you and have the confidence to tell people what you want.

sheramber

Many year  ago my sister took a temporary part time job with M`& S for the Christmas period.

Nobody was told to check the work rota because they just allocated people to work specific days ,regardless of what they were employed to work, without consulting them. 

Nobody told them that was how it worked.

The first people found out when they got a phone call to tell them they should be at work.  After that everybody knew to check