On a Friday evening, passing through Lisburn, I called into Sainsbury's. The place was full of teenage workers who seemed not to be doing very much of anything other than congregating in clusters of two or three, chatting away. When you see nothing but teenagers working, it points to somewhere with a low staff retention rate, and that usually comes about from poor management practices, or a lack of priority at strategic level when it comes to the culture of the business as it pertains to employees. But that is just an observation, and I saw no reason why that should impact upon my visit. Until it did.
At one point, I was looking for a product. I checked the first area where the product was likely to be stocked. It wasn't there, so I asked a young staff member (once I'd waited to interrupt her conversation with her co-worker) if she'd heard of the product. She hadn't, but she had that response that you so often get when you ask a question of an employee who absolutely doesn't care - you know the type, they can't wait to find a way to wash their hands of any problem or responsibility, and send you on elsewhere. I also got the impression from her (and the subsequent teenager I spoke with) that the bulk of their time was spent wondering at the injustice of only being able to receive wages from an employer on the proviso that you turn up to work. It's a harsh world.
So the first employee was delighted to be able to inform me that the product might be in another area - she wasn't aware of the particular product, but I was told of another aisle I should check. (I'll just go find it myself, will I?)
I locate the other aisle where employee number two is busying himself. I ask about the product, and he tries to bounce me back to the initial aisle. Nope, already been there. He hasn't heard of the product. I tell him that that's fine, but does he know if they stock it there (it is a product that Sainsbury's stocks). He either has amnesia, or thinks my hearing is failing because he repeats that he's never heard of it. Disadvantaged by the lack of a whiteboard and some coulourful pens, I explain to him that I understand that he's never heard of it, but that I want to know if this product that Sainsbury's stocks is stocked in this shop, or not (I'm certain he is not aware of every single product that that shop stocks). He very deftly manages to stifle the reflexive sigh that was about to come out of his gob, and asks if I want him to get a manager to come and answer the query. I tell him that, yes, that would be helpful.
As I stand waiting in the deserted Sainsbury's I find myself wondering if the manager of this shift might be of an age that doesn't end in '-teen' - might one have held on long enough to attain such an age, and the title of manager? Might he arrive, vaping away, disgruntled by having been interrupted from whatever task he wasn't doing very well? Sadly, I was never to find out for, upon his solitary return, employee number two brought the information that the manager had never heard of it either, and that I should go to the customer service desk (I don't believe Sainsbury's would have licence to use such a term) and ask them. I left.
So, here's Sainsbury's Lisburn in numbers:
the number of staff I dealt with - 2
the number of managers involved - 1
the total number of f**** they gave collectively - 0 read more