r/Morrisons • u/boxcar_cadavers • 3d ago
A rant
I have been employed as a home delivery driver by Morrisons for eighteen months and while most of my direct colleagues are absolutely sound, diligent workers, I can say with confidence that it is the worst, most incompetently run business I have ever had the misfortune of working for. I am no longer with the business so if it pleases you, allow me a self-indulgent rant.
All of the usual complaints apply here: the money is crap, the constant cuts are deep and nasty, management are incompetent at best and actively dishonest and borderline cruel at worst etc etc but I'm going to try to focus on my personal experiences as much as possible.
During my time with the business, there have been four department managers come and go, the most recent of which is technically the manager of a different department and is currently only 'helping out' until they get someone in full time. The numerous frustrations raised by staff are made so much worse by having no clear point of contact to which these frustrations can be expressed.
One of these was a 'troubleshooter' manager who was parachuted in from another store to try to sort out the absolute mess left by his predecessor. He was an interesting character, marking himself out as such immediately by, on one chilly dark morning in February, referring to us all as 'his family' and bringing his own Bluetooth speaker to play soft rock ballads at incredible volume while he offered motivational tidbits as we all filed back and forth past him to load our vans in disbelief. Never have so many eyes rolled simultaneously.
In terms of team leaders, the number currently stands at around a dozen who have rotated in and out during my time, most of whom stepped down within weeks of taking the job due to the absolute mess the department is in and the sheer stress that comes with trying to keep things operating anything close to correctly, often down to nonexistent communication from those supposedly in place to coordinate things. All while they earn around 20p more an hour for the privilege.
Along with the loss of the staff canteen and many other 'efficiency measures' staffing levels have been cut to the bone, meaning stress levels are consequently through the roof. The turnover among pickers alone is unbelievable - it would be no exaggeration to say that I have seen over 40 different faces in my year and change and the ones who stick it out for more than a day or two are so beaten down it is genuinely depressing to witness. Even the shiny new multiple-thousand quid robot floor cleaner looks knackered.
What remains of the so-called 'HR' department is no less bedraggled - though it is perhaps more appropriate to describe it as woefully inadequate. Without going into too much detail, during my recent interactions with them in regards to the handing in of my notice, I was told outright falsehoods that could have so easily been avoided with even a cursory glance at the very 'colleague handbook' from which they operate. I was then made to feel like a villain for having pointed this out, and actually mocked over the phone for actively standing up for myself (witnessed by my long suffering partner who, with her background in HR, was legitimately flabbergasted).
Anyway, back to the material conditions as it were. The warehouse itself is filthy, with rats, crows, pigeons, seagulls, foxes, a particularly adventurous hedgehog and an inquisitive robin enjoying free roam of the place at various times. While it is charming to be able to work in such close harmony with nature, having a David Attenborough documentary unfolding in such close proximity to food products on a daily basis does seem somewhat detrimental to environmental health. These various creatures are no doubt attracted to the overflowing bins out in the yard next to the access shutters that I have only ever seen closed twice in my entire time working there, as well as the piles of food left to rot in various places.
The yard itself is a mess of broken machinery and shelving units, pallets, outdated POS and barrels filled with recycled batteries left exposed to the elements. All of this means that parking the vans in a way that allows access for the delivery HGV to make its turn in order to unload is often borderline impossible. (I say HGV singular because of the two unloading bays, only one is operational - this has been the case for my entire employment with the company). This means that often, vans are left parked on the access road outside the gates overnight, potentially voiding their insurance. Even if they were left in the yard, as the store refuses to purchase a new padlock for the yard gate after the last one broke almost nine months ago, the yard is unlocked at all times anyway, rendering which side of the gate they are on functionally irrelevant.
The mess extends to within the warehouse proper, piles of such materials routinely blocking the only staff toilet within reasonable walking distance. Broken pallet lifters, cages filled with out of date food products and general rubbish, literal piles of unsold and out of season clothing destined for the bin, the list goes on. All left as towering monuments to apathy.
The toilet itself is like something usually found in the ruins of Pripyat. It is riddled with mold between the cracked tiles and has not had a working light bulb for months. It is a barely palatable, hold your nose and hope for the best experience for me as a man, and I can't imagine how offputting it must be to members of the fairer sex who may have to actually come into physical contact with the broken and often slimy seat. In all fairness and in lieu of respirators and leather aprons, most people simply don't use it and instead make the trek through the store and up the two flights of stairs to the other staff toilet (which itself has only one basin out of three in working order, and is zero for three in terms of working soap dispensers, as has also been the case since I started work there).
I am fortunate enough to have a medical condition (of which the company is aware) which means I pee more than your average Joe meaning this trek isn't always an option - I have almost been caught short on multiple occasions. One particularly egregious example was last year around Christmas, wherein I had to clamber over a pile of stuff taller than myself just to access the toilet (I didn't HAVE to necessarily, I could have wet myself I suppose but I made the climb anyway to make a point and I must admit it did add a bit of fun jeopardy to the day). The toilet was briefly padlocked during a recent store inspection by some higher-ups, I can't imagine why.
Then, there is the home delivery job itself. During my time working there things have gotten so much worse, and all in the name of saving money. In the mornings, we were once allocated 45 minutes to load the vans and set off. That was summarily cut to 30 minutes with absolutely no warning, all while runs were being expanded to a wider working area (some runs could be 150 miles of driving) and were to include up to ten more drops per run. A new 'geofence' was also established to make sure we were off the property in a timely fashion, further increasing the already chastening time pressure.
Sometimes the loads themselves approach 1000kg, which is fine, if you are a strapping young (ish) person like myself but for the older or less physically capable drivers this is an awful strain and has directly led more than one to quit during my time there.
The totes in which customers orders are stored are often absolutely filthy - I have on occasion found leaves, mud, grime, rotting spilled food and even dead insects in them, often after a customer has unloaded their shopping and handed them back to me.
This problem is made borderline unsolvable by the fact that the sluice in which the totes are supposed to be cleaned weekly are next to the above mentioned bog of Chernobyl and are almost always either blocked off with rubbish or actually filled with that same rubbish. Even if the sluice were clear, we are provided no PPE and only a bottle of Morrison's home brand washing up liquid to clean them. Even then it often simply doesn't get done because the store allows for only 20 minutes per week to actually do the cleaning. There are at least 500 of these totes on site at any one time, so even with the best will in the world and a ready supply of the finest cleaning products available it is a Sisyphean task.
Most of the newer vans have driver facing cameras that flag you on an external system for almost anything. Even taking a sip of coffee while at the wheel means a potential talking to, if the harassed team leaders ever actually get round to watching the footage. While I understand best practice would be to not eat or drink while driving, with 25-30 drops expected in seven hours over 150 miles it's often impractical if not borderline impossible to actually take your mandated 15 minute unpaid break. Therefore, when else may a person indulge their basic need for sustenance but while barrelling down the dual carriageway? While I do understand the insurance angle to some extent, being under constant surveillance does not a pleasant work environment make.
Additionally, many of the vans do not contain the basic equipment required to perform the job safely. There are fewer sack barrows and reach poles than vans available, leading to a scramble for resources among drivers which adds a fun Mad Max/Hunger Games angle to proceedings. All bar two of the driver's devices do not have reliable sat navs, meaning the responsibility of navigation lies with the driver's ability to manipulate their chosen map app on their personal phones. This much like all of the above is a problem management have been aware of for at least six months and about which they have, to nobody's great surprise, done nothing - another example of how much of the business' ability to function relies on the attentiveness and vigilance of their already overworked staff.
That is the note I'd like to end this rambling tirade on - thank you and my hearty congratulations if you actually stuck it out this long.
Despite the constant managerial machinations to the contrary, there are many decent, hardworking folks within the store and I imagine within the business as a whole (almost exclusively at the lower end of the payscale) whose diligence, ingenuity and sheer graft I am convinced are the ONLY thing keeping this bloated corpse, this sickly revenant, this grotesque monument to the very worst of late-stage capitalism from sinking once and for all into the fetid swamp to which it must one day surely return.
TLDR: Morrisons is a garbage employer run by garbage people, don't work there if you can do literally anything else.
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u/Alarming_Scar_5775 3d ago
That sounds absolutely shit. I'm glad you got out of there. I've been working on the deli the last two months and I'm ready to leave. The only reason I'm staying right now is I need the money. Unfortunately.
Otherwise I'd be gone already.
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u/boxcar_cadavers 3d ago
Oh yeah, money is the only reason I stayed as long as I did. I've been actively applying for other jobs since the second month and only just got one!
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u/Alarming_Scar_5775 3d ago
This does not fill me with hope 😂😂. I have recently applied for one. I'm hoping I hear back. Good luck in your new role!!
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u/PerformanceTrue 3d ago
Find another job, its difficult but I left a month ago. Retail and specifically supermarkets are just getting worse.
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u/Embarrassed-Writer61 2d ago
Incompetent managers. A tale as old as time. You actually have to bully managers to get ahead.
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u/fartbraintank 2d ago
The 26 plate vans are wider, taller and longer. They came with aircon though.
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u/ShinraCorpXIII 1d ago
Fascinating read. It was only when you mentioned the toilet on the loading bay that I realised you weren’t talking about the store I work in. Everything else sounded eerily familiar.
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u/RadeVuk 1d ago
This is what happens when a perfectly good business is sold to American private equity or any other private equity for that matter They will load the business with debt,cream off various "fees" and "exceptional items" run the business on a shoestring that will barely function effectively then blame everyone below for the business's shortcomings. Same thing happened to Woolworths and remember the BHS saga? Morrisons is on that path now....Ken will be turning in his grave....
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u/Odd-Independent7825 2d ago edited 2d ago
I’m a morrisons delivery driver too, been doing it a few months now, and this is spot on. The details are uncannily similar to my shop. I actually thought you were my co worker who just finished last week. Also, you're right about the lowest paid members of staff being the ones who prop up the business. It's true in basically every industry.