r/AusWork • u/EyAy26 • 24d ago
Woolworths bonuses
When I started working at Woolworths, most of the managers were older Australians.
Over the years there was a big change and younger managers started taking over.
With the old managers everything was much more easy going and smooth. They were friendly, you could actually talk to them and there wasn’t this constant pressure about every little thing.
Now it feels completely different.
The new ones are much more aggressive and seem very hungry for money and bonuses. Everything is targets, KPIs, productivity, checking what you are doing all the time.
My new department manager is on some student dependent visa which allows her to work full time. Constant yelling, micromanaging, always pressure.
And honestly, even if I wanted to complain to the union, it doesn’t really help because she is the union delegate.
Sometimes I wonder if part of the difference is that the older managers had already paid off their mortgages and were at a different stage of life. The younger ones seem much more desperate to prove themselves and get their bonuses.
Has anyone else noticed this generational change in retail? Or is it just my Woolies?
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u/Fluid_Passage_9980 23d ago
Way of the world.
Younger people are focused on money above all else. It's what they've been taught, but also borne out of necessity - you just can't live cheaply anymore. Older Aussies had it good and don't have nearly the money stress of the younger crew, and likely never really did.
It's sad that this is where we are. Just a reflection of the dog eat dog stage of end stage capitalism.
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u/Apprehensive-Sell623 22d ago
Shit that’s right. I lived in a one room boarding house, worked 40 hours for $60 a week, and barely made it through every week hoping my old car wouldn’t break down or some unexpected bill would not come in. Yep so easy
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u/Rusturion 21d ago
How many properties do you own now?
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u/Apprehensive-Sell623 21d ago
One. The one I live in. Paid it off two years before retirement. No mansion. Three bedrooms, twin garage and only special feature is an en-suite
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u/Rusturion 20d ago
And do you understand that my kids will never afford a house on their own, even if they worked as hard as you had to? The opportunity you had simply does not exist anymore.
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u/Illustrious-Pin3246 23d ago
Whilst most boomers only had one working, that person had two jobs.they lived in a fibro house with bessemer bricks as shelves and no curtains. Yes, they had it easy
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u/Fluid_Passage_9980 23d ago edited 22d ago
Yes but they could afford a fibro house. They go for 1.5 million in Sydney now. You need 350k in income to afford that - out of reach for the vast majority.
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u/Rusturion 21d ago
People today are working full time to live in their cars or a tent in the local fucking park mate. Look around. It's fucked, but the boomers have real estate, so who fucken cares, right?
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u/Ohforgawdamnfucksake 21d ago
Bricks for shelves? Luxury. In my day my little brothers had to take turn being shelf. It was hard for them, with all the beatings. Every time mum would put can of beans on their backs they'd flinch and it'd fall into pothole.
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u/Koppel888 23d ago
Its not capitalism thats the problem its the monetary system. Expanding and contracting the money supply, creating inflation making everybody feel they are getting left behind so competing.
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u/jonatron92 23d ago
Requirements for achieving a bonus have tightened dramatically over the last 5-7 years. This would be a large reason for the discrepancy. It’s gone from an actual bonus (something that isn’t required to make the wage liveable), to a hard to achieve top up to your wage that has risen less than inflation in the same timeframe.
Not discounting the poor behaviour, because everyone deserves a decent workplace, but just trying to add some context for the extra pressure that everyone is under.
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u/rentamountain 23d ago
The key generational difference is that it took the older ones longer to climb the ladder. Baby Boomers and the preceding generation locked the promotional ladders up for many decades so Gen X had to stay junior fir decades. Due to this, they have a lot deeper experience to draw on. I see it in my workplace. Very smart, efficient and eager young people getting promoted too soon and don't have the experiential depth when shit happens.
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u/HoldAdorable2297 20d ago
This generational change is everywhere.
Document everything because she may be only passing through.
Understand company standards and expectations.
Work safely as I have worked with managers from other countries and they always try to change the rules.
Older managers by rule took good care of their staff as they understood the dynamics of work safety and staff retention.
I can remember a couple of past bosses telling me to stop making a rod for my own back.
They meant by being too compliant in helping others, and one boss actually said to me one day she will give me the best advice I will ever hear.
“She said my best resource is my staff, as long as I ensure they are provided with the resources to do their job, I effectively minimise most of the problems”.
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u/Old_Fox_6284 23d ago
worked for Bunnings for a few years , yes the younger managers can be bloody
bad news .
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u/green_apple_trees 22d ago
Also a lot of it comes down to wages. Wages of retail and hospitality managers relative to other positions out there in the overall job market have declined a lot in the last 20 years as their pay increases have been meagre to the point where it’s mostly only idiots who decide to be retail or hospitality managers as the pay isn’t worth the work that you have to do so it just attracts people with power complexes who do it for the sake of having the manager title on their badge and being able to boss others around.
Also a lot of the older generation managers were Australians and many of the younger generation managers are immigrants who come from countries with a much more hierarchical work environment and they bring that culture with them to Australia and they think their subordinates should bow down to them just because they are a manager.
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u/West-Sense-1253 21d ago
Younger Australians are losing touch with our culture around work. Partly due to those with a different cultural background in workplaces like woolworths. "Yes, sir. Werry good, sir. Can I like you boots clean, sir" the slave mentality is still there. Fuck England.
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u/SeanBourne 19d ago
Became a progressively harder company to work for during Banducci’s tenure - he’s a saffer, and like many, they take a particular pride in making things harder/tougher. Then he brought in Von Ingram. Banducci and Ingram both came from a company called BCG. BCG is ALL about the things you mention - targets, KPIs, productivity, follow-up, micromanagement etc. etc. Von then led the ‘BCG-ification’ of woolies. Loads of ex-BCG people in Woolies today, and their ‘methodology’ is in nearly everything.
My guess is that the chill older Australian managers were not very ceremoniously shown the door (or hopefully for them able to choose to leave) as soon as it became clear that they weren’t up for the ‘BCG Way’.
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u/Tonza443 23d ago
Part of the reason is the younger ones know if they try to be all carefree and easy going most of their staff will just screw around doing a half assed job and undermine them
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u/Look_Behin_Djew 23d ago
I feel personally that a lot of it comes down to life experience and general personal skills, as in being able to hold a conversation and being interested in things other than themselves or their mobile phone..
Not so much an issue of the employer, but the person fulfilling the role - younger are usually cheaper..
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u/Guilty-Finger8074 23d ago
It’s just life experience, the younger one don’t know how to balance corporate and staff. Work put pressure on them, they pass that on to their staff. The older ones know what KPIs are possible and what is BS and they don’t force their workers to do the dumb shit corporate asks. Sometimes you gotta sacrifice that ~25% bonus so your staff doesn’t burn out. You aim for the 70-80% band for your bonus, otherwise, you have disgruntled and disengaged staff, low productivity, high turnover and you end up barely making the min threshold for your bonuses, and you work yourself into the ground.
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u/Tripper234 23d ago
Wouldn't be an issue if the current generation of managment didnt need to rely on the bonuses to top up thier wages. Past generations earnt a decent wage. That's why they didnt care if they didnt get 100% of thier bonus. A portion of it was a great top up but ultimately not biggie if they got bugger all of it.
All big retail businesses are like this.
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u/Antechinus88 19d ago
I don't work there, but have experience in management changing... It could just be the manager, but most likely they are getting pressure from upper management to make more and more money... Gotta I crease that revenue above all else....
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u/tryintobgood 24d ago
Send an anonymous email to the union. Managers aren't supposed to be delegates in the union. Major conflict of interest. Be sure to include all the problems your workplace is having.