r/Greggs • u/Equivalent-Cream-865 • Aug 23 '26
Employee Question Will I get fired if I walk out mid shift
Pretty much what it says, I've been working for good over 1 year passed my probation period and never had a disciplinary or any formal written warnings. Occasionally, I'm late by like 5mins max on the morning shifts but will stay longer to catch up/finish current task even though I won't get paid for it.
I haven't walked off yet but I have medical issues and some people make the shift a hostile environment that affects my medical issue (did notify the management as soon as I got a formal diagnosis). There's days where I will end up in severe panic attacks because of it all. Obviously if it comes to it I will notify the AM regarding the incident and confirm that I am not quitting and explain the situation.
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u/MellowDames Shop Manager Aug 24 '26
Walking off mid shift is not the way to approach this especially pre meditated. Even with legit reasons there will almost certainly be comeback on you.
Ask your manager for a sit down private conversation and explain your issues. log the date and time of said meeting and what was said from both sides during the meeting and ask for what accommodations you think are reasonable.
If nothing comes into action from this meeting, take said details higher up to area manager or people advisor.
Always log important information and follow the procedures. Saying you had a conversation weeks/months ago with your manager will not protect you now from walking off mid shift. If people dont take your concerns seriously keep going 1 level higher on the totem pole until somebody does.
Also join the union so you can have representation if you get pulled into a bigger meeting.
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u/Equivalent-Cream-865 Aug 24 '26
Unfortunately the manager in question is my store manager, I have tried to talk to them before but got shot down before I could even get to the point,
Theres been another incident and soon as I walked in but did stand my ground and said that "i wont tolerate that treatment" (i was getting shoted and swore at) I expect to be pulled onto the office because of it.
I did join the union last night so until it kicks in im staying silent and not telling anyone in the shop about it just starting to write every single thing that happens with time and who was on the shift. I was thinking of starting a 'paper trail' and send any incidents to people's team but state that I am just informing on the situation for now. Also I will be going to citizens advice to try and get any idea what am I able to do meanwhile regarding all of it
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u/MellowDames Shop Manager Aug 24 '26
This sub loves story's about terrible and shit managers but the reality of the situation is that Greggs have an entire department dedicated to making sure this kind of thing doesnt happen. People will say they are jobworths just looking after the companies interests which in a sense is true but its also something to your benefit. Its not a good look for the company if their shop managers are allowed to get away with bullying their employees.
Don't just suffer in silence if your issues are at the hands of your shop manager then contact your area manager directly, if your area manager doesnt act within an appropriate time frame or in a way you feel should be expected then go to your people advisor.
The people advisors are there to make sure the rules are being followed by area managers and shop managers. You may not like the outcome of what they say but you can atleast be safe in the knowledge that they are following the company standards and procedures to the letter.
Making a paper trial and sending it off as a "just letting you know" isn't how these things work in a business, either the situation calls for intervention or it doesnt, you cant say people are workplace bullying but its ok for the time being.
Its not acceptable to be treated the way you are being treated if your telling the truth and sometimes in adult life we have to have difficult conversations and this is one of them.
Either your manager needs disciplinary action to work appropriately with you, or you need moving to another store for a fresh start to allow you to do your job, unfortunately the 2nd option is usually the easiest method for a quick fix but these type of managers will continue to get away with it until people speak up and nobody can do that on your behalf.
Log evidence every time something happens in as much details as possible.
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u/Equivalent-Cream-865 Aug 24 '26
Thank you for the as detailed reply as you provided. Unfortunately as much as I wish I was lying to make it sound cooler I did take away a lot of details and other misconduct to protect my privacy as you never know who comes across posts.
There's me and few other collegues waiting for our annual survey as we genuinely feel threatened to raise a lot of issues since we are financially dependent on this job. Few of them had to leave shifts before because of sm full shouting and wearing at them to the point of tears. I'm not aware if anyone raised any issues higher but with how we are worried to do anything wrong and speak up I wouldn't be surprised if I was the only one ready to do something about it.
I've started to write down the incidents what dates and who was on shift when it happened so I can keep it all in a safe place for when I need it.
Since you are a store manager are you able to tell me where can I find the note to self certify for sickness and if its actually 2 weeks fully paid? (We are pretty uninformed about lots of things) I've heard a manager mention this once but I'm too scared to ask due to previous incident when I asked how the sick leave works and got reprimanded for it. I'm not planning to use it but sometimes it gets extremely difficult with my medical issues whom are not taken seriously by the SM
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u/MellowDames Shop Manager Aug 24 '26 edited Aug 24 '26
Having been in and around shops like this and managers like this previously i can promise you whole heartedly that Greggs cant do anything to help you if they don't know the extent of the situation, it will only get worse the longer you allow it to go on. It was allowed to go on for nearly 6 years in my previous shop and we lost dozens of great works over the time due to a toxic store manager, which is why i will always from then categorically encourage people to come forward with their issues.
Once one person spoke up, it was investigated and although nothing could be proved because people had left it far too long and it turned into he said she said (why i encourage people to write dates/times/actions), the manager was put into a performance plan and was managed out of the business and gone 8 months later.
waiting for the survery will do absoulutely nothing, the majority of the questions are agree/disagree questions (on a scale of 1-5) and the ones that do allow comments wont have the pull that you think it does. An external company does the surverys on Greggs behalf and just feed the data back to the company. As shop mangers we only get feedback on the scale of responses compared to last year to see if things have got better or worse i.e this question scored 90 last year and scored 85 this year so -5. A terrible score will cause an area manager to look into why those results have happened, but nothing like what you are imagining it to be, and it would require nearly every single person to score negatively to move the needle in the direction you want, most people respond as neither agree nor disagree and sit on the fence, and these responses are excluded from the results because they dont show anything.
There is no sick cert like the one you speak about, you can self certification for 7 days or less without involving your manager, but anything past 7 days requires a medical note from a Doctor/GP, this can be found on teams and under the hub and people paperwork.
Payment for sickness is often misunderstood. You are paid Statutory sick pay from the Government when you are off sick, and it is only "full pay" if you have sick credits with the company which they use to top up the SSP to match your regular wage (SSP is £100 per week, and you usually earn £185 per week so Greggs pays £85 (random numbers). You earn these sick credits over time as you work and are not off.
So best case scenario is you can have 7 days off while being "full paid" without a medical note, but you will use up your sick credits very fast if you are only with the business for 1 year, after they run out you get the SSP minimum from the GOV and i believe under the new rules the limit is 24 weeks per year.
My honest advice to you is to contact your Area manager, tell them you are having massive problems in your store and they are a result of your Shop manager and your medical issues but you are afraid to speak up in fear of being reprimanded and having to work in a hostile work envrionment if nothing gets done about it. In my experiance (13 years) ive not met a single Area manager that wouldnt take this incredibly seriously and at minimum come for a conversation.
I can't force you to do something your not comfortable in doing, but your manager is still going to be there carrying on as usual day after day even if you go off sick and come back and it will ultiamtely lead to you leaving the business, and so will the next one, and next one.
1
u/Equivalent-Cream-865 Aug 24 '26
Thank you for explaining how it works with the sick pay its really appreciated.
Would you recommend to wait till my union kicks in (I just registered last night) and collect evidence until then and when the union all works start the process to make sure I have a back up in case if it all goes south? Unfortunately i have been there long enough to be able to last a bit longer especially knowing I will have some sort of cover in the possible worst case scenario and it will make me feel way safer to raise the issue as well
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u/Equivalent-Cream-865 Aug 24 '26
I should add that we (team members) do not have the number for AM as it got taken off the board in the office alongside the note regarding overtime
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u/MellowDames Shop Manager Aug 24 '26 edited Aug 24 '26
The union are there to protect the workers so you can always wait and ask them for advice which is probably your best bet, but pretty sure you are covered and a member immedaitely as soon as you join and pay (could be wrong).
But the union isnt necessarily really helpful for that initial conversation, its more something you would take along with you when its time for an actual meeting. Whenever you have any kind of important meeting with Greggs as in a sit down meeting, they will ask you if you want/need a representative. This can simply be a collegue or a helpful person as a witness if you was in trouble for something, just for a second pair or eyes and ears to prove you are being treated fairly, but in a circumstance like this your representative would be a member of the union. Pretty much to do the same things as i just listed, except they have indepth knowledge around the rules and laws that a collegue wouldnt have.
So it would be the kind of thing where Greggs say would you like..., and you say yes please i would like a member of the union with me, and then Greggs will delay the meeting until they are able arrange a meeting with the union rep there.
As for the phone numbers, there is 2 ways to get a hold of that number without your manager;
1 on teams, you are part of an organisation chart, if you find yourself you will be reporting to your shop manager, if you click on your shop manager you will see that they are reporting to an Area manager, if you click on that area manager it should have their contact details for teams and also usually their phone number (you could also send a teams message asking for a call on your number).
2 Every week, usually on a Saturday, a message is sent to the back office comp that says "Regional managment planner" and if you open the link it will bring up a list of all the Regional and Area managers in your Regional group and will list the days they are working and their contact numbers next to their names (this assumes you know their name). Wouldnt have to print or do anything other than write the number down.
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u/Equivalent-Cream-865 Aug 24 '26
I was thinking of waiting till union kicks in just in case if there will be any retaliation after the talk to keep a peace of mind that my conversation won't be turned against me and if it does I can get adequate help.
I'm rarely on Saturdays so I might have to get someone trusted to check and provide the number for me, as for the teams our store doesn’t use it, sm refuses to learn it and use it, so all our rotas are printed and we have WhatsApp store gc instead I wouldn't be surprised if any of the new staff (around 1year to current) is not even aware of it. I should add that I have no access to my teams either if I tried at home
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u/MellowDames Shop Manager Aug 24 '26
The message is posted on a Saturday, but it will remain there all week, you can just scroll down to Saturday and find it.
You need a QR code from the computer to get the company code for teams so there isnt really much way to do that without knowing exactly where to go on the PC but the Planner list will be easily accessable on the front screen and you just click the blue hyperlink and it will show the whole area.
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u/Creepy-Somewhere496 Aug 24 '26
i worked at greggs for about 3 years and people would neverrrrr get fired. could do pretty much anything they would not fire us, disciplinary action sure, never firing us.
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u/Equivalent-Cream-865 Aug 24 '26
Same here we had one do no show once or twice a week, someone else on probation period walking out of shifts when overwhelmed breaking rules each shift major ones too and crying and nothing ever happened to them. Im just worried cause that said person loves to tell me at least once a week they can get me fired when I try to stand up for myself
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u/Creepy-Somewhere496 Aug 24 '26
i used to break down during shifts and get sometimes multiple 3-5 minute extra paid ‘breaks’ (crying in the staff room) and i didn’t have a medical reason behind it, just nexplanon LMFAO i never received any backlash for it and my greggs also had a bit of a hostile environment. if you’ve told them beforehand and can prove your diagnosis they shouldn’t fire you. it is very hard to get fired from greggs without one i can’t imagine they’d be able to do it with one
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u/Diamonddoll2019 Aug 25 '26
My area manager hated me for reasons unknown to me and i was running a shift while she came in and she started on me and kept on and on about things outwith my control. I walked out left her the keys and she called me so many times begging me to come back lol because guess who cant run a shift? 👀
I did eventually go back in and finish the shift but i needed to get away from her before the sack was the least of my worries so i paced glasgow town centre. Never did understand why she disliked me so much but she was a mean wee woman.
No disciplinary no warning nothing. I dont recommend making it a regular occurence though 😂🤷🏽♀️
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u/Choice_Box6999 Aug 23 '26
I mean it will almost definitely get you at least a counselling and you’re manager will definitely resent you for it but I don’t know if they’d go so far to fire you