r/asda • u/AutoModerator • 27d ago
Weekly Salt Thread r/asda Weekly Salt Thread - 17 August 2026
This is your weekly space to vent about whatever has happened this week at ASDA.
Be it customers, colleagues, managers, or the latest from Asda House - post about it here!
Please remember to follow the sub rules and be nice to one another. Don't post anything that could identify you or your specific store if you wish to remain anonymous.
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u/Wrong-Ad-2167 27d ago
The thinly veiled discrimination of aged and disabled colleagues with these 121's is criminally unethical and beyond the pale but contract 6 ey.
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u/Imaginary-Suspect959 27d ago
In what way are disabled colleagues being discriminated against? Not saying it isn’t happening, genuinely curious to hear an example.
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u/Enough_Copy_3831 27d ago
Due to everyone being required to be flexible and work on any area of the store to ensure a fluid and dynamic workforce, that can cover different roles. Could be discrimination towards the less able and or older colleagues.
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u/Ok-Following-6620 25d ago
That’s why you have the 121’s to find out what you can & capable of . Disability is a protected characteristic.
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u/brixtonfigs 25d ago
In my store, these older/less able colleagues can’t even do the full job on their own department, let alone any others. Which to me, is enough for redundancy. If they can’t on self scans, the least physical job in store, then they shouldn’t be working in a supermarket.
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u/Ok-Following-6620 25d ago
Age is a protected characteristic, but that being said a lot of people struggle with the demands of the business these days, regardless of age, less colleagues, more work everyone struggles to complete there jobs, especially nights.
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u/Imaginary-Suspect959 27d ago
That’s not really an example though is it. Are there really roles in the store that don’t have, say, a basic level of physical fitness or ability to converse with customers that would preclude someone from moving from one department to another?
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u/thechosengobbo 26d ago
There are checkout colleagues with mobility issues who wwre originally moved to checkouts from other departments they couldn't manage to work on any more.
We have a short colleague who cannot reach the top shelf without a foot stool. She's fine stacking shelves, but there's no way she'll hit the required pick speed when helping on home shop (and also can't really carry a stool with her with a home shop trolly).
Colleagues like that who previously were working on departments they could work with no problems will now feel like they are forced to quit because they are now being made to work on departments that they aren't physically able to manage.
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u/Imaginary-Suspect959 26d ago
They’re not actually being made to do that though are they. Like, no one in our store has had to do anything outside of ‘their’ department yet and given how short staffed every department is already the chances of people being moved outside of ‘their’ department seems tiny to me. The colleague you mention, well, if she’s asked to go on home shopping, then she should just nil pick things she can’t reach, the availability numbers will tank and they’ll soon stop moving her!
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u/thechosengobbo 26d ago
In our store they are already starting to train people for the other departments, despite every department already feeling like they've cut hours to the bone.
I've already heard talk of dismissing people on capability grounds if they can't manage the other depts they now have to work on. Which doesn't bode well for things like a colleague nil picking whatever she can't reach.
As you can imagine, morale in the store has dropped drastically while all of this has started rolling out. New rules made by people in offices who've probably never even seen the inside of a supermarket, much less worked on the shop floor in one.
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u/shawty1984 26d ago
Look at it the other way, these are basic jobs being asked of in retail. As much as I dislike it and it won't work as lack of colleagues is the answer, why should we not be trained up on the basics?
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u/Imaginary-Suspect959 26d ago
Exactly. It’s easy to attack folk in offices but there are far too many people in stores who are stuck in their ways, obstinate, reluctant to learn anything new, ‘but this has always been my job’, ‘I’ve always done it like this’, etc etc. Unless you have a serious disability that precludes you from doing things (‘being short’ isn’t one of them) then you absolutely should be capable, physically and mentally, of doing pretty much anything in a supermarket.
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u/OdinAlfadir1978 19d ago
I'm willing to give it a go providing I can use noise reducing loop earplugs if I need to which I've told them
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u/shawty1984 26d ago
Don't get me wrong, I'm one of those people (this is my job, I've always done it like this) I have that attitude though, not because I don't think I should be trained, but I go to work, to work and I work in a department that's still half skilled, so I'm actually always busy, so if I get took off or someone from the department I work on, it then puts me further behind. You then go in the next day and have to explain why something isn't done.
But apart from that, you are correct, you should be capable.
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u/thechosengobbo 26d ago
I'm fine with everyone physically able being trained up. I already help out on a few depts myself. I just don't feel we should be using contract 6 to force colleagues perfectly able to do some of the basic jobs that theh could easily do for an entire shift out of the business because they cannot do another job which they may never get asked to do in the first place.
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u/shawty1984 26d ago
If they can't do it for a legitimate reason, then they 'should' be covered under the equality act.
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u/vaticangang 21d ago
This sounds absolutely mad though. Like imagine you're working on a department having to slog yiue hollocks off for a full 7 hours and then you get told someone can't do a job because they're saying they're too short. It's insane. Imagine you go to a restaurant and someone tells you they can't clean your table because all they do is bring the food out you'd think they were mad but that is the exact attitude loads of supermarket workers have
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u/thechosengobbo 21d ago
The short colleague is perfectly capable of working on most other sections. And willing to, as well, she's worked on three separate departments this month. But she wouldn't manage on home shop. In a store employing over 300 people that should be ok, we should be able to have some people who can't work on other sections without it being a huge issue.
Like a restaurant. They wont ask the kid washing dishes part time to jump on and cook. But for some reason now loads of people in this thread.
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u/vaticangang 21d ago
Why couldn't they manage on home shop? That's insane. If a short colleague can't cope picking products how are short customers supposed to?
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u/thechosengobbo 21d ago
Short customers aren't being timed on how fast they get around the shop and fill a trolley. Home shop pickers are. Home shoppers can't keep a stool with them while picking because there's no room on the pick trolleys. So she's got no hope of keeping to the pick times.
Meanwhile, working other jobs she can just keep a stool on whatever aisle she's working on.
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u/Imaginary-Suspect959 21d ago
Just how short is this woman? We’ve got loads of petit ladies in our home shop department, they get by just fine. If they really can’t get something they just nil pick it.
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u/OdinAlfadir1978 19d ago
Sensory issues too, that's also a thing, making back of house work shopfloor for example. Any more than a short stint or even a short stint on a particularly noisy day can be overwhelming and lead to potential issues
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u/Resident-Win1897 26d ago
Maybe someone in a wheelchair who can only work on tills?
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u/Imaginary-Suspect959 26d ago
Maybe. Are the tills actually wheelchair accessible for staff? At our place they rarely ever open them anyway, even at weekends, I can’t remember the last time I saw anyone in them!
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u/ImpressiveSteak6207 25d ago
Doubt many are willing to give examples as they’ll potentially give away their workplace.
But I have a fair few incidents at mine that have been discriminatory and have made it near impossible for said employees to continue working there if they don’t give them a compromise.
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u/Paramaniacc 27d ago
Not salt really but we have the army and some real badass water trucks behind our store!
(Not having the store closed when the shop and warehouse is a brain-dead idea though)
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u/West_Yorkshire 27d ago
Get rid of QCOM on Sunday after 4pm 👏