Morrisons shake up - axing 3,000 managers and employing 7,000 shop floor staff

[Zak33]

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/news...aff/ar-BBZfHk7

In the wake of a disappointing Christmas, the Bradford-based supermarket is eliminating higher-paid managerial roles in its near-500 store chain. At the same time it is creating 7,000 new hourly-paid roles in a bid to improve customer service and reduce the number of gaps on its shelves. The changes will result in a net increase of 4,000 jobs with many of the new positions on its Market Street deli counters.

[Hoonigan]

3000 managers across 500 stores. Why on Earth did they have 6 managers per store anyway? And likely more than that, as they'll need to keep some!

[Zak33]

3000 managers across 500 stores. Why on Earth did they have 6 managers per store anyway? And likely more than that, as they'll need to keep some!

utterly no idea.. seems excessive doesn't it?

[Smudger]

Or... getting rid of 3000 salaried workers and getting in a load on 0 hours contracts.

Not all of the managers will be in stores, some will be in head office, some will be BDMs covering a multiple of stores and I would say you would need 4 managers per store so there's always someone senior there when the store is open.

[Ttaskmaster]

3000 managers across 500 stores. Why on Earth did they have 6 managers per store anyway? And likely more than that, as they'll need to keep some!

Think how many departments you have in a supermarket, that might their own dedicated manager.
You'll have the freezers and storerooms, checkouts and customer services, floor workers and shelf-stackers, possibly a petrol station, and who knows what else.
Our local M is open 6am to 11pm (10-4 on Sunday) and I doubt they work 17 hours a day, so you'll need at least two of every manager type.

[Zak33]

so you'll need at least two of every manager type.

not any more.....

[Ttaskmaster]

not any more.....

Yeah you will. They'll just likely have more departments of which to be the manager!

[flearider]

They tried that dint work ...wife stept down as Depp mng ...in 18 months they went thru 6 managers ...
They can't afford shop staff so there doing this ....
Or they will lose there long time staff they have had enough

[Kumagoro]

Based on having worked in a bigish Tesco supermarket back in the day, I have always thought there were too many managers and they could have gotten away with team leaders.

Years later I heard they were getting rid of a layer of management to save money etc. I thought they had finally clocked on to how much they were wasting by having so many managers. But no they got rid of the team leaders.

This is the number of managers there were then.

Store manager
Deputy manager
HR manager
Another responsible for overseeing multiple non food areas.
Fresh stock control manager
Ambient stock control manager
Price integrity/some other name I can't remember manager
Customer service & petrol station manager
2x checkout managers (possibly because not full time)
Clothing manager
Non food manager
Produce manager
Provisions manager
Counters manager
Bakery manager
Ambient manager
Warehouse manager
Dotcom manager

Night manager
2x night filling managers.

Team leaders (got like an extra quid an hour)

Price integrity
Ambient stock control
Produce
Provisions
Bakery
2x checkouts
Counters
2x Dotcom maybe
The other departments may have had some but I don't recall them. I distinctly remember though there being less of them than managers. I think the price integrity and the ambient stock control positions were removed while I was there.

I unfortunately worked there longer than I should so had a good feel for how it all operated. Based on the work they did, in my opinion there was no need for a store manager per store. The deputy was good enough.

HR manager (didn't get why they needed to be manager level a real notching much to do job most of the time)

Another responsible for overseeing multiple non food areas. (With the manager set up the way it was, not needed)

Fresh stock control manager
Ambient stock control manager
Price integrity/some other name I can't remember manager

All three could be rolled into one easily.

Customer service & petrol station manager this may have ended up with the price integrity manager I feel though.

2x checkout managers
Rolled together

Clothing manager
Non food manager
Rolled together

Produce manager
Provisions manager
Counters manager
Bakery manager
Ambient manager

All those could be split between three managers quite early

Warehouse manager
Dotcom manager
Rolled together


Night manager
2x night filling managers.

Didn't do nights so can't really comment

This is just a rough rejigging it was just obvious from the work load and jobs that were done that there were too many managers at that time, well over 10 years ago.

I always found it strange that they didn't get that it wasn't a complicated concept selling things in a supermarket.

Keep the shelves filled and keep the checkouts flowing. That is all there really is to it. Other than that put the new stuff at the back.

[Domestic_Ginger]

Morribunds was pretty poor wrt looking after their employees when I worked at one. Tesco was seen as a promotion. Putting their staff on 0 hours doesn't surprise me.

The term manager is over used anyway much in the same way everybody is an engineer it seems these days. I still can't see it as profession in itself.

*handshake*
"Hello, pleased to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too."
*awkward silence*
"So what do you for a living if you don't mind me asking?"
"I'm a manager."
"A manager of what?"
"A manager."
*silence*

[Saracen999]

...

The term manager is over used anyway much in the same way everybody is an engineer it seems these days. I still can't see it as profession in itself.

....

Exactly what went through my mind. The example I had was "consultant". Again, hugely abused.