It's been a rough ride but I've made it to the 2-yr mark and hope it'll get easier from here on out.
Pros
* Food Lion cuts hours routinely, so if you need time off, you can usually get it w/advance notice * Now that i know many of the regular customers, they are the highlight of my day * I've worked a lot of different jobs in the store (to get hours) and NONE of them is "rocket science" so any one could step into one of these jobs, even if you haven't completed high school (though you really need to be able to read and be detail oriented enough to check numbers) * The company is willing to give anyone a first chance; second chances don't exist though
Cons
* Food Lion cuts hours routinely, so if you need a stable job, this ain't it. * Company policy seems to be to just fire people rather than working with them though management makes it sound like it's "hard" to fire people. It's just hard for them to do the CYA paperwork beforehand. They've managed to fire a lot of people in the 2 yrs I've been there. Of course, I've also outlived the entire management staff at my store (and in my district now that I think of it, the district-level management has completely changed over, too - NOT good for continuity of information) * There is no communication from corporate past the Store Mgr level and the SM's rarely disseminates any relevant / useful information to wage employees (cashiers, stockers, deli below the Deli Mgr) I've worked in more than half a dozen stores (often had to work in multiple stores my first year just to get more than 8 or 12 hrs in a week) and NONE of the SM's communicate, it's not just in my home store. Huddles, if held, are such BS meetings they totally waste time and actually work AGAINST building morale by giving the SM a chance to whine and complain to wage workers about things that are not within our control to influence (given we are powerless to do anything but what the management tells us to do!!) * The Dept Head meeting seems to be the only place where information is shared and even then, it's focused on past week's sales performance reviews, not "heads up" on things that need to be planned for to mitigate bad sales * The constant state of "firefighting" and "bandaids" instead of proactive PLANNING or open communication (why is it a secret when there's a sale coming up?) makes for a stressful, "strife-ridden" work environment where everyone's worried abotu screwing up instead of focused on positive activities. Even after 2 yrs, I find it emotionally exhausting to listen to the reports of problems that WERE totally preventable if there had been ANY teamwork at all. * The "every man for himself" approach doesn't work but the "us / them" attitude is so prevalent, one has to take that self-preservation stance just to not get fired sometimes. It sucks to feel forced into that corner, esp. when I try to just keep my head down, do my job and stay out of "it" (whatever the current fire is and there's always something)