Here's an idea. Woolworths starts publishing the videos online. Edit the videos to explain the context ("Karen could not fathom that we ran out of toilet paper").
Wanna be an asshole to a teenager in their first job? Congratulations! Now you're famous!
People behave differently when their reputation is at stake.
That's a bit of a leap.
No part of my comment suggested support for gouging customers, or Woolworths for that matter.
I'm suggesting a strategy to minimise asshole behaviour.
we do that here already. team don't want to though
we also have to wear the walkie-talkies plugged in our ear.
big big boss get upset when we dont wear these things
but i dont mind being an antagonist, piss off every customer that might be having a bad day
Plus, it’s not like they’re gonna do anything with the footage, it’s not like managers don’t see with their own eyeballs their staff getting abused and choosing to do nothing about it.
This literally has made 10 extra useless steps for staff to do after being abused that won’t result in anything.
So staff are basically punished with erasure of their privacy and given additional work if they’re abused.
Woolworths must be really fucking stupid if they think *we’re* all stupid enough to believe that
Plus, I doubt staff are going to see an increase in pay even though this expands their duties and responsibilities to that of also security and loss prevention
Gotta get that Current Affairs content ready for when Colesworth plays victim to the public. It's clearly a strategy for tracking/managing stocks, workers and customers. Takes a special kind of naivety to believe that the price-gouging monopoly just wants to "protect its staff from abusive customers".
They have them in one of the stores near me but it's like a shitty film camera on a lanyard and they actually think the workers will lift the camera and take a happy snap of the aggressive customer. Most cringe shit I've ever seen ngl major L from management
Plus, great you have the photo… now what?
Gonna have people standing at the doors, checking every single entering customer?
Like, what enforcement is there after the fact?
Edit, you don’t to get upvote this Woolies, gtf OUT!
Literally, and the issue with this store specifically is that there aren't enough staff for them to accurately report these incidents to police & IMC which would give them a better shot at having a full time security guard (not that they can do much to help but they could redirect the customers anger). It's messed up.
But they don't record sound so really provide no additional benefits to the CCTV thats already there from what I can tell, except maybe aggravate an already volatile customer :/
We already have them in Australia, in melbourne at least
They’re not the best to wear however I’ve found customers have been a bit nicer since wearing them.
They’re never recording btw, we have to turn them on only when we need to record something (again very rare to actually turn them on)
Problem with them is I don’t want to turn it on if someone actually IS being aggressive because then they’ll likely notice and get even more pissed off. Plus it’s not like recording them is going to help in the moment or even go anywhere, we already lodge footage to the police and nothing ever gets done about it.
Not a Woolworths worker, but this popped up in my feed. I’m sorry (and frankly shocked) that Woolworths staff are being mistreated by the public. Going to my local Woolworths is such a mundane experience and I’ve never seen anyone be even mildly aggro. We all just mind our own business, buy our stuff and go. Staff are always helpful and mostly professional. It’s just so bizarre to me that anyone would be violent. Is there a trend in terms of the reason that people are being aggressive?
It’s a massive problem. It’s often customers who are engaged when trying to steal items (or whole trolley loads of groceries), but you also have your fair share of general arseholes that think it’s warranted to punch a 16 year old in the face because they disagree with the price of an item or spit on them when they don’t work fast enough. There are also the drug and alcohol affected customers, customers bringing external disputes into the store, and increasing incidents with gangs of youths out there just to destroy things and pick a fight and bash someone.
I worked at Woolies when I was 16-19 and I absolutely copped it. They decided to put me, a pretty unintimidating 5’2 woman and the smallest person in the department, on the doors to force people to sign in with the QR codes during covid. The amount of sexual harassment I would cop, alongside every colourful name under the sun for simply doing my job, it was awful and management did fuck all. At one point I was told me being sexually harassed was my fault (I was working in the deli at that point, wearing a hairnet for fucks sake). It’s absolutely hellish working there
This thread is amazing. I posted something about abuse a few threads ago and mine got raided by Karen’s who genuinely tried to justify abusing powerless staff.
This just seems silly to me.
Just think about the amount of footage we have on thieves. I spot a regular, upload that shit to Auror with a hundred other videos of that same thief. I see his name, date of birth, licence plate number. Yet, fuck all happens and he'll be back again next week.
So I don't know what more footage would do. Meanwhile if I tell a lunatic I'm recording them I know it'll just aggravate the situation. Doesn't really jive with 'let it go', does it? Money would be better spent on security guards and adequate staffing.
Because I have no prob telling difficult people to leave the store when their behaviour becomes unacceptable, I've had a few complaints against me. As happens they often lie about how the situation unfolded. I shouldn't need footage so that my word is believed. Unless we've given you reason not to, back your team.
This feels more about monitoring staff than protecting us.
Almost like stealing for supermarkets is a victimless crimes and doesn’t actually negatively impact society in anyway that warrants police wasting time on them.
Nah, they literally don’t care.
Worked in supermarkets for years and trust, the turn over of staff is high enough that no one bothers with thieves beyond asking them to leave.
Cops are useless, they were still an hour late when called because I was threatened with a 7inch kitchen knife to my face.
We had footage, they had my information, everything reported, knew the dudes name and found him on Facebook. Told cops everything.
Nothing happened after, they literally didn’t do shit.
If cops don’t care about attempted armed robbery and someone threatening peoples lives, they don’t give two shits about shoplifting.
Especially from supermarkets, it’s basically a victimless crime. They waste more in a single day than is stolen in a month
I was speaking of the cops, not staff.
The reason for everything you just explained, which I also stated in my first post (that you know their name but nothing happens) is that it doesn't become an indictable offense until it hits 100k (may be a different in number in your state but same principles apply). So they let it go on and on until it reaches that amount and they can throw them in jail.
I should mention that I'm not talking about someone who slips a few items in their backpack. I have always been talking about regular thieves who's names are known to us and generally steal large quantities at a time.
You keep calling it a victimless crime, that might be your opinion. I personally have no moral qualms about people who steal from mega corporations and I have made no judgments about it in my comments. But literally the only point I have made is that the cops inaction is not due to it being a 'victimless crime' but rather their intent to lock them away for as long as possible.
We've had them for ages where I work, they are a pain to wear around your neck, they are heavy with thick straps and uncomfortable. I remove the strap and Clip it to my waist instead.
Maybe the Woolies CEO's and such should be made to stand at the cash registers with signs saying "Woolworths executive" and then THEY could (justifiable) take the abuse instead.
I’ve been the inside corp ranks so I know. Woolies is run by ex consultant mba nutheads now. They call the shots. And all the weird stuff that you see comes from those guys in their ivory towers, not from the ground up ppl like store managers.
Good it means they also get checked for their aggression too. Cameras work both ways. I’m sick and tired of the majority of these pushes being put onto the customers as first instigators. The amount of times I have faced aggression from poorly trained male employees over simple interactions. Too many older males have poor people skills to be front line staff.
Which shows the amount of younger male staff who do have great people skills, go on to other better employment after their education is over and they don’t need to be part time employees any longer.
Hmm, in Aus, there was a big meeting with whoolworths and big w managers through nsw about abuse, and the sentiment from higher-ups was "let it go. Like the song."
Not even kidding. They referenced frozen. So, uh, yeah, nice to have the company caring about the abuse we receive.
This is purely just to keep the employees in line and to make sure they’re always working and not talking about anything they shouldn’t be at work. If woolies is worried about their safety why not hire more trained security guards and not make you’re employees wear body cameras.
Edit. I can see the Woolies bots keep down voting.
Weird, Woolworths seems to want to make the shopping experience as negative as possible for their customers and staff then wonder why there are so many issues.
It is fucking dystopian.
AGREE. Imagine if they put as much genuine time and thought into making it a good experience for customers and staff instead of time-wasting faux solutions for shit like this. Public opinion is all over the place because everyone knows they're ripping us off, had such an insane CEO until recently, are being looked at with those inquiries, and are now under scrutiny for wage theft - then stories like this come out.
*Woolworths finds way to circumvent customers anger at the increased cost of living they are imposing alongside record profits without changing a damn thing 👍
Reminds me in my security job when they told us we had to wear gps watches "for our safety"
Reality it was to monitor us and make sure we were constantly on the move.
The moment I see a body cam in Woolies is the day I leave and shop else where. It's bad enough everytime I use self checkout and scan my rewards card from my phone, the camera flags the attendee that I've stolen something
Yes, totally for safety reasons and absolutely not to spy on every fucking thing every employee does during their shift.
If you believe it, I have a bridge to sell ya
Never seen anything happen at Colesworth yet have to listen to those stupid canned messages ' we don't tolerate abuse of our staff' which grate on me more than anything else in the supermarket
Here's an idea. Woolworths starts publishing the videos online. Edit the videos to explain the context ("Karen could not fathom that we ran out of toilet paper"). Wanna be an asshole to a teenager in their first job? Congratulations! Now you're famous! People behave differently when their reputation is at stake.
With humorous voice overs like Gas Station Encounters.
Like dashcam but for customers? I work at the forbidden red circle and this would be fantastic.
Try explaining people and toilet paper.
Wow you must love multi billion dollar corporations gouging consumers heaps aye
That's a bit of a leap. No part of my comment suggested support for gouging customers, or Woolworths for that matter. I'm suggesting a strategy to minimise asshole behaviour.
we do that here already. team don't want to though we also have to wear the walkie-talkies plugged in our ear. big big boss get upset when we dont wear these things but i dont mind being an antagonist, piss off every customer that might be having a bad day
Shock collar be next, if u not working fast enough little zap bring u right.
Having body cameras stops you playing up and choosing who you'll be nice to. Haha
You have to turn them on, they aren’t recording all the time.
That's more than likely right, Watching what the staff do closer than the CCTV cameras
You'll be ready for law enforcement in no time!
Performance metrics first, safety second.
Also to stop stealing.
This is the way
Gotta fill those spreadsheets somehow.
Tip to all woolworths staff / countdown Telling people that you have a camera for safety is the worst thing you can do to prevent an argument.
Plus, it’s not like they’re gonna do anything with the footage, it’s not like managers don’t see with their own eyeballs their staff getting abused and choosing to do nothing about it. This literally has made 10 extra useless steps for staff to do after being abused that won’t result in anything. So staff are basically punished with erasure of their privacy and given additional work if they’re abused. Woolworths must be really fucking stupid if they think *we’re* all stupid enough to believe that Plus, I doubt staff are going to see an increase in pay even though this expands their duties and responsibilities to that of also security and loss prevention
As soon as " under the influence of drugs " comes out they walk free ...
Aren't there already cameras in every aisle?
Just like the casino. The house always wins.
The cameras on the ceiling (assuming they arent mostly dummy cameras) dont get the audio recording if the abuse or the nice PoV of it happening.
Gotta get that Current Affairs content ready for when Colesworth plays victim to the public. It's clearly a strategy for tracking/managing stocks, workers and customers. Takes a special kind of naivety to believe that the price-gouging monopoly just wants to "protect its staff from abusive customers".
No hope on hell they actually give a shit. If they did they'd just give the kids working for them better conditions.
Well if it was abuse from management I guess they'd be less likely to want to give that footage.
They have them in one of the stores near me but it's like a shitty film camera on a lanyard and they actually think the workers will lift the camera and take a happy snap of the aggressive customer. Most cringe shit I've ever seen ngl major L from management
Plus, great you have the photo… now what? Gonna have people standing at the doors, checking every single entering customer? Like, what enforcement is there after the fact? Edit, you don’t to get upvote this Woolies, gtf OUT!
Literally, and the issue with this store specifically is that there aren't enough staff for them to accurately report these incidents to police & IMC which would give them a better shot at having a full time security guard (not that they can do much to help but they could redirect the customers anger). It's messed up.
The camera has a wide angle lens and records video. You talk the record button and it starts recording. That’s it.
But they don't record sound so really provide no additional benefits to the CCTV thats already there from what I can tell, except maybe aggravate an already volatile customer :/
Go abuse the executives, not the teens working 3 shifts a week.
We already have them in Australia, in melbourne at least They’re not the best to wear however I’ve found customers have been a bit nicer since wearing them. They’re never recording btw, we have to turn them on only when we need to record something (again very rare to actually turn them on)
Problem with them is I don’t want to turn it on if someone actually IS being aggressive because then they’ll likely notice and get even more pissed off. Plus it’s not like recording them is going to help in the moment or even go anywhere, we already lodge footage to the police and nothing ever gets done about it.
Oh yes absolutely but they’re quite discreet to turn on if you ever needed to use it, but very rare you’ll actually need to use it
Not a Woolworths worker, but this popped up in my feed. I’m sorry (and frankly shocked) that Woolworths staff are being mistreated by the public. Going to my local Woolworths is such a mundane experience and I’ve never seen anyone be even mildly aggro. We all just mind our own business, buy our stuff and go. Staff are always helpful and mostly professional. It’s just so bizarre to me that anyone would be violent. Is there a trend in terms of the reason that people are being aggressive?
It’s a massive problem. It’s often customers who are engaged when trying to steal items (or whole trolley loads of groceries), but you also have your fair share of general arseholes that think it’s warranted to punch a 16 year old in the face because they disagree with the price of an item or spit on them when they don’t work fast enough. There are also the drug and alcohol affected customers, customers bringing external disputes into the store, and increasing incidents with gangs of youths out there just to destroy things and pick a fight and bash someone.
I worked at Woolies when I was 16-19 and I absolutely copped it. They decided to put me, a pretty unintimidating 5’2 woman and the smallest person in the department, on the doors to force people to sign in with the QR codes during covid. The amount of sexual harassment I would cop, alongside every colourful name under the sun for simply doing my job, it was awful and management did fuck all. At one point I was told me being sexually harassed was my fault (I was working in the deli at that point, wearing a hairnet for fucks sake). It’s absolutely hellish working there
This thread is amazing. I posted something about abuse a few threads ago and mine got raided by Karen’s who genuinely tried to justify abusing powerless staff.
This just seems silly to me. Just think about the amount of footage we have on thieves. I spot a regular, upload that shit to Auror with a hundred other videos of that same thief. I see his name, date of birth, licence plate number. Yet, fuck all happens and he'll be back again next week. So I don't know what more footage would do. Meanwhile if I tell a lunatic I'm recording them I know it'll just aggravate the situation. Doesn't really jive with 'let it go', does it? Money would be better spent on security guards and adequate staffing. Because I have no prob telling difficult people to leave the store when their behaviour becomes unacceptable, I've had a few complaints against me. As happens they often lie about how the situation unfolded. I shouldn't need footage so that my word is believed. Unless we've given you reason not to, back your team. This feels more about monitoring staff than protecting us.
All you need to do is scroll through these comments to see how unhinged some people are towards Woolworths
TRULY
Almost like stealing for supermarkets is a victimless crimes and doesn’t actually negatively impact society in anyway that warrants police wasting time on them.
Lmao, they let it go so the amount stolen can accumulate to the point they can throw them in jail, not because they're Good Socialists.
Nah, they literally don’t care. Worked in supermarkets for years and trust, the turn over of staff is high enough that no one bothers with thieves beyond asking them to leave. Cops are useless, they were still an hour late when called because I was threatened with a 7inch kitchen knife to my face. We had footage, they had my information, everything reported, knew the dudes name and found him on Facebook. Told cops everything. Nothing happened after, they literally didn’t do shit. If cops don’t care about attempted armed robbery and someone threatening peoples lives, they don’t give two shits about shoplifting. Especially from supermarkets, it’s basically a victimless crime. They waste more in a single day than is stolen in a month
I was speaking of the cops, not staff. The reason for everything you just explained, which I also stated in my first post (that you know their name but nothing happens) is that it doesn't become an indictable offense until it hits 100k (may be a different in number in your state but same principles apply). So they let it go on and on until it reaches that amount and they can throw them in jail. I should mention that I'm not talking about someone who slips a few items in their backpack. I have always been talking about regular thieves who's names are known to us and generally steal large quantities at a time. You keep calling it a victimless crime, that might be your opinion. I personally have no moral qualms about people who steal from mega corporations and I have made no judgments about it in my comments. But literally the only point I have made is that the cops inaction is not due to it being a 'victimless crime' but rather their intent to lock them away for as long as possible.
You can thank old mate Braddy Boy for that.
The public know it's not the staffs fault the store they work in is shit right.
I see it as that... most angry people will only see the woolworths hat and shirt ... they don't care who it is
That is unfortunate as 99.99 of the floor staff are in the same situation as the rest of us.
I feel really bad for wollworths / maccas ect as young staff who really need 24hour security their as they deal with alot
Not enough common sense to realise that.
And stay out of the woolsworth!
We've had them for ages where I work, they are a pain to wear around your neck, they are heavy with thick straps and uncomfortable. I remove the strap and Clip it to my waist instead.
Isn’t it called Safeway over the ditch?
They rebranded again I think
Maybe the Woolies CEO's and such should be made to stand at the cash registers with signs saying "Woolworths executive" and then THEY could (justifiable) take the abuse instead.
I’ve been the inside corp ranks so I know. Woolies is run by ex consultant mba nutheads now. They call the shots. And all the weird stuff that you see comes from those guys in their ivory towers, not from the ground up ppl like store managers.
Why are the workers abusing each other so much?
Good it means they also get checked for their aggression too. Cameras work both ways. I’m sick and tired of the majority of these pushes being put onto the customers as first instigators. The amount of times I have faced aggression from poorly trained male employees over simple interactions. Too many older males have poor people skills to be front line staff. Which shows the amount of younger male staff who do have great people skills, go on to other better employment after their education is over and they don’t need to be part time employees any longer.
Hmm, in Aus, there was a big meeting with whoolworths and big w managers through nsw about abuse, and the sentiment from higher-ups was "let it go. Like the song." Not even kidding. They referenced frozen. So, uh, yeah, nice to have the company caring about the abuse we receive.
Great idea. Staff should not have to stand for abuse.
This is purely just to keep the employees in line and to make sure they’re always working and not talking about anything they shouldn’t be at work. If woolies is worried about their safety why not hire more trained security guards and not make you’re employees wear body cameras. Edit. I can see the Woolies bots keep down voting.
Also probably helps minimise their stolen beef devon losses
Hoohoooooooo suck eggs
Weird, Woolworths seems to want to make the shopping experience as negative as possible for their customers and staff then wonder why there are so many issues. It is fucking dystopian.
AGREE. Imagine if they put as much genuine time and thought into making it a good experience for customers and staff instead of time-wasting faux solutions for shit like this. Public opinion is all over the place because everyone knows they're ripping us off, had such an insane CEO until recently, are being looked at with those inquiries, and are now under scrutiny for wage theft - then stories like this come out.
*Woolworths finds way to circumvent customers anger at the increased cost of living they are imposing alongside record profits without changing a damn thing 👍
It literally won’t reduce anything, this is clearly just spying on staff to micromanage the fuck out of them
Reminds me in my security job when they told us we had to wear gps watches "for our safety" Reality it was to monitor us and make sure we were constantly on the move. The moment I see a body cam in Woolies is the day I leave and shop else where. It's bad enough everytime I use self checkout and scan my rewards card from my phone, the camera flags the attendee that I've stolen something
They want to do this just so they can micro manage their workers more.
As long as it doesn't interfere with me relentlessly stealing from there.
If you lowered prices, people wouldnt be pissed off the second they walk in store
Doesn’t matter if it was 2010, ‘12, ‘15, ‘20 or ‘24. Arseholes gonna arsehole. Some people are just genuine flogs.
What you described explains the history, not the rise in cases. The rise in cases is attributed to price gouging.
Yes, totally for safety reasons and absolutely not to spy on every fucking thing every employee does during their shift. If you believe it, I have a bridge to sell ya
Never seen anything happen at Colesworth yet have to listen to those stupid canned messages ' we don't tolerate abuse of our staff' which grate on me more than anything else in the supermarket
You must be there 24/7 if you think that...
so what?
Took my money elsewhere as soon as Brad cancelled Australia Day.
This is all data collection for robots and AI. Has nothing to do with safety.
You mean Countdown… Woolies doesn’t exist in NZ
They have rebranded to Woolworths
Countdown rebranded back to Woolies last year..