A good place to work if you don’t want to take your job seriously - Department Manager Safeway Employee Review

I worked for this company for almost a decade and can honestly say there’s far more bad than there is good. For starters, the lack of accountability and standards is astounding. The stores (and corporate alike) will prey on a small handful of people that want to actually put effort into their work while the vast majority of managers and employees will do the bare minimum, be defiant and commit blatant insubordination on a daily occurrence. Employees (and I have to keep noting, but managers as well) will break not just company policies, but laws, like vandalism, assault, and yes, even arson (I’ve seen it all), and management just doesn’t seem to care at all. In fact, managers are too busy holding that small handful of people accountable because they’ll actually listen, rather than a crack pot employee intentionally lighting fires in the store. I think many of these problems stem from the unionization of this company on a retail level. People don’t that work here don’t care because they’re not required to care, plain and simple. It makes trying to manage and hold people accountable like beating your head against the wall. I’d like to think not all stores are like this. However, I worked at quite a few different locations for the duration of my time there and they all seemed to have these problems to a certain degree If you’re lucky enough to have the ‘privilege’ of being promoted to a grocery manager, store manager, corporate and beyond, I hope you’re ready to put in 12 - 15 hour days. Because that’s what Ive seen most of them do for their sub par salaries. Another bone chilling observation I made, was that most people don’t retire with the union. Yes, they have a pension, but I’ve found that 9/10 long time employees that are eligible for retirement never do because their pension and social security isn’t enough to live off of, and they would lose their benefits. So I see people working these stores in their 70’s and 80’s far too often. I could go on and on but if you’re looking for a good place to work with a healthy work environment that actually has standards for mutual respect, stay away from this company like the plague. They will eat you alive if you’re an even somewhat decent worker. However, if you do want a job that gives you a platform to do the bare minimum (if even that), I suggest you apply. The culture of this company should be ashamed of itself. There’s a reason most consumers prefer just about every other grocery retailer in the country over Safeway. Safeway just kind of sucks. Plain and simple. I could go on and on about what I think is wrong with this organization. The last few things I’ll mention is the work/life balance. Horrible in my opinion. Excess hours, weekends, holidays, I don’t even want to know how many things I missed out on over the years due to that place. I’ll stop there.