I came home from university in March due to coronavirus, like many other students. I did not want to be stuck in my childhood bedroom for months on end! This thought filled me with dread as I am someone who loves being busy.
Work experience opportunities for the summer would inevitably be cancelled. I am incredibly career focused so this caused me to worry about my future. At this point in March, Tesco were recruiting temporary staff to help with the coronavirus crisis. I applied on a whim. I had nothing to lose because it was not like I was busy. Two weeks later, I got a call which turned out to be an incredibly casual phone interview. They offered me a job on the spot, and I was working on the checkouts just under a week later.
“Chatting with customers has been my main form of socialisation for the past ten weeks.”
My time at Tesco comes to an end in two weeks, and I have absolutely loved working there. I worked in a fashion retail store last summer and did not enjoy it. This meant that I had low expectations for Tesco. However, the colleagues have all been lovely, I have bonded with my fellow temps and overall, the customers have been incredibly kind. Chatting with customers has been my main form of socialisation for the past ten weeks. It has been so interesting to talk to a whole range of people, from nurses to children off school and furloughed parents. One man even tried to convince me that Bill Gates is responsible for Covid-19!
Often customers will thank me for continuing to work throughout the crisis. I don’t necessarily deserve the praise – I applied for this job knowing what I was getting myself into. The real heroes of the supermarket world are those who were already working in the stores and took this new sense of responsibility in their stride.
I still feel happy that I’ve been able to contribute to the supermarket efforts during coronavirus. It will make a good story to tell my future children when they ask me about all that happened in 2020! Working at Tesco has given my life structure during lockdown. It has given me confidence in talking to strangers and has lifted my mood throughout lockdown. If you had told me one year ago that I would be working at Tesco, essentially being the store bouncer at times because of a global pandemic, I would not have believed you.
Phoebe Eyles
Featured image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.