Rotten place and rat ratatouille: How they operate in Auchan

The editorial office was contacted by a single mother who had gotten sick from something at work, and then was dismissed for it. An investigator from the labor inspection organization went to check out a French hypermarket chain and has a lot to report.

Getting sick for 48 rubles

– If you want to live *** [bad]go work at Auchan, because there is no respect for either the workers or anything there, basically, – 22-year-old Muscovite Anastasia only remembers her work experience in this way – with rude language and mean sarcasm.

A single mom wanted to work at Auchan, but instead got food poisoning and rudeness, which almost turned into an attack. And all this on her first day at work.

Anastasia finally got a job at the famous hypermarket chain on her third attempt. Initially, she applied for the position of a warehouse inspector. The personnel officer invited her for an interview, but the result was the same.

“You set aside your time to come and, basically, get rejected because you just don’t fit them, because you’re not a man.

When Anastasia reminded the HR specialist about Article 3 of the Labor Code (“Everyone has equal opportunities to exercise their labor rights”), she was offered the position of a cook in the kitchen and was immediately sent for a medical examination. The exam turned out to be, in essence, fake. According to Anastasia, doctors only pretended to conduct the examination for 2,600 rubles. All procedures took about an hour.

– You come in, almost no one even looks at you. Complaints are – none. A thousand! All! On average, one and a half minutes for the passage of one doctor. The longest wait is at the gynecologist. The process is the most intense there because you have to undress, and that’s it. It’s a hectic process.

But even in such a simple “examination” there was a place for humiliation, and, as it turned out, this was only the beginning.

– They gave me such a tiny jar for analysis. I say, “OK, do you have a restroom here?” They say: “No, go to a public toilet.” I’m like, “Hey!” And it’s not May outside, it’s cold outside, and the public toilet doesn’t work at 08:27. I found some kind of fitness center. I say: “I’ll pay you money – I need a toilet!” Well they say, “Go on, let’s go!”

Then the process. Piles of signed papers (including non-disclosure agreements), a five-hour security briefing. When all the formalities were completed, the new employees were allowed to have a meal. At first, our heroine liked the dining room – tasty and inexpensive food, with lunch costing only 48 rubles. But she was not happy for long.

— I was assigned to butcher meat, and my first aggravated condition began when I was butchering meat, — recalls Anastasia. – I’m feeling a little sick. I didn’t have time to run to the restroom the first time, my goodness, where are all these pallets. I get worse and worse, and I just go to the toilet, throw up again.

The management's response to the deteriorating health of the employee was only to inquire if Anastasia was pregnant. No one offered to call a doctor. Instead, she was advised to take leave and take care of her health on her own. At the hospital, Anastasia was diagnosed with bacterial food poisoning and sent home for treatment.

Even while on the way to the doctor, our main character got a call from a woman in the HR department at Auchan, who calmly informed her that she needed to come to work the next day to end her employment contract. It turns out, there were numerous complaints about the employee, and this was all based on just half an hour of work.

I was told that I'm a fraud, that I couldn't have food poisoning, and if I did, I wouldn't be standing here right now. Supposedly, the doctors gave me the wrong diagnosis, so I don't actually have food poisoning; I'm just pretending to be ill. They were disrespectful and said they would send me away. I was already overwhelmed with emotions, on the verge of tears. All the built-up resentment came pouring out, and when you cry and speak loudly, they threaten to remove you from the premises.

The outcome is disheartening and expected. Anastasia was fired for poisoning herself. She wasn't compensated for the time she worked.

Employees on the trading floor

After Anastasia reached out to our editorial office, we dispatched our representative to find a job at Auchan.

Rotten place and rat ratatouille: How they work in Auchan

The interview for the night shift trading floor employee position was delayed by an hour and lasted 10 minutes. Then came the customary check-up at the medical center, where, like Anastasia, there was an embarrassing search for a restroom to provide a urine sample. A lengthy safety briefing, formalities for a pass and uniform issuance (which must be returned upon leaving) – and our employee finally ends up on the trading floor.

His tasks involve managing product rotation – taking out expired items from the shelves and restocking them with fresh products. It must be noted that Auchan looks relatively decent on the outside, certainly better than the warehouses of Wildberries and Ozone. However, the company veterans have seen it all.

I remember when rats infested the place. They shamelessly scurried between the aisles, even during daytime when people were around. This is certainly not the fancy French store you were anticipating, without a trace of ratatouille – One of our agent's 'colleagues' jokes.

According to Auchan employees, working there means a strict routine from start to finish. Smoking breaks depend on the guards' mood, lunch is strictly scheduled, and going to the restroom requires permission from the boss. The shift is from 23:00 to 08:00, with a monthly salary of 47 thousand rubles. In February, for instance, one would have to work 18 night shifts out of 28 possible.

In Auchan, I noticed that we are simply laborers— disenfranchised, receiving the least compensation, and no one considers our opinions, — recalls our agent. “It's like the guards here oversee everything; they are like a privileged group. There are surveillance cameras all over the store, and the security team is very vigilant, monitoring every move of each employee. You can't even stand there to yawn, you have to work constantly. One day, there was a very rude security guard who was disrespectful all the time. In general, it felt like the guards there are quite peculiar, instilling fear in everyone.

According to Auchan employees, the guards have a special “red book” where all the wrongdoings of the staff are recorded.

For the sake of the experiment, our agent was specially late for the shift for an hour and a half, and then worked carelessly. 1, it did not work out for a long time.

— I tried not to stress too much at work, for which I was called the most messy trainee,— our agent said. “But because of the watchful eye of the security service, I didn’t manage to goof off, they notice even if you just stop moving, and remind you that you came here to work. The guys say that you should at least pretend that you are working, even if there is nothing to do and all the work has been completed, still continue to create the appearance of work.

More experienced employees say that the authorities don’t care how many people have taken the shift – all the work must be done by morning. At the same time, the amount of work performed does not affect the salary. It happens that you have to plow one for three, and if you didn’t have time to finish all the tasks, they force you to write an explanatory note.

The quality of products in “Auchan” is monitored in the same way as the discipline among employees. For a delay on the counter or dirt on the trading floor, you will definitely be fined. There are also advantages for the staff: they say that if you work for a long time, the salary is gradually raised. And yet, such work bears little resemblance to the picture that the hypermarket paints in its advertising booklets. In any case, our agent did not manage to meet people satisfied with their lives with wide smiles on their faces among ordinary employees.