“You have to be organised and people orientated” Andrei, Shift Manager

Andrei had a job as a delivery driver prior to joining Lidl in 2017. He’s already had one promotion and is currently working hard towards his next one.

When did you join Lidl and what were you doing before that?

I joined Lidl as a Part-time Customer Assistant in February 2017 and was promoted to Shift Manager in the Summer of 2019. Before that I was working as a multi-drop delivery driver for a leading e-commerce company.

What’s a typical day for you?

Depending on the shift, I'll either arrive and brief the team, or I see what's left on the agenda and delegate tasks to people. I also manage breaks. I try to get all jobs done by a certain time, and after that I’ll be working with stock, carrying out quality checks and trying to keep the queues low.

What particular skills or qualities do you need to do the job?

You have to be well-organised and people orientated, as well as a stickler for detail. You also have to love dealing with people, otherwise you'll get tired of working in a store environment very quickly. You need to be hard working and really passionate about what you do.

Have there been any particular challenges you’ve had to face?

Getting to know the new employees has been challenging. Figuring out how everybody works, what everybody knows and trying to manage them so that they work hard but enjoy working for you. It's really rewarding to see happy people actually caring about what they do. I’d say this is quite a challenging job overall, so I’ve got what I was looking for when I joined.

Is there anything you're particularly proud of?

Yes, I’m proud of being part of a new store opening. It was quite a big launch, and I was told that maintaining it would be hard, but everybody's still happy. I'm also proud of my progression to Shift manager and am already training towards another promotion. 

Are you happy with the benefits Lidl offers?

The pay is good. I'm happy with the holiday allowance and we get in-store discounts too, which a good benefit. We even get a free flu jab every winter. It feels like someone's taking care of you, which is nice.

Has anything surprised you about working at Lidl?

Yes, the people. The people are awesome. They're always surprising me in this line of work and I’ve made some good friends along the way too. Lidl is a good company to work for and I think they actually care about their employees.