My Life as a Bagger

Last December, as part of the Junior Engagement Program (JEEP) of the OSCI, I was required to go on a three day immersion at Robinsons Supermarket in Marikina. What seemed to be fun at first eventually led to much boredom and a significant improvement in understanding the lives of people behind the cash registers and customer service counters. At the time, I was enrolled in an Operations Management class where terms such as employee empowerment, job specialization and “idle times” became familiar to me. Theoretically it was easy to understand, however, putting faces behind these words made it a matter of a little more significance to me.

Similarly, in Economics we learn the idea behind the Law of Diminishing Returns – where if a firm keeps increasing only one input such as labor, while holding the level of other inputs like supplies and grocery stocks constant, they experience inefficiency. During my first 8-hour shift behind the customer service counter, I witnessed the gravity of the situation. Considering I was one of several students in the JEEP program, so much extra workers were on hand while the level of work was constant. To my “ate”, the personnel assigned to me, I seemed like more of a distraction and the more I helped, the more idle time we had. By the end of the day, I was practically ready to write her life’s biography. As a grocery store employee, you can only do so much. Merchandisers roam about all day, while cashiers beep away and baggers simply bag. It’s not like the work is all that difficult really, it’s just that they can only do as they are tasked. In this situation, there is no room for growth and employee empowerment. Although Adam Smith says job specialization can be good for work is more concentrated, this too has its downside. Standing for 8 hours is no joke. Neither is it when you have to call a supervisor to correct a petty mistake that you can well do on your own.

Workers such as those employed in Supermarkets are employed contractually – meaning no job security and no benefits. As the law of Diminishing Returns indicates, oftentimes not enough work + too many employees = inefficiency. There always comes a point wherein if all else remains the same, increasing workers will no longer be beneficial to the firm. At times where shoppers are less, less workers are hired. The workers I met during my three-day stint in the grocery, were very dedicated to their jobs and took every 15 minute break very seriously. In spite of this, in another month or so, they once again go in search of new jobs no more challenging than the ones they had. What happens to the person stuck in this never ending cycle? I wonder what this says about the state of the Filipino?

- Karissa Herrera

Photos from http://www.robinsons-supermarket.com.ph/EWSL/ewsl.htm