Tesco staff 'banned' from using certain item on shop floor after complaints

Supermarket chain Tesco has recently updated its uniform regulations for staff - and one item is now banned after it has left shoppers infuriated. The retail giant is now prohibiting employees from wearing headphones on the shop floor, as customers have expressed their frustration over the habit.

The new regulations aim to make sure that shop floor workers are more responsive when approached by customers - as well as for health and safety reasons. Rules about headphones were previously included in Tesco's health and safety handbook, but have recently been incorporated into the dress code, in order to ensure staff take more notice.

In fact, some Tesco workers claim they are only recently learning about the policy, now it has been added to the uniform rules. They said managers had begun enforcing it in recent weeks. The guidelines are believed to be in place to ensure staff can respond more quickly to customers if they are approached on the shop floor, as well as for safety reasons.

The policy does not apply to any hearing or sensory devices, or company headsets. This change is thought to be aimed at ensuring staff are more responsive to customer enquiries, reports Birmingham Live.

On a Reddit forum for staff, workers described the shop music as "repetitive" and "mentally draining", prompting rival supermarket, Asda, to issue some recent feedback.

In response to the criticism, an Asda spokesperson said: "We appreciate that colleagues have different tastes in music, and we always welcome feedback when making decisions about how our stores operate, including the music played on Asda Radio."

Last year, Ken Murphy, Tesco's chief executive, found himself forced to defend the company's self-service checkout tills after facing criticism that they were less user-friendly for individuals without credit cards, and challenging for elderly or some disabled customers.

Mr Murphy explained: "What we realised is that for the majority of the time, we can use self-checkouts to liberate people to do things in shops, to make sure that there are products on the shelves, to help people find products if they need it, and to make sure that the shopping trip is a good shopping trip."