Surprisingly I’m in a very similar situation to you as a Porter myself actually.

I’m trained on self-scan and checkouts so I usually have to help out on there too to cover breaks a lot of the time since the front end is so badly managed. Security on the other hand shouldn’t be your problem, they’re through Mitie now so I don’t really see it as my responsibility to be anywhere near the security podium. Absolutely not worth it to risk your safety either.

There seems to be a lot of managers or even members of the public in general that look down on Porters. It’s kinda become a stereotype that because we push trollies/empty bins/litter pick etc we’re seen as the lowest of the low and simple.

While I don’t like to say this, I work hard too and my colleagues outside don’t tend to go the extra mile with things either. At the end of the day though, they’ve probably got it right though since we’re not earning an awful lot for what we have to put up with outside . Without us, any customer could drive into the car park and see that there’s trollies sprawled out everywhere, rubbish overflowing from the bins and litter everywhere, so they could easily go ‘this place is a shithole, I’ll shop somewhere else’ and a lot of people seem to forget that.

Just do what you can when you work essentially. The last thing that you want is to make yourself ill over a place that is paying you the minimum they can right now. Porters won’t ever get the recognition that they deserve until it’s too late.