Pros
Excellent salary for managers at high turnover stores, reasonable salary for mid range, easy to attain large bonuses, autonomy over the store you manage, attracts high quality, diverse staff. Good progression from shop floor assistant to manager. Ethical buying, large charity donations, support for grass-root groups and charities.
Cons
Very little useful training for management - left alone too much - no support - unless you are deemed to be doing something wrong and then you are literally harassed. No consistent review system, no support at all during probation with the 3 month review period passing by unnoticed so you are left wondering if you have a secure job. No area manager. No training on difficult situations like dismissals and employment law or long term absence. No HR department - just people that have worked elsewhere in the company and drafted in and trained by doing free on-line courses who make you feel like you are bothering them when you ask them questions. No direction in what to do. Employment law breaches occur regularly due to lack of knowledge and go unchecked. There is an on-line library you have to refer to when you need help. The team that provide training for managers are somehow cherry picked for personality/who they are friends with rather than skill. They are out of touch and incapable of the roles given to them. There is also a certain amount of victimisation and bullying - if you are a 'face' your management skills are irrelevant but if you are not, you may as well give up as you will not progress. The managers in larger stores get paid very well but if you manage a smaller store, the pay is poor for what is expected of you. However, your bonus is so easily attainable that you can top up your salary sometimes as much as double your basic. Trainee managers and supervisors are not paid well at all for the work they do and sales assistants get over minimum wage but not the living wage. There are barely any benefits - travel season ticket and an employee support scheme but nothing else. Even the support scheme is not used to its full capacity. No support for long term ill health. They have these enormous and lavish manager meetings every 3 months - the first one I attended was in Europe. People flown in from around the world. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was very nice but then they say they can't pay people more money (supervisors especially) or they pull you up on spending too much on tea and coffee and biscuits for your team or having too many staff and going over budget. Yet they still pay huge bonuses. The company is all the wrong way way round. The parties must cost millions each year. Overall, a sad experience for me and I will be moving on. They are just not who they say they are.