Pros
Solid company, training is well organized. They bring you on board making you feel welcomed, nice "graduation" ceremony after training was done. Contact Center in Cedar Rapids is is clean, nice cafeteria. I worked as what is still being developed, a "work at home" specialist, so the perk was no commute, no worry about business attire, no co worker drama. I was beyond thrilled when I got hired as I had looked for work in a this poor economy forever and really needed the income.
Cons
- Things went south for me after I worked diligently for almost 9 months, had perfect attendance, high marks for all the requirements they grade you on, but then needed the occasional day off or leave early for family events, or just for a sanity check, and behold..... the wrath of the God of Scheduling. You basically have to earn a Phd in Staff Scheduling software to figure out how to get leave earlies or unpaid days off. And during the peak season, no way ray. You are chained to your assigned hours, forget it if you're sick, a family member is hospitalized. This was sobering as the stress really started to take its toll. I started having sleep issues, snapping at my kids. Too bad Nordstrom doesn't want to consider the negative impact this has on customers. - You have to learn a lot of systems for what I thought would be a straight forward position helping people shop for nice clothes, tracking online orders. Many calls presented some out of left field request (Hi? We were robbed and I need you to track down a receipt for shoes I bought 5 years ago? Maybe on my Visa card?) Way tougher than what you'd think. Considering how skilled you have to be, I found the wages (12.65 $ hour to start/ 14.20 $ after a year) on the cheap. - As a work at home, you don't have visibility. You'll run into a snag, and will IM your manager for a question, but he/she's in a meeting, but you get deducted for calling the "help line" as it's expected you pull up one of the gazillion "job aids" (good luck finding how yours is indexed) and figure out how to do the transaction. Oh and also while not keeping the customer on hold for too long, as you're scored on that. Maybe a coworker will IM you with assistance, but maybe they're not available. You're really on your own. -One day 100 or so of us "work at homes" lost connection due to some company server issue, we were dismissed for the rest of the day without pay.. - The company issued computer equipment to us work at home agents at their expense upon hiring. Then a year later, we were called into a special meeting and given basically an ultimatum: buy back the equipment at your own expense, "or you can just then commute and work in house". Most of the work at homes that Nordstrom had hired in my training group were from well beyond a reasonable commute and management knew that. I have never been a person who loved unions, but this was the one time I wished there had been a Norma Rae in the room. - You can earn a small monthly bonus if you meet all your requirements, but few perks. I was surprised how excited everyone would get over the enhanced merchandise discount (sorry I'm here to make money, not spend it on Nordstrom products, lovely as they are). Motivation prizes are small tokens, a free scarf here, a change to win Ugg boots. Last year a contest to win....a trip to the new Nordstrom Rack, ride on a bus on your day off to again put back money into the company. The prestigious "All Star" award is announced every quarter, but the winner doesn't get any monetary compensation- only a nicer parking spot and an even more enhanced discount. - Team building outings are done are you own time and without pay. I went to one, as being a work at home makes you feel isolated, but it didn't create ties that last. After a while I started to crave the interaction you get from being in an office environment. - the Contact Center is staffed by mostly people in their 20s/30's, so there is a lot of energy but not a lot of life wisdom/maturity/ people you'll look up to if you're not in that age bracket. Also the few times I was at the facility, I noticed a lot of unhealthy coping mechanisms, tons of smokers, and an alarming number of severely overweight employees, mostly women. Very sad to see. I heard they use to have a gym or some exercise equipment but removed it. -High tolerance by management for abusive customers, this gets to be very demeaning. The one policy is "use your best judgement" - which means different things to different people. I think it's money expert/author Dave Ramsey who says "just because you buy something from me doesn't mean you get to be a jerk to someone who works for me". A company that wants to reduce turnover, which Nordstrom suffers from, might consider this.