Soul Destroying - Retail Operative Primark Employee Review

1.0
Jun 27, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I honestly can't think of any except that this was one of the few readily available retail jobs in a place hit pretty hard by the recession. May be okay as a one day a week student job for a bit of extra cash if you can keep your head down and not let it get to you.

Cons

This is one of the worst jobs I've ever worked. I never got to know a lot of people here (I worked here for over a year) because we weren't allowed to talk while we were working and often I'd be lone working. I'd work so hard to fold the clothes tables only for it to be totally messed up again as soon as I moved onto the next one, meaning as soon as I finished I had to start all over again. People would leave bits of McDonald's takeaways in amongst the clothes. On the tills customers would often be on their phone so you couldn't communicate with them. Managers (one in particular) had a real superiority complex. We'd be in for a certain amount of hours but they would always, without fail, make you stay 15-20 minutes longer than your shift to put away the rubbish dumped by customers at the till, rather than getting you to do this during your shift. In this store it's all about working FAST and the work is incredibly repetitive. Also you can never find anything because they move the whole store around every week or two. I was on a temporary full time contract. When they offered my a permanent contract I asked for 14-18 hours instead and was given an 8 hour contract. Overtime very limited. I struggled to pay my rent for over a year before finally giving up. I applied for evening positions with more hours several times and never got anywhere. The heating was broken the entire time I worked here meaning the whole place (especially the fitting rooms) was incredibly overheated, making it absolutely unbearable to work in at times, meaning staff got grumpy. A couple of times customers fainted due to the heat and they still never bothered fixing it. Company ethics are nowhere near as great as they claim to be. The Bangladesh factory collapse happened about a year into my employment there and was a big motivator for me to leave. On the walls of the staff room they have pictures of bored-looking factory workers at their machines in dull surroundings. Supposedly this shows they're not using sweatshops but in my opinion these look like only a couple of steps up from that and the factory collapse really proved that.

Explore other reviews about Primark

5.0
Mar 5, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

reasonable, low stress, good PTO practices, consistent schedule

Cons

leadership was not the best

2.0
May 5, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

You get lots of PTO up front as a part timer and can gain flex hours overtime. Get a 50 cent raise every six months.

Cons

Was told during onboarding that if a Christian comes into the store spreading the gospel, I have to kick them out. This includes the mention of the Jesus without the church invite. Managers claim its rude and if a customer does it, they get booted. Faced harassment from a customer and management didn't let me switch too a different department. Extremely high turnover rate and managers don't replace them, making your job more stressful during peak hours. Hard to use PTO. Little to no training. Too many bachelor and master holding part timers who get lucked out of moving up in the company. Managers give some people no task while pilling on multiple tasks on one person. Too many managers to deal with (and usually never find) and the full timers make you do the dirty work while they "unpack boxes". Its a pro-LGBT anti christian company. If they want to be pro-LGBT, than more power to them. But anti-Christian is discriminatory and unnecessary.

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