Pros
I’m a bit of a retail veteran and honestly this is the worst retailer I’ve ever worked for. So none. We’re being asked to but positive reviews on here to make up for the recent wave of negative ones. But I refuse to lie.
Cons
Where do I start. It’s good to be able to be reactive to the market but the company just has no plan for more than a week away, which makes it really hard to plan your week and you end up having to mess all your staff about all the time changing rotas. It’s obvious the company are gearing towards “1+1” working - that means only you and one other staff member in the shop at a time. This is just about manageable in small turnover/sq ft stores but crazy for medium to large. As other reviews have said you end up doing 60+ hours a week and never having a day off to keep up. Considering how poor the salary is it just doesn’t justify the sacrifice. I have never ever had to resort to this, and it totally goes against my beliefs, but it is expected of you. I know managers that have worked on their holidays. My area 14 ASM is lovely but if you dare share any challenges that you need support on you start getting the negative label. I don’t think it’s her it just seems to be the culture of the company. They don’t like feedback unless it’s praise, even sharing an idea to improve just gets labelled as moaning. It’s like only head office are allowed to think we just have to do as we’re told. Payroll has been slashed so much, and they only want 4 hour employees it’s just near impossible to get good staff. This model whilst cheap is not sustainable, I have many retailers try it and go back to offer high contracts. The cost of labour turnover will far outweigh living wage, NI and pension contributions in the end. All the recent negative reviews share the reality of the current situation trust me. The positive ones are either fake or come from the select brainwashed few. The 12 hour sales assistant turned 40 hour store manager for example - all she has ever know is the works, if she spent just one week at another retailer she would see how far off they are.
