AVOID !! Not worth the stress and most times less that minimum wage
Pros
Store team, you create a great bond fighting against all of the area manager, regional manager and mystery shopper visits (at least 3 a week). The team energy is what keeps you going back as you know you are fighting to protect them and make things as easy as possible for them.
Cons
Shocking workload and expectations with sometimes 24 hours notice to complete major department moves all because one of the new big cheeses at head office needs to prove his new salary and fancy job title. Often forced to push holidays through and cut hours drastically for team members when the wage budget is cut with sometimes less than 24 hours notice despite them being given the hours well over 2 weeks prior and then we have to take them back over and over again. Absolutely no regard as to how this is impacting those living on a minimum wage salary who desperately need the hours we give out with one hand and pull back with the other a week later. Often find you may have 3 maybe 4 people in the store mid day till early evening when your next shift starts (usually a 4 hour window). This is to cover tills, the shop floor, warehouse and in some stores a garden centre. Then the powers that be (area manager or mystery shopper) expect your store to be immaculate for when they arrive to take pictures for those in their ivory towers at head office. They will walk in and see you (store manager) and all 3 of the other colleagues in at that time are on the tills and there is no other colleague in the building as hours have been cut that far back and they spot a gap on a shelf, you know that's a failed visit and a dreaded 7/10 from their visit. Very much having to react to issues through out the day that could easily be prevented if we had notice of the upcoming changes and time to plan them in to your weekly workload, more importantly the resources to support in these changes ! Expectation is that salaried management do a minimum of 60 hours per week (contract is 40 hours) and if you are behind on workload you have to stay and do the work of 2 sometimes 3 people. Always the false promise of time back but the next week more work load comes down and then you have to work another 6 day week so no chance of taking a day back from the previous week you worked 6 days and this just snowballs. Think the Area Managers and above would benefit from coming and working a couple of consecutive days in stores and demonstrate their amazing 'leadership skills' they continually bang on about when roasting store managers to do better and show us how to be an amazing manager just like they keep telling us they are. Nothing is ever good enough for some of them (there are a select few in the area manager and regional manager groups who do not have these inhumane quality's) but the majority are just yes men and do not care about the teams on the ground as long as you are 'compliant' and they get the glory for the 60 hour, 6 day weeks you just pulled to make sure you keep the wolf from yours and your teams door. Stay well clear, the company have made stores publish false reviews (we had to get the whole store team in the office one by one and fabricate the reviews) the 1 and 2 star reviews give you the perfect picture needed to inform you how bad it is working here.