Pros
Decent pay (but wages now frozen for 3 years and seasonal bonuses unilaterally removed, equivalent to 6% pay cut). Good camaraderie among staff.
Cons
Terrible middle and lower management, with totally unrealistic expectations of what can be achieved with minimal staffing levels. Little or no support, faulty equipment, training inadequate in most departments. Discriminatory policy in allocating men to heavy-lifting jobs and women on tills and light duties. Communications very poor and lack of complaint resolution structures in place for high-end purchases. I have seen the company slide downhill since 2007 with staffing levels slashed yet management seem to think that the day to day operation of the store to their precious standards can be maintained by badly-trained, over-worked, underpaid floor staff. My job now consists of tasking all day to keep the store manager happy leaving virtually no time for customer engagement. It is difficult to take breaks and managers often make no provision for you to take any lunch. Department managers seem unable to sort out rotas, leaving sections of the shop with no staff. Stock control and pricing blunders go by unnoticed whilst store managers nit-pick over supposed health & safety infringements. I've been called to help customers on the opposite end of the shop 15 seconds after being called to cut timber. It's farcical and incredibly frustrating. Issues have been raised with various store and line managers for at least 6 or 7 years with no genuine attempt at resolution. All tjry care about is making it appear to visiting regional managers or directors that all is well, when most stores are rotten to the core. We regularly hear the same excuses and claims that they understand the difficulties faced by floor staff: they clearly DO NOT, because we are still being asked to do more job-roles and more work for less pay and with hours that cripple any chance of family life or existence outside of the job. Favourites are rewarded and promoted (the latest farce is to recognise staff for giving out My Customer Experience leaflets despite the fact that the staff members simply refer customers to colleagues who ACTUALLY KNOW SOMETHING). So those who end up doing the heavy-lifting are put under major pressure by absentee managers with lists of tasks and are generally pulled around the shop like yoyos all day long only to be made to feel totally unappreciated and as though they are not doing their job. Add to this the fact that it is nearly impossible to get off the floor on time at shift end and you have to wonder how this company has the gall to ask why morale is bad. It isn't bad, it is NON-EXISTENT.
