Ruined by Senior Management - I wish I’d never joined them. - Store Manager B&M Retail Employee Review

Being spoken to like absolute dirt. When you are running a store, there is zero trust in you as a Store Manager. You are visited numerous times each week for about 10-15 minutes. What value does that add? The Mystery Shoppers - what other business gives a Mystery Shopper (a former failed Deputy or Store Manager) the power to rate your store and ruin your career? Their opinion is gospel and no matter what you say to defend yourself, it’s never good enough. Senior Management - Area Managers are following orders from above and those orders are sent out in the harshest of ways. The Regional Manager visits the store and expects to be respected and listened to, despite speaking to you like you’re dirt. They will humiliate you in front of your team and customers and still expect you to deliver and not answer back. My Regional Manager changed in the summer of last year and that’s when things really went down hill. No trust, no praise - just negativity all the time. Working Pattern - you’re not told this at interview but you are expected to work every Friday and Saturday and it you want these days off, they have to be booked as holiday. This only applies to Store Managers. Everyone else can have these as days off and not book them as holiday. Recently, you’re now expected to work most Sundays and a Monday, and if you try and take your two days off together, again more scorn from your Regional Manager. Store Managers are viewed as the lowest of the low in this business. Treated so poorly, never given a well done and always threatened with being dismissed or short serviced if what is delivered isn’t the magical 8/10. Store Manager labour turnover is so high and they just expect people to walk into the roles and take this. Like you should be thankful that they have you that job, so it gives them the right to treat you however they wish. Work / Life Balance - what is that? Always working over your contract and when you try and take time back, you are viewed in a negative light. Working ridiculous hours to deliver unrealistic expectations. I’d like to see the Senior Managers try to deliver themselves what they expect the teams in store to deliver. You could work a very long shift, all night and day, come back the next day have a visit and still be expected to deliver a great store when you’re hanging by a thread. They really just do not care about you. To them, you are just filling a gap in a rota. And it’s heartbreaking, giving everything you have and never feeling good enough. I’ve never in my life worked for a company where saying well done or thank you is so difficult from a Regional Manager. They set the culture in stores and they are the reason that so many people leave the business.