Pros
Ability to meet lots of people, many store colleagues are lovely and very hard working. Opportunities to progress are good as it's seen positively to spot talent but once the progression has happened the support disappears as it all comes back to managers looking good for being the one to spot talent.
Cons
Mental health and wellbeing support once you're a manager is a tick-box exercise, People Partner in Bristol & Bath is all about looking good on the surface but does not provide genuine support and will avoid getting to a level of conversation to know that support is needed, extremely disappointing given they are HR accredited and their job role is centred around wellbeing and people. All comes back to poor communication between head office and stores and unrealistic understanding of time and payroll needed to deliver expectations. Extreme amount of pressure put on area managers, people partners and store mangers to a degree that the people who keep the stores open every day are forgotten to be people with real lives. Taking a break is frowned upon once you're a supervisor or higher specifically in Express stores as there is simply other enough time in the day and payroll.