Pros
There is an anual bonus. Dsicount in Waitrose and John Lewis
Cons
In summary: -Very poor management -There are not enough staff -Many people have left in the last few months due to how awful it is -Lack of structure or management -Little support -Unfriendly colleagues -So much is expected for no extra money -If you don't suck up to management you get nowhere and are open to bullying -No opportunity for progression I believe that this company had a great reputation and that this particular store was a wonderful place to work as previously friends of mine had worked there a few years ago. However, as it is now it is an awful place to work at, and the company is now only bothered about profits, saving money, and cuts to staff. When I first started it seemed to be great. However, rather rapidly it has turned out to be one of the worst places I have ever worked. Waitrose have taken away the benefit of Sunday and bank holday extra pay off all new starters. But they also decided it was right to take it off all new starters who were on temporary probationary contracts when they were made permenant meaning a loss of money for some of them. Also the bonus is at an all time low a reflection on how poor it's become. You can be contacted at any time of day via a phone call or even more unprofessionally they will contact you over Facebook. You will constantly be asked to work extra shifts even if you are full time to fill the many gaps due to lots of staff leaving and nobody wants to fill the overtime. If you say no or you can't they will then try to make you feel extremely guilty or ignore you and ruin your rota for the coming weeks as some kind of revenge. Your shifts will be altered and changed around constantly meaning you have no idea what you are working and you therefore can't have any work life balance as you can't plan anything. The senior management at this branch only have their own interests at heart. They will get you to do all the leg work while they then take the credit for any and all your ideas and help with no mention of you, all they want to do is to seem 'amazing' to the store manager when infact it was you. Nearly all the management team are extremely poor at communication and little or nothing is properly communicated between sections, managers, and staff. Everyone has a different answer to the same question when there should only be one answer. Nearly all of the managers have little or no empathy and don't appear to care about problems (health or personal) that staff may have. They will become a 'yes man' telling you everything you want to hear whilst not actually doing anything to help you out. Due to the complete lack of staff all the managers expect you to carry out 10 different things all at once, and they want all the tasks done in unrealistic time scale. Do they want the job done right? Or do they just want a job done quickly to an awful standard? A higher level manager in this store who is really friendly with a slightly lower level manager become a pair of bullies and spout nothing but unhelpful and sarcastic comments to staff and other managers who do not play their game. I believe this is utterly appalling behaviour from senior managers, and is not a great way to gain any respect or like ability. This further adds to the horrible and unhappy atmosphere in the store, and the knowledge that when they are both in work you are likely to be 'picked' on makes your day far worse. Overall I think it's a horrible environment to work in. Do not work here!!
