Pros
The store was in a busy location so it was not boring.
Cons
There were a number of issues with this store and incompetent management. Firstly I accepted a 12 hour contract before christmas, agreeing to work overtime during the busy period as I knew that was usually expected of retail staff over christmas. From November - December I was working over 20 hours per week, including even a 13 hour shift - this is good background for the work I put in for the company, well beyond my contracted hours. Now I'm a university student, and they knew this, so I had not agreed to work more than the 12 hours per week after term started again in January yet I was being put on the rota for sometimes more than 20 hours. I brought this up and we 'compromised' that I would work 16 hours per week for a further four weeks and then leave the company. Despite this I would be put me on the rota for 16.5 hours, it seemed too little to complain about but I think that sums up the attitude and respect towards me. After three weeks I was told that they were getting more staff and I would go down to 12 hours per week and wouldn't have to leave my job. This was great news so I agreed to stay. However the next time I got a rota, again it was for 16+ hours. It was extremely sneaky of them to do this as then I had to give two weeks notice, so they tricked me into working another two weeks on top of the four we originally agreed. At this point they were severely understaffed, we had two managers, senior sales assistant, myself and another who could only work weekends and there had to be 2 people in the store at all times. At this point I had several important university deadlines and was overly stressed since I had planned on either only working 12 hours, or having left the job by now. Unfortunately at this point I also had a family emergency with a relative of mine being given only two days to live, I requested the day off work to visit them and couldn't get it off since the management were away from the area and it was only me and one other staff member available to work. This was extremely bad planning on their end, having only two people available at all when the store requires two people at all times was just asking for a disaster, if anybody got ill or couldn't make it work etc. I worked the shift very unwillingly, and then since there were two members of staff in the next day already I got the day off to visit my family member (and at this point he had actually survived for longer than expected so I was lucky.) I was then told that they wanted me to work a shift until 10pm two days later, and in my contract it specifically states that I don't have to work past 8pm without reasonable notice (I don't consider two days reasonable notice.) I already had plans and it was questioned why I hadn't told them before now, as if it was the comapnies business what I did past 8pm when I wasn't even supposed to work. I was also told, and this is where my opinion of the company went even further downhill, that it was 'give and take'. since I had the day off to see my family I should do the shift until 10pm on the wednesday. This was despite the fact that at this point, I had worked over my contracted hours for every single week I'd worked there, was working two extra weeks past the time I agreed having being tricked, and the day I 'had off' on the monday was to visit my family member, who did die that week. The fact that they felt it was appropriate to suggest that I had 'taken' too much and not 'given' them enough was quite shocking. They should never have let themselves get so understaffed that they had to take advantage of me in such a way. The problem with the hours was only one example of the incompetence, occasionally rotas were given to us on a friday, for shifts starting the following monday. Management would leave the store, leaving me alone, although it was against company policy to have only one person in the store and I was asked to tell the franchise owners that they were only outside taking photos of the window (I was asked to lie to my employer basically). One individual also tried to blame me for mistakes they would make, they tried to say it was my fault for scanning the wrong bracelet and was adamant that it was me who undercharged a customer, another sales assistant fortunately figured out that they had actually put it into the wrong box themselves and it was their mistake despite trying to blame me for it. At the time I didn't realise quite how bad it was, but since working for other brands I've noticed a complete difference in how they respect their employees.