Pros
The only pro of working for this company are my coworkers and the department leads that I work with on a daily basis. We, like many other retail establishments, have dropped to single coverage after the holidays and we all make sure that breaks are covered and that if we are busy and we take the time to help each other and the customers that visit our retail establishment. If you want to work with understanding and helpful individuals, this may be the place for you.
Cons
The cons for working with this company all start with he corporate office. There is a mis-management of funds that trickles down to the store level. We hardly have any stock in our departments and that decreases sales, creating a vicious cycle of lost hours and lost stock. If the corporate office were not run like a hedge fund, we may actually be able to increase sales. Obviously, because we are not making sales, hours get slashed. The only individuals getting more than 15 hours per week are the department leads and must get at least 30 hours to keep their benefits packages. While I understand this, if they want an accurate description or quantifiable measure of work ethic, individuals need to have more hours. This will assist the management in examine who could be promoted, when a lead actually retires, and who could get trained for management. If people feel that they are just another cog in the machine, they will not go the extra mile to make sure that customers are getting the amount of service that they desire and require. This also leads to more cell phone usage on the sales floor and ignoring of customers. Also, there are not enough cashiers to cover the stores, and floor associates are often taken to run register, hindering their ability to get work done. While I realize that our managers in the store are just middle-men that are attempting to keep their stores open and employees working, they do not trust their employees enough to complete even the simplest of tasks-like pitting away stock on the shelves. They also have the tendency hold grudges if you go to them with a complaint. When I was hired, I was told that the management was easy to talk to, but I see now that this was not as truthful as the hiring manager thought it was. Also, as many other current and former employees have stated, you work for minimum wage with no Increase opportunities. In some states, minimum wage went up, but that only accounts for the employees actually making minimum wage. The supervisors and the leads, who have much more responsibility, do not get pay raises, and so they are making almost the same as the individuals that they are in charge of. Lastly, the training program is a joke at best. The corporate office emphasizes this training but it is only sitting in front of a computer and regurgitating information from videos. It really holds no value and it is specified for cashiers. I learned nothing about my department from the training videos.