The are not company guidelines as to how a store should be run, whoever is manager at the time decides this, which can be very difficult, especially if you are a member of the management team. I was assigned my holiday for the year, as they wouldn't let me choose, so I had no time in summer off at all, even after speaking to my store manager about this. If you asked to go home on time, nine times out of then they would give you 'one last job' to do before you went, and then not pay you for the overtime. If you forgot to clock out on a Saturday, you wouldn't get paid, even though the assistant manager could override this on the Sunday morning, and clearly I was there because I locked up the store! No management training provided whatsoever, you are then given a rating twice a year to judge your performance (out of 4 stars, which is pretty degrading if you ask me). My manager actually 'forgot' to give me mine, even after me reminding her multiple times, so I left the company with a bad review which was dated a year earlier, when I first became management and didn't have a clue what I was doing! You can't make plans any further than 3 weeks ahead, as they would just put you in to work on your days off. The sale periods are absolute hell, especially for coordinators. The workload is absolutely insane, last Christmas I had to work 9 days straight up until Christmas Day, 10 hour shifts each day. Finished at 6pm Christmas Eve, then was back in at 4am Boxing Day. I have never received one thank you for my hard work over the sale periods. Management will never back you up when you are following procedure with a customer. For example, I refused to return a pair of very old and worn shoes without a receipt, then customer then threatened to hit me. I told my assistant manager, who then proceeded to return the shoes, apologise to the customer, and give her a gift card for the inconvenience. Also, the salary is absolutely awful. You don't earn any extra for working bank holidays either, and you have to work till gone 8pm. Management are also made to spend £250 a year on uniform. I could go on and on, but I would advise strongly against going into management at this company.
