Pros
- Get 50% off regular item merchandise from Old Navy, Gap and Banana Republic – this is good in theory, but Old Navy is ALWAYS having some kind of sale, and Gap and Banana Republic often have sales upwards of 50% off online, so this discount isn’t that spectacular - Working shipment shift means you’re done anywhere between 9-11am, therefore letting you have the rest of the day
Cons
Shipment shifts start anywhere between 5-7AM, sometimes as early as 4AM during holiday season when the mall opens earlier My “training” consisted of working alongside an older employee that didn’t explain what was happening, or what was expected of me. The store layout also changes every week so working shipment really sucked after the store opened because putting product away took much longer, even the smallest items could be moved to the other side of a section. My locker wouldn’t open, even the manager that hired me couldn’t open it but no other option was made so I was never able to lock up my possessions. Not steady work, I would not recommend this unless you’re a student that doesn’t fully depend on a regular pay cheque. Shipment shifts are dependent upon the size of the shipment being received, shifts were often cancelled last minute due to changes in shipment. I went a month between shifts because all my other scheduled shifts kept getting cancelled. Therefore, you cannot depend on this income. Often, I was scheduled outside of my availability and had to constantly reach out to remind them. I was told that employees are only guaranteed one shift per week, but later on I’ll illustrate how that isn’t true, and that the best employees get the most. It seemed that the ones who worked there longer would get all the hours. Shifts are also quite short. The majority of the shifts I worked were 3 hours long, and it got to the point where it didn’t even matter if I was working because I was working just to afford the bus to and from work, I was barely making any money. Communication between management and employees was ineffective. They rely on the use of an app calld Shyft to send mass messages to the entire store, essentially working like a group chat, because there is around 90 people employed at the one location. The issue with this is managers sending messages individually and requiring a response immediately, while not responding to their own messages. For example, I started at the end of September and was told we would get our first two pays as cheques, then the rest would be direct deposit. Well, it got to the end of November and still no direct deposit. I reached out to managers to find out that they don’t do it for employees anymore, it’s on the employee to reach out and complete the process themselves. So, all of us that were hired around that time period were sitting around waiting after being told this would be done for us. Getting the instructions on how to complete direct deposit was a nightmare, managers often didn’t respond to messages at all, or waited anywhere from a few days to a week to respond, if they did respond. Often citing that they didn’t get a notification for our message. As mentioned previously, there are a LOT of employees, and they are always hiring. Most employees get very very few shifts, that way they can spread the hours out across the entire store. If you want more hours, then you’re stuck waiting for someone to post a shift and hoping they didn’t already promise it to someone else. This leads into the next issue, the process for giving shifts away or trading doesn’t really make sense. Each employee that wants to post a shift needs to get permission from a manager or lead (often through messaging in the app), then they need to approve whoever picks it up, and sometimes they won’t allow someone to pick up a cash shift unless their CDC is above 30% (meaning that they get the emails of at least 30% of the customers they cash out). So, if you’re new or only work one shift a week then this could play against you and increase the odds of you having a low CDC. Relying on shyft is also annoying because you are responsible for the shifts you are scheduled, so if you are sick then you need to post your shift and hope someone can cover it. As mentioned before, there are always new employees coming through and very few employees that have been there awhile. Some of these permanent employees are not friendly at all towards new hires, and often act like you’re a nuisance if you ask a question. I experienced having employees that worked there longer often acting like a lead and micromanaging my workload. The bar for what they looked for in a new employee is set VERY low. I had coworkers that started the same time as me say that they had cursed during their interview because they didn’t care if they got hired, and STILL got offered a job. I witnessed a co-worker give attitude to a manager, talk back to them, and about them once they left the room, and they are still employed. Overall, the morale among employees is nonexistent. You can’t use your employee discount online, which is a big barrier for me wanting to spend my money at my workplace. I often messaged managers double-checking that this was correct and never got a response so I assume this is still the case. Old Navy runs “theme” days where employees are allowed to wear PJs or athletic wear, etc. but for a cost. You have to pay a few dollars to be able to participate during your shift, then that money is donated. This is done so that the company is able to donate off the backs of the minimum wage employees then write it off in their taxes. We also ran clothing donation bins and this was done by encouraging employees to purchase Old Navy product (last time it was socks) then put it in a donation bin in our back room, which the company will then donate on our behalf. So the company makes money off of us and gets to look good by “donating”. The biggest con is the NEGATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT. Old Navy ships their products by wrapping each item individually in plastic, with a plastic hanger that is then thrown out when the product is bought. Often there were boxes that only contained a single item. My entire shift was spent opening boxes, opening plastic, then hanging items up. Unpacking shoes was the worst because they had a very intense chemical smell. You end up covered in dust at the end of your shift. The dress code was never an issue for me because I worked before the store was open, but it didn’t make sense because there were some items from Old Navy we couldn’t wear because they weren’t “appropriate”. Overall, this has been the worst retail job I’ve ever worked. If you’re considering applying because you’re between jobs and need something to hold you over then that’s the only time I’d recommend it.
