The 2 stars are only there to reflect the friendly, funny and kind colleagues I had the pleasure of meeting and working with, albeit briefly. I interviewed for a permanent position in November when I was assured that full training would be provided. Yet upon starting I was told repeatedly that in fact there would be no training, and management blamed it on being a ‘busy time of year’, even though they knowingly hired me during this time? The products are nice and the company seems reasonable. The unit spacious and the amenities available to staff are way above the expected standard in retail. There is a bonus structure accessible for all staff and the staff discount is extremely high. That’s where the nice bit ends. The manager (originally from another store) was a huge bully. From the offset, she would single me out and nitpick certain things that I was doing even though the rest of the team were doing the same. It was only a problem if I did it. And other staff members would notice. She told me the uniform was very specific which I had to buy, then when I started realised staff pretty much wore what they wanted. There was a sense of competition from the manager, she wasn’t encouraging her staff to get higher sales in fact she seemed jealous of their performance. She told me to “chill out” on the selling, because I was taking in more money than the rest even though I was new. She told me “it’s not about the customer” when I voiced my concern that she was badgering and pushy. Interesting take on customer satisfaction She actively undermined staff in front of customers. She would interfere with sales when she wasn’t needed but if you asked for help she would magically disappear or simply ignore. She would forget to schedule dinner cover which meant taking your break 5 hours into a 6 hour shift. She would actively ignore me if I was stuck on the till and asked for help for example if there was insufficient change to give the customer, she would ignore me and my customer and continue serving other customers rather than delegating to other staff. On the day I finally had enough, she had joked about me being “the black sheep” to my face in front of other staff, confirming what I already knew was going on. I was made aware that she already had a complaint logged against her by a different team member. The most unprofessional, inefficient and unpleasant manager I’ve had the misfortune of working for. Definitely the strangest work experience of my life
