The hours are long . For ETLs they want you to work at least 10 hour days, which are even longer during the holiday season and when your ETL turnover is high (which happens in every store). You also have to work every other weekend.
Promotions are political, and have little to do with actual work performance. If you kiss up enough to the right people you are promoted, which is why I left. If the Store Manager or DM do not like you, you will not get ahead. My DM called me "insignificant" once, despite having the only green area in the store and the only ETL with no hotline calls from disgruntled staff.
Dealing with disgruntled guests and having them cuss at you out for a policy that is clearly stated on the receipt and at guest services is annoying. There is not enough money in the world you can pay someone to have them yell at you over a $10 toy.
Senior Management strongly discourages helping your team if they fall behind. I would help mine and I got in trouble for not holding them accountable. We were understaffed as a store and my team leads had to wear many hats (backup cashier, work abandon, do first interviews), so I would help them pull the product for their endcaps, help work their product, etc. I thought it was wrong to not help them since I knew they were trying and if they went down, I went down.
District managers are very arrogant and only concerned about their promotion, not your development. They also focus on everything you are doing wrong and rarely praise they good you have done.
