This is coming from someone who worked in stores that were at the top of their district in multiple areas. I worked hard, and did good work. Here goes....
Working here was terrible. Work/life balance is non-existent. I've worked 7, 8, 9 day work weeks because of how they can schedule your days off. I know of someone who worked 2 weeks straight with no days off. This is UNACCEPTABLE, not to mention ILLEGAL (with recent laws passing in some states). If you want to take days off/vacation time be prepared to cause someone else a whole lot of stress. Hours are constantly being cut, so that managers are FORCED to work as associates (Last time I checked, working a register didn't require a college degree). Company policy/procedures are constantly changing, oftentimes putting more stress on managers then actually being efficient.
Corporate screw ups force ground-level employees to have to explain what's going on to customers, even though corporate doesn't fully explain what is going on to its employees. Also, they make stores put out confusing marketing more often then not, again forcing ground-level employees to deal with the customer backlash.
Stores can't do anything without jumping through hoops with corporate. For 2 WEEKS our stores ran on dial-up level internet connection. Forcing us (those in the customer facing role) to have to deal with the situation. Some transactions took 20 minutes to complete. This is NOT an exaggeration. We couldn't hit sales goals because of this, but their screw up still counts AGAINST the performance of our store. This is UNACCEPTABLE.
They care very little about their employees and their professional development. I even heard some of upper management try to find a way to get one of the other assistant managers fired. You will get no respect as an assistant manager or below. Only store managers and up are valued in this company. How about instead of outing low performing employees, you actually develop them professionally? Food for thought. Also, although you meet great people, gossip and immaturity run rampant thru the company. Seriously, I've never worked at a more unprofessional place (although the relaxed environment can be a big plus). People are constantly talking about others, most of the time it's right behind their back.
The associates are underpaid, are given little hours, and favoritism almost always comes into play. Because of this, associate turnover is incredibly high, which puts stress on managers to recruit. If you don't hit your recruitment goals, DMs will threaten you with write-ups. Even though your recruitment efforts are given little support.
You'll spend most of your days folding clothes, dealing with angry customers, and completing corporate tasks that are completely useless. And the pay? Laughable at best. You're promised a salaried position, but are actually hourly. Managers get in trouble if they don't hit their 40hrs, even though they claim you are "salaried". And taxes take out the majority of your paycheck, so you're actually making significantly less then what you were originally promised/presented with. This goes the same for bonuses, I barely saw a difference in my paycheck after a bonus, even though our store beat our goals 2 quarters in a row.
Also, upper-management love to micromanage. Oftentimes forcing managers to work longer hours in order to take "conference calls" (which are completely useless). And even forces managers and employees to stay for longer hours, despite their being no projects to be done. The disconnect between upper management and floor-level employees is absolutely ridiculous!
I could write an entire novel about the problems with this company, but I'll leave it at that.
