Good co-workers, strange job roles and lack of morale
Pros
Great discounts, fairly nice uniform and good banter. Good incentives with the W-O-W initiative when I was there if someone filled in a review of you that was positive. The training was really interesting - I liked learning about the history of Boots - especially that the pharmacy is responsible for the current ready availability of ibuprofen in the UK.
Cons
I was originally s sales assistant but was also given a joint role of Customer Care Assistant. This role was extremely tedious as all I was allowed to do was greet customers and ask them if I could help them find anything. My store was in an airport branch which meant we were not the biggest store. I did manage to help people find what they wanted quickly however during quiet periods I was not allowed to help stock shelves which meant I was meant to stand for sometimes hours on end doing nothing by smiling. This was mentally exhausting. Also the previously mentioned W-O-W incentives are great but rely soley on customers taking the time to fill in a review. Now as a customer I mean to fill these things but I never get round to it. Employees should also be frequently praised and rewarded by management to make sure they feel valued. There was problems with morale when I was at my branch for those who had been there longer - they did not feel appreciated for the shifts they did. I worked at the branch during extreme snow winter weather where it was advised by police not to travel. I was pressured to go into work by my manager and that if i did not - despite living an hours drive away - that this would jeopardise my job. I made the dangerous journey to work only to find the airport was shut down and management (who lived 10 mins away) had not bothered to show up themselves. I was then made to feel like I shouldn't have made the journey. Despite the store being shut down, no management being around and no flights going out - we were still expected to work our shift in the departures lounge with nothing to do as no deliveries had managed to get through. I moved on shortly afterwards.
