Impossible Workload and Low Pay - PT Merchandiser American Greetings Employee Review

Creative environment and ability to have a career.

Lots of red tape and old way of doing things.

Great flexibility and work/life balance. Management is great, if they stick around. Good for a side job.

You cannot provide for a family only working this job. The workload does not align with the hours allotted to complete tasks. Many tasks require significantly more time than is given making it very difficult and stressful. You are constantly rushing to complete tasks so you do not go over time. Most weeks, the available hours are very limited. You may get 1-2 hours a week and the pay being between $11-$13 an hour, that’s not much of a paycheck. You will spend more on gas traveling to a store with only 1 hour you can work. Travel is only compensated between stores. This job also requires working on certain holidays but there is no extra holiday pay or bonuses. Only employees at stores with high sales get rewarded points to spend on items on their web-store. Large seasonal resets are extremely demanding due to the volume of work in a tight timeframe. Instructions for activities are not always clear, which can be confusing. Obtaining support is almost impossible, as field support wait times are very long and managers are managing heavy workloads themselves, limiting their availability. Store experiences vary. Some store associates are helpful, while others can be difficult to work with. A lot of time can be wasted waiting around or hunting down workers to get equipment needed to complete activities. Customers frequently complain about the cost of our items mainly the greeting cards. The devices provided to workers needs an update. Timekeeping requires a considerable amount of manual entry, including location, activity codes and store numbers. I have a list of codes and numbers saved in my phone because it it way too much to remember. The app is complicated and not very user friendly. Employees must also review and approve their time weekly on a separate app. Given today’s technology, a more streamlined and user-friendly system would greatly improve efficiency. After holidays, removing and disposing of greeting cards is quite an undertaking. There is a lot of waste in plastics, paper and cardboard. Employees are expected to record time spent transmitting data, reviewing shipments, and checking store activities for compensation. This was later capped at 10 minutes per week. For workers with multiple stores and various activities, this can be difficult to adhere to. Management is great but they are stretched way too thin. All the good ones leave due to excessive workloads.