Pros
I was given the opportunity to undertake workplace training with the company, to become Assistant Manager. I was given opportunity to work on several departments increasing my knowledge quickly. The team I worked with were brilliant and made me feel very welcome, esspecially as I had just moved to a new city. Over my time I had 2 direct managers, one really knew how to manage and work with a team setting objective and goals, as a result I felt motivated and adequately challenged in my role. The reason I was drawn to this job was for the customer interactions and being able to provide this to the best of my ability.
Cons
Due to the retail nature there was a 2 month period over Christmas where no holiday was permitted, to me this seemed a little excessive. I was oftered training to develop after only 3 months with the company, however I was told I was able to start Jan, then told this was full so would be April. April came and having asked for any updates regularly nothing was forthcoming, eventally told late May (almost 2 months after it was due to start) it would be starting in July, not further details given until late June, days before due to start. Over my time with the company I had 2 direct managers, one of whom I felt didnt display very good team leadership, I was often left feeling I was doing badly and very unmotivated as the quantity of tasks delegated without support was not reasonable. Due to regular cutbacks staffing got tighter and tigher meaning every day was a real challenge. I began to feel very much that just the basis were being done and the customer was suffering. The store looked messy and unloved. I felt very taken advantage of, as I has shown interest in development and was told I could train as assistant manager there was an expactation for me to constantly do overtime with do reward (time/pay), while I accepted as an assistant manager this would be the case I was not yet undertaking training and wasnt carrying out any roles related.