Hy-Vee - Department Manager Hy-Vee Employee Review

3.0
Aug 14, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Work/life balance is good. When you're home, they leave you alone. Pay is acceptable. You'll get the industry standard. Time goes by very quickly as there is always something to do. Most co-workers are great to work with, with the exception of a few know-it-alls and "cliquey" backstabbers, but that's anywhere these days. Virtual autonomy. You are somewhat in charge of your own business within a business. "Employee owned."

Cons

Never enough help. Labor seems to be the biggest struggle. They'll cut hours to save money for bonus checks while work remains. No training. No direction. You will need to learn on the fly. Even a retail warrior, like myself, with years of experience in other retail fields, needed to have some on-boarding. Don't expect it. The only way you'll learn is to screw up first. Upper Managers are hit or miss. Some work hard and know the business, others would rather sit and gossip in the office all day while you're working hard on the floor wondering how they got that promotion. You will be expected to help other parts of the store, mostly checking and bagging, as they're short handed more often than not, which can set you back hours from getting your own work done, then expect your Store Director to question why something in your own Dept isn't done. Your Store Director sets the tone. Mine doles out more criticism than recognition, which creates unnecessary stress among managers. This in-turn causes employees to be stressed, which then causes unnecessary turnover. Questionable buying from corporate. You will receive too much forced-shipped, unneeded inventory that is DOA from corporate and then be told it's your fault for having too much inventory.

Explore other reviews about Hy-Vee

5.0
Jul 2, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You get to constantly move around the store thru the different departments. Depending on the hours you work you can potentially learn how to do little things within each department, for example the deli or meat counters, which in turn opens an opportunity to get additional hours if needed when AOL doesn't have the business to keep all the shoppers shopping. Hyvee was always very good about giving you the opportunity to help in other areas of the store if your department was lacking hours or business to give you the full 40 for your work week.

Cons

The management/ chain of command often gets a little confusing as you have department managers, assiant managers, general mangers and a director. Often times I felt as if assiant managers sometimes gave different directions then the department manager would give almost condescending what you were told from your direct manager, but would fail to communicate with the department manager this info, causing conflict with employees being told to do it one way and then also getting asked why things were done that way after being trained to do it another way. Basically no communication by your assiant to the department manager causing internal conflict.

2.0
Jul 2, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

If you have a good team and manager, this department can be a lot of fun. You get to be creative and work with flowers. It really depends on the department and store managers as to how much you enjoy it here.

Cons

The culture of the company is poor. There is a lot of waste and over-spending that is justified by the company, yet employees are de-valued and expected to make a profit. Benefits get stripped away as the company suffers, and new gimmicks that do nothing seem to be the focus. There are a lot of changing responsibilities and high expectations for the compensation. It's fast-paced, and physically demanding.

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