Pros
As a trainer, I was able to make my own schedule, so it was more flexible than it had been when I started out as a cashier.
Cons
•Most management is difficult to work with (both within the store and also the leadership above the store level) and difficult to retain, which means that the associates below management-level are constantly adjusting to new leads. In the five years I worked at one store, I saw six store leads. In the year that I worked at another location, I saw three store leads (with the knowledge that a fourth had just been transferred to another store a week before I got there). •The company does not care about its associates on an individual level. This is a corporation that wants desperately to make as much money as they possibly can, which means (unfortunately) that the little guys get left behind on a consistent basis. •I watched other associates go through mental health breaks because of the workload put upon them by an uncaring leadership team. I went through them myself. This is a thankless job, especially for minimum wage. •Customer incidents get smoothed out with no compensation for the employees. The associates are expected to bend over backwards for customers that are cruel to them, and the management team enforces that instead of assisting their associates and standing behind them or with them. •For a job that is contingent upon the animals in our care, the amount of small animals, birds, and reptiles I saw die needlessly and avoidably in the store was staggering. The lack of proper training is astounding, and leads to employees that are frustrated because they lack the skills they need and animals that die when they could have lived with the proper care taken with them.