Pros
- Generally your direct coworkers are great, peer group of other Store Managers were great people. - Some of the support employees are genuinely good to work with. Often when I needed help from a specific department - Purchasing, Operations, IT Support, I got great people who really wanted to help solve my problem. - Benefits are OK - in line with the minimum that any company of this size should offer. - Employee discount on bikes is good (any other P&A can generally be purchased by any savvy shopper at the same price as employee discount). - Online training that is good on bringing a newbie to the business up to speed quickly.
Cons
- Store Managers are expected to work all the time, teams are so thin that they cannot deliver the level of performance that HQ asks for. My store personnel were cut so much that we were always one call out, sick day, or PTO day away from being severely understaffed. All of this of course falls back on the only salaried employee - the Store Manager. I would often have to forego my own day off in order to cover legitimate employee leave or just to make sure we were sufficiently staffed on busy days. - Management between the store level and HQ is laughably bad. I would go months without speaking with my District Manager. When I did, I was never heard. It was always just checking a box for their manager. The only time I heard from the Regional Manager was when they came to a district meeting to deliver a Glengarry Glen Ross speech and then to say to my face that my store didn't matter. Maybe other DMs are different but despite the fact that I was competent at my job and kept the store running smoothly I felt totally ignored and not valued at all. When I asked for any assistance or guidance I was either ignored or treated like I wasn't a team player. Basically any middle management only seems concerned about saving face and their own mobility/security in the company. - Metrics and KPIs change all the time and are not necessarily aligned with running a great retail business. The company says "this is our focus" then goes on to list far more things than anyone could possibly focus on. Those who game these metrics get kudos instead of those who run a profitable operation. - Speaking of metrics - Store forecasts and goals have little to no grounding in reality. Forecasting does not take into account disparate markets, weather, or industry trends, headwinds, etc. My input into the forecasting process as a boots on the ground observer was completely ignored. - Almost no investment in professional growth and development. "Trek University" is great for someone who has never worked in bikes or retail before. Beyond that, it's the "Level 5 Leadership" program which essentially is the owner interviewing people he admires and broadcasting it to the company - like a series of Ted Talks. While there are certainly takeaways from those, it's doesn't replace real life coaching and development - something I never received from my leadership. - Not once during my tenure did I receive any kind of performance evaluation or developmental support, despite asking for these things multiple times. - Trek says "feedback is a gift" but that only goes in one direction - when you as an employee get feedback! Especially above the store level - if you give feedback, no matter how sincere and constructive, you are treated as a problem. Anyone above the store level just wants yes men to tell them what they want to hear. No one wants to hear boots on the ground reality. If you bring up real world challenges and try to find solutions you're treated as "not bought in" or "unwilling to do what it takes." - The disconnect between actual retail and HQ is massive. Retail employees are treated like second class citizens by managers above the store level. Words of gratitude for hard work at the store level are few and far between.
