No work/life balance. You'll find yourself working 6 days 60 hours frequently. You're also on call. Because MOST stores are only operated with a manager and a cashier per shift, if someone calls off and you can't find anyone to cover the shift it's you who has to go in. I can't tell you how many personal plans were broken because of this. I missed milestones in my children's lives. And if you can't find someone to cover, your working alone.
I've never worked for a company where I spent/wasted so much time trying to cover shifts. You'll find yourself calling other stores begging for coverage often times with no success. When you have a managers meeting or training outside of the building, you are expected to work 6 days that week. Your not given extra payroll for this and you can't afford to pull the payroll hours from the stores budget.
Most stores are operated with just a manager and a cashier, 2 that open and 2 that close. I operated 2 different stores during my career and the most payroll hours I had budgeted (not including a seasonal conversion week) ranged from 220 to 225. And when it was conversion week, you didn't have enough bodies to schedule the hours.
As a salaried manager, you get an extra day off for holidays. I can honestly say that during my 18 months, I NEVER got that extra day off.
Workload - unless your a high volume or 24 hour store, you will never be able to get everything done that your expected to get done. You WILL fall behind and you'll never catch up (unless your personally working 60+ hours 6/7days a week). In prepping for inventory, I worked 17 days in a row. The job overall is exhausting.
Your truly not a store manager. Often times I felt like a glorified merchandiser - like wasted talent.
It's all about metrics with customer service and managing inventory. Processes are forced even when they don't make sense.
Benefits package - you would think that a healthcare company that is as strong and successful as CVS would offer a better benefits package to its colleagues. There are no choices. Your given a high deductible plan (family = 3,000). No copays for office visits. Once you pay out of pocket for everything until you hit your deductible, the coverage is 80/20. More could be said about prescription coverage. It was cheaper for me to use a discount card from the Internet and pay cash for one of my son's maintenance medication than it was to run thru the insurance.
Opened 365 days a year
Dealing with EXTREME couponers who bog down the checkout process and attempt to confuse you (some, not all).
Lottery and photo dept (eats away payroll - will give you anxiety)
The stream of vendors you'll be checking in and merchandise you'll be putting away. Often times you'll be checking in a vendor and have to stop to go be a cashier.
Working truck. Pallets of totes that have to be unloaded and sorted by hand. Imagine a tote full of different cosmetics. Expectation is that a truck is worked and completed within 24 hours of receiving it. Unloading it outside in the rain/snow.
