Pros
1) Easy work if you are competent and can work at a fast pace 2) Is probably easy to advance in the company
Cons
1) Even as an entry-level retail worker in a store, it was obvious that Dollar Tree does not invest much in their employees or managers. Manager turnover is notoriously high, or at least it was in my location. 3 Managers in my 4 month tenure there, and 9 over the course of a couple years. Atrocious. 2) Turnover is rather high for the floor associates as well, with pretty unprofessional ways of handling it. I.e., will just stop showing up for scheduled shifts until they are eventually taken off payroll several weeks later which hurts the whole team (saw this happen for 2 separate employees, and heard of similar stories from before I worked there). 3) One of the more unprofessional workplaces I've experienced, even for retail. Managers acting inappropriately to female employees (of course, this isn't everybody), managers and floor associates alike openly expressing their disdain for the company any chance they get.. not the best way to foster a positive environment or inspire a team. 4) Little-to-no tolerance for creativity or innovation in how you approach your work which may sound ridiculous for tasks as straightforward as stocking or merchandising, but they will take time to correct your approach for the 'correct way' having previously emphasized you should find your own way to approach your duties. This is further exacerbated by... 5) Getting mixed signals -- and often contradictory directions -- from various managers. Will often have separate managers insist on ignoring the way another manager instructed you to undergo a task. Not only is this confusing, as well as an easy way to get on the bad side of some of the less professional management staff, but is doubly absurd when it concerns something as minuscule as which corner of the stock room to stack boxes of certain types of merchandise, or which of 3 vacant check-out lines to open up (both things which have NO impact on productivity in any way I can see and both actual issues that have arisen during my time at Dollar Tree). This to me indicates a degree of immaturity that many of the managers can display over very petty things turning into pissing contests among them and often put myself and other floor associates on the spot and affected worker morale and efficiency. Rather embarrassing and unprofessional on their part, especially considering many of them are in their 40's. 6) Erratic behavior from assistant and store managers: not uncommon to have a manager waste 5+ minutes of your time as well as his/her own to overreact over a simple mistake or what they perceive as the "wrong way of doing things" (see #5) and have that very same manager act far too leniently on an employee, often turning a blind eye to misconduct or sluggish work ethic when firm action is clearly required. Indicates an ineffective approach to managing workers which is probably the most important job of a MANAGER. 7) In case you are beginning to notice a pattern here, poor management is very poor. Of the most commonly cited attributes that make a good manager (excellent communication, inspiring your team members, rewarding hard/successful work, leading by example, empathy, disciplining when necessary, providing a clear vision of short- and long-term goals, etc, etc) I observed little or none at all during my short time there. 8) To top it off, upper management doesn't appear to have their act together either. When district and regional managers would come for store inspections, while working I would often overhear them around the store. 60% of the time, they were clearly just talking about things unrelated to business (weekend plans, sports news, telling jokes, sharing funny stories about work colleagues, YouTube videos). This is just goofing off, cut and dry and is unacceptable for upper-level management of a large company like Dollar Tree. 9) I was hired without an interview. While subjectively, this made it all the easier to get the job, objectively, this just seems like it could lead to trouble when you don't know who you are hiring to fill a position. Unskilled labor or not, this just seems like an unorthodox practice with no real upside resulting in higher than average turnover. Considering the HR costs it takes to hire employees in large companies these days, this is just careless. 10) Minimum wage and lower salaries for managers, though this is to be expected for a company for Dollar Tree, so shouldn't be a big deal.
