Pros
Fred Meyer has a union so it is difficult to get fired. They also have excellent benefits and paid leave. Holiday pay is double time and a half and Sunday pay is time and a third. It is a large store with many different departments to work in if you don't like your own department.
Cons
Different departments have different reputations. The coffee stand where I have worked for the last six years has the reputation of "not working." Other departments do not like us because we are always laughing and having a good time. We actually do everything in our job description and our customers are very loyal and love us. We get 100% on our secret shops and health inspections as well. It is just difficult having other departments cracking jokes about how much we get paid ($14.50 an hour) to do what we do. Other departments and managers constantly try to get us to work in other departments because we need to be doing "something" other than talking to customers and cleaning. We cannot get in trouble for saying no to helping out other departments since it is not in our job description but when we do we feel the tension for not helping out other departments. When we do decide to help out other departments they give us the worst possible job to do and then laugh at us. In addition to not being taken seriously by the entire store employees all over the store do not trust managers who seem to always have ulterior motives. Managers always seem to be angry and take it out on employees. They do not listen to suggestions or complaints either!