Pros
I love working with the majority of my co-workers. Everyday, we are able to socialize, but still we work efficiently together, tag-teaming to get all of our tasks done, and still have time to spare. There are very few co-workers that I dislike, and thankfully, I rarely have to work with them. Our store has many regular customers, most of which are always fun to chat with, and very understanding of how demanding our job can be. I also love how the store inspires me to pick up my sketching again (I bought some gorgeous art pencils there just a few weeks ago!), and possibly try new crafts (like jewelry-making, crochet, clay and mosaic arts, and baking).
Cons
--Horrible pay. Even for management. Most managers at my store barely make 50-75 cents more than me, and I'm earning the bare minimum (I earn 7.75, and my managers earn MAYBE 8.25 or 8.50). So promotions aren't really worth it, if you're looking at it from a pay standpoint. --Little to no training; I had to learn pretty much as I went. Some employees haven't even been taught how to use the register. --During the non-holiday season, sales are always low, and hours are always being cut. Some times there will only be 3-4 people in the store in the evenings: a cashier, a framer, a manager, and maybe one floor associate. Customers are always irritated that they can "never find anyone to help them." --Also, they have a horrible habit of changing your shifts (whether wanting you in earlier, later, or just cutting you off the schedule completely), and not telling you about it until you show up for the shift that shows on the online work schedule. --My store hires too many new employees who only halfway do their jobs. Yet, they get more hours than the hard-working employees. --Many of the managers at my store are NOT individuals who should ever be in a management position. Some are just lazy; others are just bullies. --Email collections for cashiers: most of our usual customers (and the ones we actually would WANT to continue doing business with) have already signed up for our emails. We can't force them to give our their email address. I don't think it's fair to rate a cashier on that. We should be rated at how efficiently and error-free we make the checkout process, not how many emails we can get. --Corporate people have never worked in a store, so they really shouldn't be telling us how to do our jobs. They'll say a task should only take 1-3 hours max, when it usually ends up taking 5-6 minimum (like RDQ/RDF). Also, they need to think before they send out POG builds. Some of the builds are ridiculous, and the products won't even fit on the grids. --Since corporate has been pushing enforcement of the coupon policy (at least in my store), we have a lot of disgruntled customers, some of whom have actually thrown tantrums (and items) at the cashiers and associates, even though we're just doing our jobs. The policy should have been enforced from the beginning, and then we wouldn't have this problem.