AVOID this company at all costs, TERRIBLE place to work!
Pros
Company is continually acquiring more stores and growing at a fast rate. Some great co-workers in certain areas. Some systems and processes have been successfully updated. Good bonuses for qualifying positions, benefits are decent.
Cons
Complete lack of vision and direction for the company beyond expansion and profits. Very low employee morale across all levels and departments. Employees are not valued AT ALL, viewed as expendable. Upper management uses intimidation and negativity to lead and get results. Very little to no communication or cooperation between different departments. Employee recognition is non-existent. Very nasty and negative people working in the main corporate office in Richmond, dismissive and rude to co-workers in other offices and especially to store level employees. No succession planning or room for advancement, internal opportunities are rarely advertised and the process of simply applying for an internal promotion is convoluted and difficult. Very weak leadership in many departments. Employee feedback is ignored. Management does not listen to ground level employees who drive the business. Hardworking and capable employees are overlooked for advancement, company frequently hires from outside. Company communications are unclear and very negative. Corporate structure is very confusing, no clear information as to who reports to who and who is responsible for what. Management addresses problems very slowly, if they are even addressed at all. Company is growing so fast and little to nothing has been done to retain or reward current employees. Some employees are overworked and others are underutilized. Company has expanded and added many stores but rarely adds more support staff. The company badly neglects facilities and safety hazards abound in store locations. Very old facilities and systems in place (walls crumbling, ceilings collapsing, etc.). Only "Yes Men" seem to advance in the company, "brown-nosing" is rewarded and daring to challenge or question leadership results in mistreatment. Company does not pay well and as a result gets the bottom of the barrel applicant pool. New Store Managers and District Managers are much lower caliber than they were in years past. New payroll system seems to always have errors. I cannot stress enough what a terrible company this is to work for and I am trying desperately to find employment elsewhere to escape this mess. As soon as GPM acquired my former company, everything started to go bad and continues to get worse each day. Leadership preaches about removing obstacles but executive management consistently adds new obstacles to field and support staff. Every process is overly complicated, takes multiple levels of approval to get anything done. Employees are not empowered to make decisions or control anything. Only a few key executives are able to make any decisions. Being proactive or questioning the status quo is frowned upon. Many new processes and systems that have been rolled out were poorly planned and executed, resulting in multiple problems and challenges for field employees. Employees are always busy putting out fires, there is no strategic planning for the future. They throw stuff at the wall and hope it sticks. The latest big push for sales and customer service was a complete failure. I have no confidence that things will get better.
