One of the highest levels of turnover I have ever experienced in retail. Typical store staff consists of 15 to 18 employees. Store has turned over over 35 employees in a year.
IT is always a challenge
The company does not promote from within. So if you were not hired on as a position you want to stay in permanently and by permanently I mean 2 to 3 years which is the average tenure for most Harbor freight tools veteran do not be fooled by the talk of growth; Store managers and DM's are almost exclusively external hires.
Company struggles to implement programs that can be effectively executed at the store level especially given the extremely tight labor budget. Name collection and merchandise management standard operating procedures are key examples where more than 70% of the stores across the company cannot comply to the expectations. There is a clear disconnect between the corporate and store level. The response to the company wide failure to execute unrealistic expectations is generally firing threats, fear and intimidation.
I would have to echo the sentiments about HR written in several other reviews, the HR hotline is far from anonymous.
It is a Commonplace practice to hire store managers from external companies and this can lead in some unfortunate cases to a dangerous mix of arrogance and incompetence. Store managers aren't offered a lot of training, they often receive as little as two weeks training. Often times to compensate for the lack of knowledge there's a lot of grandstanding to show you who's boss that is counterproductive given the small staffs and tight budget everyone really has to use their time wisely and work as a cohesive team.
The store managers job description is extremely vague. They have a lot of rights and very little if any direct responsibilities and often end up functioning exclusively as a in-house critic. Assistant managers please negotiate your salary very well as you will be expected to do any and every task related to store operations often with little support from your GM.
The companies labor budget makes it difficult to retain and keep quality employee. The company gives minimal training and expects top-notch quality and production from associates that are given as little as five hours a week.
The company culture rates high on the toxicity level.
• Power struggles and power plays are common and ongoing.
• Management egos need to be stroked on a regular basis.
• because of tight labor budget that it seems That Executives are primarily focused on fattening their purses.
• Often times people only talk to their store managers/DM if they absolutely have to.
• The store has a small management staff but because of the negativity everyone is often at war with each other.
• To say Management pays more attention to what employees do wrong than what they do right is an extreme understatement.
• Employees spend a lot of energy on CYA activities.
• Problems automatically trigger the search for a scapegoat.
• Gossip, put-downs, blaming, and backbiting are common
• Upper management have a “my way or the highway” attitude and seldom help one another.
Advice
