Sales Associate: Enjoyable to unbearable
Pros
The associate discount was great, plus you could get to see the new clothes when they were put out on the sales floor and could then watch the sales and get the best markdowns plus your associate discount. There are a lot of great people who work at J.C. Penney.
Cons
Extreme lack of communication, policies changed all the time, information rarely trickled down from management you would catch the end of a conversation about changes between associates. Since the old CEO returned there were truly unrealistic credit card app goals (if you only work on Saturdays then you had the same goal as everyone else, even the full time associates). Extremely rude, aggressive customers who knew if you would not politely give them what they want (because they were not correct in their assumptions), if they continued to yell at you then the L.O.D. of the day would cave and give them what they want. Unrealistic assumptions that two people can run the registers, empty fitting rooms and recover the store. The morale is very low at the store I worked at and they are losing a LOT of good workers who have been there five plus years. They have been staffing up a lot but the people they are hiring are lazy and don't want to work so the burden falls upon the long term people. I have shopped at JCP for years and want them to succeed but the lack of communication is ridiculous. It used to be a fun, happy place to work until a couple of good managers left and the newer supervisors are on eternal power trips.
