-Work/life balance: Unfortunately I've noticed a pattern with all of the great SMs I have worked with/met. They have little to no personal lives. They work crazy hours but have great stores. Because ASMs and SMs are salary you could work your normal 45 hours a week or 70 hours a week and to the company it is no different. There is no bonus for it or real recognition. Bonuses are based off of store metrics and time with the company, not the work/hours you put in. So, from what I have seen so far in order to be a great ASM or SM you need to put in the overtime hours which means no time for a personal life.
- Disconnect between Regions and the Company as a whole: A lot of times you will get direction on things from your DM or RM that they are specifically requesting as is not a company wide rollout. This can be confusing to the customers and confusing to us. It should be a direction for every store and not region or district specific.
- Policies are too flexible: This is probably my biggest con for working at Kohl's. We empower our associates (part time or full time) to make decisions on coupons and prices on items at the register. I.e. an expired coupon, wrong sign, price has a clearance sticker but isn't clearance, item was in wrong place therefore price is different than what customers thought, expired kohls cash, etc. 9/10 when it comes to any of these issues we are supposed to just "take care of the customer" which often means going against the actual policies Kohl's puts in place. And every manager/associate is different, one may take care of you and one may be more strict on the policies so it can be very confusing for the customers and management because on one hand you want to the follow the policies so that the company does not lose money but also if we are just supposed to "take care of the customer" then where is the line drawn? Also our return policy may be great for our customers but it is terrible for the company. We take back items that are damaged, used, missing pieces, all because the customer has their receipt or even just the form of payment they used. And we can return things up to 6 years old which is just ridiculous. Anything over 6 months old we most likely end up damaging out anyway because of the condition so it is a huge loss for the company and store and again can be very frustrating for the manager because it ends up falling on you to make the decision, and if you try to stay as true to the policy as possible, you can get in trouble for not "taking care of the customer."
