-The basic 15% employee discount was crap. And don't spend it on anyone else because they are pretty serious about that.
-They bust you into the ground and work you to death for no pay or very little acknowledgment. In a five hour shift, I would be flipping the signs for the promotion ending, go to jewelry for a little bit, hop into customer service, and then if no one was in shoes or home, take calls for that and run over to help out a customer. They are usually short-staffed a lot and the other employees have to bust their butt to help out. Instead of the management helping the other customers, they usually sit in the office while we run around everywhere.
-Their expectations are ridiculous. Time management is viewed differently from the management and the employees. With two racks filled to the brim and the bins overflowing on high volume days in the fitting rooms, the managers expect one person or two to have that done in an hour. It's just not possible. Also, putting out a new fixture takes time and if they don't schedule us time in our own department to change that, then we can't get to it and do it effectively. During adset (changing the signs for the new price changes) it takes about two hours for two associates to do the entire store. Don't make all the signs go to default and have to have link them all in under two hours. If that happens, tack on another hour. If you're the Intimates and Accessories Specialist, don't give him/her only 10 hours a week (sometimes in other areas than Intimates and Accessories) and then yell at her/him for not getting anything done.
-Pay raises are bad. You only get a pay raise every year and you better bust your butt to get a good one. If you don't put 100% into your job, then you don't reap the benefits. And I mean give 100%. I go in every time they call me in, I stay late to make sure my department is good, I will spend 30-40 minutes with one customer, I will be panting from running around everywhere and doing several things at once, I'm trained in all areas of the store, and I'm a supervisor. Want to guess my pay raise? 32 cents.
-The communication is pretty bad. I will speak to my store manager about something and he won't know what I'm talking about because another area supervisor told me differently. They don't follow a concise plan for them all to follow. They do different things differently. And that causes confusion for employees about how to delegate amongst themselves to get things done. Even if I speak to my immediate supervisor about a problem I'm having and she sends out an email to upper management, it still will get ignored and the problem will not get fixed. It sometimes feels like every man for himself and you simply can't do that in retail.
-CREDIT IS AWFUL. Credit is the worst thing about the store. You are constantly nagged and poked at to get credit. If we don't meet the quota for the day, then we're yelled at. It affects your pay raise too. If you don't too well on credit, then you don't get a good raise. And it's just ridiculous too. From the moment a customer walks in, they are harassed about opening a card with the store. Yes, the benefits from it are nice but certainly not good enough to get solicited over and over and over. I feel bad when I have to ask and then say no immediately but I have to continue to harass her over and over because my manager is standing right there and watching. Seriously, credit is just awful. If you're a POS associate and you don't get credit, you'll get maybe 8-10 hours. Best bet is to try to move to the floor and work the fitting rooms or jewelry or something else. But credit takes precedent over everything. We were low one day and my store manager was going crazy and coming onto the radio every five seconds, talking about it and saying we need to mention it to every customer. The bell went off and that meant that someone finally got it up at the registers. My store manager came on and said, "Now I wish all my other associates were that great". At that point, while I'm struggling to empty a tornado, disaster fitting room, I feel dejected and worthless just because I don't get some credit and nearly considered walking out.
