I got a job at QuikTrip as an Assistant Manager after I finished graduate school. I worked there for a year and a half and got a pretty good grasp of the ins and outs. I worked incredibly hard while I was there. Yet praise was incredibly scarce and practically nonexistent. I worked nights for a year and worked at over 40+ stores as an ERP. Even when I had the store spotless, the manager the next morning would try to find something wrong. I understand having high standards, but the demand for perfection was crushing many times.
The assistant manager schedules there are horrible. They range from 46-50 hours a week and there are no lunch or breaks during your shift. Each shift runs between 8-10 hours. If you have a family or outside social life, forget it. I worked every other shift other than overnights—even the holy grail of QT, the Manager's schedule (weekends off) and was still very disappointed.
I felt incredibly overlooked and used while being there. I felt unappreciated no matter how hard I worked. I was simply one cog in the machine that made the store run. Other managers often put others down. I never understood why so many people claimed to have such high job satisfaction while being there. Finally I realized that the way to be easily promoted is to brown-nose. Say the right thing, sell your soul to the company, never call in or take any time off, and you will be promoted quickly. Luckily I was able to get out of QT and got a job in my field and am very happy now. The stress and overload there was not worth it.
