Utterly despicable upper management. (C level)
They double-talk with the best of corporate types. But when it comes to deliver absolutely anything, it is met with excuses and failure. The blame then falls on store level employees as they are left to do more for less "for the good of the company".
These people decided to remove and entire layer of area management over a weekend with no notice. Half of those people were fired, the other half were pushed into store resulting in the current store manager having to chose between moving to a different location (sometimes over an hour away) or be unemployed with absolutely no reason given. This was company wide. Hundreds of people had to move and or were demoted.
Useless middle management. (Area managers)
These people sold their souls a while ago. Most having worked for a company that seemed to truly care for its people and give them great opportunity in the past, these dinosaurs hold on to hope that it will somehow come back after being hosed over and over again by the upper management. They are useless because no matter how much they may try, nothing will ever come of their ideas or dreams. they swallow each new terrible policy that comes down from the hill and pass it along without question.
Abysmal Operations. (Support)
Terrible retail support with needed stock taking days longer than competition to reach a customer and useless ugly old stock cluttering up stores for years.
Useless and sometimes physically impossible store level operations policies.
Extreme waste in spending on new ridiculous "flavor of the month" programs and software that are quickly and silently abandoned with no notice to the store level.
Training and advancement.
Trainings are there but they do not have any organization or enforcement.
Every few months, the upper management will reveal a new program that will revolutionize training and give bright employees a path to advancement. These programs meet about twice before they fall off the radar and are never spoken of again.
Promotion possibilities.
If you are good at telling your boss how amazing you are, you will get to be a store manager. Beyond that, never hope for more. All higher level positions hire from without , or from the family.
Even if they create new management layers to be more effective and give people paths, do not trust it. They will eliminate those positions without notice when they feel like it with no reason given.
"Culture of Good"
This is a marketing scheme that is tax deductible at best and a useless ego stroke for the CEO. He has the audacity to think he can write a book and tell others how to run their company while repeating huge terrible blunders over and over. If this man had to start his own company from scratch and not have it given to him by his parents, it would have failed before the doors opened.
