Management changes A LOT. Gone through 3 general managers at my store- THREE! Store managers keep getting shifted around, and people who clearly don't deserve to be promoted to assistant store managers keep getting put up. Morale is at an all time low. Uniqlo has crazy high standards for a retail store (we take store photos every Thursday, and as of Nov 2018, the number of store photos has only gone up while hours keep getting cut and the headcount isn't enough to sustain running the store), and while everyone used to do their fair share of work and everyone suffered equally, now that most good employees have been driven away, everyone decent that's left is made to shoulder more than their fair share of work because the mediocre ones and new hires that aren't properly trained can't hold their own weight. The pressure to do more and do better is higher than ever, and the reward is lower than ever. Ever notice how if your store wins Grand Prix that the ones getting most of the money are higher up the chain of management? Yet all the associates are the one preparing all the product for the photos.
All the good assistant store managers and supervisors and my team have been driven away because they don't get the recognition they deserve, and all the good associates have started job hunting. In contrast to one of the pros that I left above, depending on your store manager, you could be completely mediocre and they'll give you enough points to be put up for a promotion. You could also be completely deserving of all the points and they'll make up some garbage excuse to not give it to you.
If you're a student, god forbid. They'll still expect you to give up your life for the company. There's absolutely no work life balance. They won't hire some people based solely on whether or not they can agree to the availability requirement (able to work 2pm-11pm at least two weekdays, must have open availability on the weekends), yet will completely disregard the availability requirement for others. To them, requests off are you asking for permission, rather than you letting them know that you are unavailable for certain dates (even if you submit it more than the two weeks in advance that they ask for!) They'll force you to use your PTO and put it in without your permission, wasting your PTO days. Why give us so many days if you're not going to let us use it when we want to?
Senior management is so out of touch with one another. They'll put such an emphasis on product presentation, yet when the CEO visited my store that had terrible presentation but full volume and all the sizes out, we ended up getting praised (because guess what - people will still buy the product if the pile looks like garbage! They just want their size and color! No one cares if it's folded to perfection or not!)
If you want to work here, whether or not your experience is good or not is completely dependent on what store you work at.
