As I can't speak for all stores, I will speak to my experiences at my store and my numerous interactions with Sr. Executives at corporate, both of which have clearly shown that the company culture can be described in 4 words: unethical, disingenuous, illegal and toxic. Locally, my store was managed by a very command-and-control management system and functioned as a social club. Employees were only accepted and favored by management as long as they were sycophants and fit into their employee/management social cliques, who don't do their jobs. Highly skilled and hard-working employees not of this circle had no input or say in how they performed their jobs and those employees who were assertive in raising issues to higher management and who refused to be subject to management bullying were quickly undermined, ostracized, slandered and eventually terminated. The company also claims that it is "Employee Owned", yet employees have no say or power in which to best operate the company and their workplace. It utilizes employee associations in which to address employee grievances and concerns, however, they are in fact merely window dressing and no associations, committees or committee chairs even exist. As such, the company is essentially running a disingenuous union within its walls and without charging its employees union dues, falsely leads them to believe that they are represented by their peers, when in reality they are subject to management control. From an ethical and compliance perspective, never before have I seen such hubris exhibited by Sr. Executive corporate management, District Management and Store Management as this team truly believes that the company rules and federal and state laws don't apply to them. They have used cover ups to hide store inspections to gain favorable ratings, escaped unsafe OSHA safety violations via cover up, engaged in Title VII discrimination and manipulated inventory numbers to inflate earnings and therefore stock prices for themselves. If you want to sell your soul to make money, be subject to bullying for not going along to get along and be grossly unappreciated, this is the place for you.
