Pros
My coworkers made a friendly, international team and were always willing to help each other out. The key holders (managers) of my store were really lovely people and good managers who genuinely wanted the best for the sales associates. The job itself was super easy and didn't take long to learn. It's easy to get hired at Kiltane, especially in the busy summer months. I really enjoyed interacting with customers from all over the world. It was great to be able to learn about other cultures through both my coworkers and customers.
Cons
Upper management are jerks in many ways. Several coworkers were severely underpaid due to human error and had to fight to get hundreds of pounds that they were owed. Upper management wouldn't even let us close one of the two doors in winter, so the wind would blow directly into the shop and it was freezing. This was the same even when it was snowing outside! All we had were a few heaters and they only worked if you stood right beside them. We weren't allowed to stand around and chat even when there were no customers in the store and all of the merchandise was neatly arranged/folded. This meant that we had to be repeatedly folding the same scarves all day and freezing our hands off in January even when there were no customers at all! Occasionally, someone from upper management would watch us on the security cameras and then come yell at us if we weren't busy enough (despite there being no customers in the shop). Obviously this isn't a problem in summer when the shop is constantly busy, but it's absolutely dead in winter. The hours are long and they pay is insultingly minimal given how expensive the merchandise is. It can be difficult to get weekends off, so it's difficult to maintain a social life while working at Kiltane. My days off would vary from week to week, so it was extremely difficult to plan for social events and weekends away without requesting holidays (which had to be done with a month's notice and wasn't guaranteed). Also, the same music plays every day and in the same order. Some of the songs are decent. but it's maddening to hear the exact same song at the exact same time every day. You would think that a store who sells scarves for over £50 would offer a respectable staff discount, but the reality is disappointing. After working at Kiltane for two months, you are eligible for a 5% discount. I believe it increases after each year of employment. It would be understandable if we were paid more, but a 5% discount doesn't make the merchandise affordable for minimum wage employees. I happened to be working in the shop when COVID-19 became prevalent in China. Guess what? Most of our customers are Chinese! Normally, this is not a problem at all, but it put us at risk of contracting COVID and spreading it to more tourists. Was management going to allow us to wear masks or gloves? Of course not! They would rather put the sales associates at risk than scare off customers. Thankfully, my Chinese coworkers were able to listen to the accents of our customers and determine if any of them were possibly from Wuhan. I still consider myself to be very lucky that I didn't get sick during the week of Chinese New Year when our store was filled with tourists from China.
