Pros
* The customers, on a whole, made the whole three years bearable for me. * Some managers are fantastic and full of passion (sadly, the ones I knew all left before me to join another company in the travel sector. I wonder why. Same job, different pay, perhaps?)
Cons
* THE PAY. £940 basic monthly salary for someone working on a 30 hour per week contract. * THE COMMISSION STRUCTURE. Aside the fact that the basic wage is so woeful, the company make it next to impossible to earn commission. The store has to hit target for staff to get a penny of their commission, even if individual targets are met! * A high number of the company's managers are unprofessional, making cruel remarks about other members of staff. I have witnessed bullying in the work place from those in a 'managerial' position, which makes it very hard to solve, as who do you go to when somebody of such high authority is the issue?! Any comments made about the situation dismissed, probably due to the fact that they would rather lose a part-time members of staff through resignation than a manager to sacking, as manager harder to replace. Morals all over the place. Very cliquey among managers. * The amount of pressure staff are put under to hit a hefty number of targets is utterly atrocious, considering as it is often impossible to even meet targets, resulting in a lot of stress and hard work from the staff, with no financial benefits whatsoever. * Overtime is expected, but never rewarded. Lost count of the amount of times I had to stay in the shop after closing time to meet customer's demands/complete tasks. Their 'work to life balance' ethos is non-existent. Okay, so working weekends, Bank Holidays and long shop hours is something I was aware of when accepting the job, but come on, at least let your staff out on time so that they can have some time at home! Frankly, the company expects you to dedicate your entire passion and life to a job that gives you nothing but stress in return. * Don't think this job is as simple as booking lovely holidays for people! You're expected to be an expert on every single destination EVER, sell car hire, sell insurance, sell currency, sell a multi-currency card, promote excursions, upgrade seats, upgrade luggage, promote this, promote that, up-sell this, up-sell that. Give it a rest! There's being a sales 'adviser,' then there's being a pest! Stop taking the fun out of the job for staff by making them feel uncomfortable by forcing them to constantly up-sell their product! * Training scheme is NON-EXISTENT. You are thrown in at the deep end and made to self-teach, receiving backlash if you do something wrong. * Behind the scenes, the company's 'After Travel' support team are an utter disgrace. I had customers with unresolved complaints going back over two years ago, who were still waiting for a response. Flights/hotels/whole packages can be changed/altered at last minute, then it is down to the travel agent on the pitiful wage to face the backlash of abuse from angry customers week after week.