Pros
- 50% staff discount - You can hire a fantastic group of people to work for you
Cons
- Salary is far below market rate for retail despite what the salary range for the job listings say, and they are very strict about pay rises only being 2-4%. This also does not happen yearly, maybe every 3 years at the most and only during their set salary review schedule. Part time staff are paid minimum wage, or a few cents above it. - The bonus scheme is fairly average for retail but unfortunately they change the benchmarks to achieve this every year to make it impossible to achieve. Online store sales targets are a metric for achieving bonus (which stores have no control over) and of course those targets are set absurdly high so no stores qualify to receive bonus. - Toxic company culture encouraged by the leadership team. Lots of lip service to diversity and inclusion, while being openly racist, abusive and homophobic. Complaints are not taken seriously or handled appropriately, resulting in burnout and a high staff turnover. - Free tea for staff has been cut that right back since removing the tea bar experience from the stores and you are only allotted a small amount each month, so cutting an often touted perk of the job isn’t really saving them much money as the profit margins on tea are massive - Store sales and KPI targets are not based in reality, or take the current climate into consideration. - Constantly breaching employment law around rostering, contracts and breaks. You need to know your rights and be firm about this because HR don’t care about the law. - Work life balance is discouraged and managers often brag about skipping breaks and working late unnecessarily due to poor time management and wanting to impress - Promotions are based on favouritism, so managers wanting to move up will often take onboard a ton of extra work (that should really be contracted out to another role). This has resulted in a lot of severely under-qualified people in leadership positions, making work even more difficult for everyone beneath them. - The all black clothing uniform, which even the head office workers have to abide by. - Large amounts of pointless busywork require which prevents you from actually running your store. Hours of Teams meetings that could have been a simple email, and endless reports to write up that benefit no one. Feels like several layers of management are trying to justify their roles existence. - You spend most of your time sending emails to follow up on things you need (varying in urgency). Lots of red tape for extremely simple requests that get dragged out for weeks and months. Recruiting in particular is a nightmare due to this and the need for all the levels of sign off for each step even for a casual role has resulted in these people getting employed elsewhere while we wait - Protecting your store team from the toxic company culture is a full-time job and extremely draining.
