Vantaggi
- There was so much opportunity and room for growth at CVS. I started there as a cashier and ended as a store manager, if you want it CVS is more than happy to give it to you. - Plenty of open opportunities in front store, pharmacy and corporate allowing a lot of freedom to move and experience the company as a whole. - In the last several years I worked there they really changed and only promoted to higher positions from within the company. At one point they would just hire managers off the street and pay them insanely more than the other managers who had worked there for years. - VERY flexible with hours, more so than any other employer I have ever heard of - They take the 40 hour work week (except for store managers and up) very seriously and are always making sure that employees are receiving their breaks - It seems obvious with CVS being a PBM but the benefits for full-time employees were fantastic. - Always developing and implementing new systems that have a competitive edge over competitors.
Svantaggi
- Pay Pay Pay! They expect you to start your cashiers out at Minimum wage! and once they screw you in the beginning there is no rescue! The yearly increases are PATHETIC (2%)!! the only real way to get any extra is to get promoted (6%) and even then they'll try to screw you out of pay. When you hit store management they try to screw you again and use your bonus (which isn't guaranteed) as a reason to offer you lower salary. I get that its a decision from MUCH higher up the ladder than retail management but they expect people to work hard and living/breath CVS while paying them total crap compared to other places which have you do less for more. - They don't really give a crap about how their employees feel about working there. They set up a good front with the yearly employee satisfaction survey and they do indeed implement new programs each year based on the results (which are available to ALL employees). Somehow they fail every year to address the real issues with working there, the SAME 3 or 4 questions have been the worst rated questions for YEARS and NOTHING has been done to address them. Instead they try to distract you with stupid things like letting staff decorate their break rooms and new helpful system on the Telxons for doing tedious tasks like push. Your voices are being heard, corporate just has selective hearing. - Every try to cram 10 pounds of crap into a 2 pound bag? CVS does every day. Unless your store is bringing in SERIOUS cash flow you get the joyous status of "minimum hours store" (which is almost everybody). Unless you have an all star staff (good luck getting that with the pay rates they allow) you're pretty much going to spend 50 hours a week or more at your store to get everything done on time and properly, oh and you're only going to get paid for 45 of those hours... ever. If I got paid for the hours I was expected to work over 45 in all my time as a store manager that job would be totally worth it. - Corporate will make all sorts of promises to you to get you to something undesirable. Word of advice, get that crap in writing and signed by you both. Corporate has to be the most epic liar I have ever known and if you don't have that written proof they are going to turn around and slap you in the face with it. - Think long and hard before taking on any kind of real challenge. Once you accept it, you're stuck there. If you lose the challenge you lose your job. As I said before make sure you have a written and signed plan of action for such an instance. After 9 years of loyal and dedicated service to CVS and proven ability to successfully manage stores and people they were just fine to throw me out after not being able to recover a store which would have been better off being burned and rebuilt.