Vantaggi
The best reason that I can think of to work at Sears is that because I had it on my resume, I was able to land a much higher paying job with a bigger and more respected company. The people are ok. My Store manager was a competent leader for the store associates and over all a pretty cool guy. Communication is handled fairly well at the store level, but again I suppose that depends on your SM. I don't mind reading 30 e-mails a day, so I was kept in the loop pretty well. Pay overall was good, but I was the highest paid hourly employee in the store. I'm sure the sales floor associates would not agree. Some of the processes and programs are very helpful. The iFind program that lets you look at suspicious transactions done on the registers is very helpful in finding dishonest employees. Over all, It was a good "job" but not a "career."
Svantaggi
I can't speak fro everyone, but the biggest downside, and ultimately why I left the company, was that with Sears, the Loss Prevention Team technically works for the Store Manager. I have never worked for a company before that was like this and all it does is create a conflict of interest in the stores. I was constantly being given tasks and asked to do things that were not allowed for my position, or were were completely non-productive for LP. I was treated as just any other manager in the building and was made to do things like fold jeans and shirts, do register approvals, and answer MOD phone calls at night because "we all work as a team." When My district LP manager found out I was being told to do these things, she told me that I could actually be written up personally for doing those things. My store manager didn't care and basically told me tough, do it or he would write me up anyway. So I went to work every day worried that either my Store Manager or my District LP Manager would write me up because I just happened to land in the middle of their little power struggle. The company is not doing well sales wise. Big decreases mean management is getting laid off and LP is getting taken out of a lot of store all together.