Svantaggi
Worked for this company for 7 months and every single day was overshadowed by uncertainty. Don’t be fooled by the illusion of a full time contract, this company is more focused on expansion of stores than retention. They would never definitively confirm that the store was anything more than a pop up, and managers would actively ignore direct messages and emails asking for this confirmation. When they would finally answer, they would run the same line repeatedly, assuring us that we were a valued team in the company, that we shouldn’t worry about closure, they would keep us up to date with any discussions regarding us on their end. In the end, this was not the case and we were abruptly told 3 weeks before Christmas that we were closing before the new year and that we would all be redundant. All of this was conveyed to us like they were doing us a favour by giving us more than a weeks notice. And with no consideration for the tone or emotions of the now unemployed staff, conversations about where they would be opening their new stores, and how much money certain other stores were making were being had in front of the team who had just been told their contacts were being terminated.
This company will sell staff of the idea of “family” values and small business vibes, but they have no care for staff on the shop floor.
In our own store, we were left with no wifi, and so had to rely on free public broadband networks throughout the day to run the entire sales system.
There were numerous health and safety concerns brought up by staff, including:
-a dangerous electrical set up which almost caused a fire
-an unannounced security system, including an intruder alarm which emitted smoke when set off, which none of the staff were told was there and ended up causing massive issue
-lack of cctv, which brought up massive security and safety concerns in the all female team, which was again ignored.
Shifts were designed so that 1 staff member would be solo trading for multiple hours, up until 8pm. For a team of young women, it did not feel safe being left to solo trade in a shop late in the evening with no security cameras and poor contact with managers before 9am and after 6pm. Even when one member of staff was being harassed by a frequent ‘customer’, management barely acknowledged the multiple messages expressing concern from the whole team, and did nothing to help. The problem was being dealt with by the police, of which management were aware, and they didn’t even bother to ask if the staff member in question was okay.
Staff expressed they didn’t feel safe in the store without cctv, nothing was done
There was no on site manager, leaving sales assistant staff to often pick up the work of a manager, with no compensation in terms of pay.
If there were any issues, because the nearest manager was 50+ miles away, staff were expected to sort the issue themselves, even if they were solo trading at the time. Management was difficult to reach for an immediate reply, which made customer service unnecessarily difficult as customers couldn’t understand why we couldn’t immediately help them, or why there was no one higher to speak to. Sales assistants often took the brunt of customer aggression, often while solo trading, and the lack of cctv in this situation again made staff feel very vulnerable. This was also expressed as a concern
Staff were basically expected to be contactable 24/7 incase of absence and need to cover.
The working conditions in this shop were at times unbearable. The shop would become so cold, even with the plug in heater on, that staff were constantly ill.
Overall, despite appearances, this company is not considerate of sales assistants and will dismiss any concerns raised to them until they can terminate your contract.
