Ridiculous hours over holiday season
Pros
Pretty good discount (30% off Bath and Body as well as Victorias secret) but they never told us how to use the discount...I went into VS and told them I was an employee and they said they were not authorized to use my discount even though I had my employee number... Hiring was pretty quick. I went in on a Saturday to pick up an application and returned it on Sunday. They asked me on the spot to return on Monday for an interview. Came back on Monday for a group interview with 2 other people and we all were hired on the spot.
Cons
1. No training- luckily I had experience working with the same POS system so I was able to catch on again, but there were times it was only me in the front of the store handling customers, driving sales and handling the cash register 2. The women I worked with were pretty terrible- I overheard them several times talking badly about new seasonal employees...During my first few days I went up to everyone and introduced myself but out of 10 people only 1 person introduced themselves back. It was clear they had no intention of getting to know or even learning the names of the people they were working with. I worked with one older woman who was consistently talking poorly about all the non-white customers we got. As a woman of color, this made me SO uncomfortable, but since she had been working there for 5 years and was friends with the manager I didn't feel comfortable to speak up or say anything 3. HORRIBLE hours. When I began working I was really pleased because I thought the manager was really taking my school schedule into account when making the schedule. As a college senior, school for me did come first and I liked how she made sure that I wasn't working late so that I could go home and study. But then the semester was winding down and the holiday season was approaching so I thought I would get some more hours...WRONG. My black friday experience was AWFUL! My shift was 4am-9am, and again 2:30pm-11pm. I arrived at 4 and worked until 8, with my final hour being cut. I didn't really care too much since I knew I had a long shift in the afternoon. I came back at 2:30, donuts in hand after buying some for my co-workers, and my manager marched up to me and (very rudely) asked what I was doing there. I was confused and told her I was supposed to be back at 2:30 for my next shift...she said that the schedule did not say that. I immediately walked over to the schedule and saw it said 2:30-11. She looked at me, and goes "you can go home, we actually don't need you." So not only did I barely sleep, I hauled myself back to the mall on Black friday, found parking in the middle of no where, brought donuts and you tell me to go home?? She did not apologize at all and just said that she meant to call me to tell me not to come but she forgot... I was so upset that immediately after leaving I called another store that had previously called to interview me (that I declined because I already was hired by bath and body works) 4. I understand that bath and body works is really sales oriented, but I felt like I was constantly getting cheated out of getting sales I made attributed to me. There were several times I helped a customer out and sent her to the register, only to watch my manager and other employees write down their names as the sales associate that helped them, even when the customer specified that I had helped them out. Then the manager has the nerve to tell me I need to push harder for sales because I'm not getting any? I'm not exactly sure how this is fair... Overall I had such a bad experience. I mainly feel stupid for even taking the job when I had so many other interview offers that I declined because I had already received an offer from bath and body works.
