I was working part-time in Zara during my University. It was an absolutely horrendous and very upsetting experience. I would never recommend it to any of my friends. The management is ruthless and lacks the basic sense of humanity. There's a lot of cons that I could mention however the main are:
- the lack of flexibility
-management does not respect you- I experienced and saw it so many times - managers yell at you in front of the customers, not willing to help you out, boosting their ego on your failure or they simply take out all their anger or frustration on you, why? just because they can.
- HR - totally uselless. Usually will not take your side. Takes ages for them to act on any issue, not to mention they do mistakes when it comes to counting up the montly hours and shifts at the end of each month, no harm but you don't get paid if they make a mistake. They don't understand the concept of 'confidentiality'
-policy - a lot of people shop in Zara, and yes the policy changes once in a while. However management changes it however they want and whenever it's convenient for them. I witnessed one of the managers refunding his husband's worn coat without proof of purchase and right credit card, just because he could do it
-closing shifts - usually two people on a closing shift duty - you have to basically do everything that was not managed to be done during the day. Did I mention taking out rubbish ? Yes, if you are the chosen one ( usually one of the cashiers either from a department with more cashiers or just the person who is not liked) have to go to the toilets on a top floor and take out all rubish bags that were changed and left by cleaninig team during the day, all boxes left after morning's delivery, sort them out and transport it down by lift on YOUR OWN. It's rather disgusting and dirty job to do, the plastic bags are leaking or have a holes in them. You usually stay extra 15-20 min if no one wants to help you - no one usually does - everyone wants to get home asap.
-facilities- management don't care is lift does not work. The store I used to work in had the stockroom on the top floor which meant if there was stock delivery that was usually roughtly 20-30 heavy boxes per day it had to be transported by lift upstaris before the opening time. However, the lift was out of service for around one month and all those boxes and rails with clothes must have been transported by employees climbing 4 floors up and down the stairs. Management did not even help with the boxes - they were just rushing everybody 'cause it's opening time'.
- sick - I saw so many people being bullied by their managers to come to work when they didn't feel well. It was disgusting - still they do it, why ? Because there's no one to cover the shop floor. If you have more than 3 (!) sick days in 6 months you get a disciplinary hearing where another manager bullies you for 2 hours straight, assuming you are lying and trying to prove it - I had a situation when one of the managers was Googling the medicines I was perscribed by GP in front of me to prove that I'm lying.
