driver

warehouse associate

customer service representative

client advisor

Argos

Having spend well in excess of a decade as a manager in Argos I can confirm it is a truly awful place to work and I would urge extreme caution if you are thinking of a career here in any form of management position,
You will be on a very low set salary compared to other businesses with no overtime paid and you will be expected to work well in excess of your 40 hour base for no extra pay. It would be the norm for managers to work 50, 60, 70 hours a week for a 40 hour pay check.
Argos head office decide how many hours you can spend weekly on front line staff which is always less than what is needed and the management are forced to make up the shortfall by doing overtime that is unpaid,
This company will work you to the bone and your home life and mental health will suffer greatly as a result. There are practically no benefits offered either, no company cars, no bonuses (except a tiny one after the pandemic that was practically insulting for what they put us through), they claim that bonus will be paid yearly if targets are met but the targets are always purposely unreachable and the one benefit that they do offer is a 10% discount but seen as their prices are on average 10% higher than most of the local competitors this 10% is effectively non existent.
They offer progression opportunities but for these opportunities you are often years waiting and with every progression in role the growth in role demands far outstrips the growth in your salary.
Job security and progression opportunity are also tumbling presently as they are slowly but sure closing down stores with an average of 2 stores being closed every year for the past 4 or so years with more planned to be closed this coming year.
There is also a clause in your contract that they can move you to any store they want to within 1 hours drive from your home at the drop of a hat and if you disagree they can fire you without any redundancy offered.
Furthermore if you are planning to work for Argos as a front line staff member I would also advise extreme caution. As a front line colleague you will be given a contract of around 20 hours (often lower than this) and you will be expected to be available to work 7 days a week any hours of the day and you will be expected to spread your 20 working hours over 4 - 5 shifts working as low as 4 hours per shift. These contracts are also always started as temporary for your first year meaning they can drop you without notice at any stage before the year is up. 
Unless you are looking for a part time job that wont expect you to work more than 4 hours a day and that works for you for some reason (e.g.you get tired easily and don't like long shifts) again this company is to be avoided.
In summary Argos will expect you to give up your life, your financial stability, all your time and your mental health and all you will get in return is a low salary, no appreciation and a 10% discount that wont really save you anything compared to their high street counterparts. 

So to begin with, I had just been made redundant from a long term job. I needed a job fairly quickly and with xmas around the corner, argos were taking on. 
I got a job, apparently as a retail assistant as my background is both working with customer, and in retail management. 
I started off working in the warehouse which is something I've never done. I must admit it was hard graft, but I did enjoy it despite it being incredibly repetitive after a shift or two. I ended up asking to work the shop floor which I managed to do a little bit before being put back to the warehouse. I kept pushing to work the shop floor though, and realised why temps didnt really do the shop floor. Their system is incredibly tedious and probably very old. It took a little getting used to, but I managed to get the hang of it pretty quickly as I'd worked lots of different types of tills over my career. 
I realised fairly quickly, its hugely target driven. Targets are add ons, insurance where applicable, and getting customers to sign up to argos credit cards. I struggled with the add ons to begin with. You actually had to ask every customer if they wanted a card apparently. One ridiculous member of management heard that I didnt ask one customer and told me it was a "legal requirement" which gave me a laugh. 
This one member of management wouldn't talk to temps and didnt really talk to anyone outside of management. She was awful. She only ever spoke to me to tell me to do something, which, considering I've heald higher jobs than her before and after working here, did not go down well with me. 
Many times I ended up getting thrown back to the warehouse which, especially when I did it alone, i didnt like at all. 
After the 3 month temp period i was offered an extra month which i accepted. After that month i got another month which again i accepted and most temps had gone by then. When it came to the end of that month, I had a week book off at the end. The very last day before my week off, I was called to see the manager (who was departing that week) for him to tell me I wasnt getting another extension. This was about 20 minutes before the end of my shift, meaning I had 20 minutes before I was, again, jobless. 
For what it's worth, my sales record was very good, much better than some of the ones who only ever worked on the shop floor and had been there for years. I was competent in the warehouse moreso than some others who had been there, again, for a long time. 2 temps were kept on longer than I was despite, me feeling I was better than them all round, but they got on well with one of the supervisors. 
For what its worth, 90% of the people I worked with were really good guys. I got on really well with everyone who worked on the ground as it were. Both warehouse supervisors/managers were great and the rest of the permanent staff were a good laugh. The management however were really off with temps and I felt I was treated incredibly unfairly.

Although I was generally stationed on the tills, a typical day at work could involve a variety of tasks such as order picking, put away of delivery, arranging the shop floor with latest promotional material to a plan chart, and general shop floor tasks such as stock replenishment, tidying. There was also a newly introduced 'Navigator' role in which colleagues casually asked customers browsing catalogues if they'd like any help, after being trained on the type of body language to look for.
Serving at the till involved ensuring customers left with the complete package (for example, a memory card for a camera, or a case for a tablet), and offering the benefits of replacement product care while providing information on spreading the cost over a number of months. My morale with customers came naturally, which gave a lot of job satisfaction during my time there.
Picking stock involved working to a voice-picking system called Talkman, which responded to your voice and gave commands such as location, catalogue number, quantity, destination. There is a brief learning curve but this system is extremely simple to use. Providing there are enough staff on shift to compensate for busy hours, it is a very efficient system. The delivery process uses the same system, though you voice the stock away (to stockroom standards) and confirm location placed as opposed to visiting locations to pick customer orders.
When picking upstairs, as a non-customer facing area of the store, colleagues are expected to handle the 'damages' process in which returned damaged stock is re-caged and labelled to be returned, and handle the delivery process when required in addition to general cleaning of floor and tidying of shelves.
I had some great working relationships with colleagues and was open to feedback as well as providing it myself to strengthen the team. Colleagues would often ask each other for help if they weren't sure on something, and they'd get it straight away. I also had a healthy rapport with management, though I cannot deny they could of definitely done a lot more to motivate their team.
The hardest part of the job was having to repeatedly justify a faulty reservation system which gave customers incorrect information; while the issue didn't appear to be acknowledged above store level. The most enjoyable part of the job for me was serving customers, although I also enjoyed working in the stockroom handling the delivery process.

I've worked at Argos head office in MK for just over 2 years and it's been a really exhilerating experience. The company is in the midst of transforming itself into a leading digital retailer which makes for a very dynamic environment. You're encouraged to be innovative and if something has gremlins there's no real blame culture - it's treated as a series of learnings for future versions or projects.

The underlying culture running through Argos is one of 'family'. Your colleagues decorate your desk on your birthday and everyone chips in for a card and pressie presented by the team. There's always cakes, lunches and evenings out so you have to pick and choose your calorie intake with care! Good restaurant and a cafe style meeting area across the arborial atrium makes for a busy, productive but relaxed feel to the place. Recent policy changes, lobbied by the colleagues' forum, means you can wear pretty much what you like to work as long as it's clean and tidy. 

We do have some pretty punishing schedules at times but these are mainly created by working in a very fluid, agile business where initiatives are set up to address specific challenges - and this can happen at short notice. But, this is balanced with a great range of projects to work on and the occasional quiet day when you can spend time working on personal development and objectives that help to improve you and the business.

There are loads of learning opportunities, a comprehensive intranet and news feed and some really good events that make us all feel rather proud to work for Argos.

Best of all are the new digital workplace opportunities to work from home on a fairly regular basis. Of course, it comes down to your role but, with hot-desking in place in many departments, it's a great way to run at more than 100% occupancy. With a 75 minute journey to the office, one day a week of not getting up at silly o'clock is so welcome and I have many more productive hours. "Viva Office 365!"  

Add in innumerable staff benefits and a decent bonus scheme and, 
overall, it adds up to a great place to work.

I worked for Argos for an entire year, that year was horrible.

Always understaffed, leaving me to manage the whole shop by myself and numerous customers while the managers and team leaders would just stay in the office, not bothering to come out. Even when you would ask, they would give some excuse as to why they couldn't. 

Being in 9-5, and being by yourself, especially around Christmas when hundreds of people would be coming in. Queue's forming outside the shop into Sainsbury's, having to leave your customer to get their items as the warehouse staff were not doing what they are supposed too. 

Rarely getting your breaks and lunch breaks as the colleagues who were buddies with the managers got their first, even if you'd been working since 9 and they got in at 11/12.

Hiring new staff and not training them properly so you will always be picking up their slack, you would tell your manager about it but they wouldn't care.

Manager relationships with staff and letting them have all the time off they want and always giving them the easiest work to do (e.g. warehouse), although this was supposed to be on a rota. All the staff were so two-faced. You'd tell your manager or team leader something in confidence and everyone would know about it the next day.

They wouldn't believe you if you were ill.

I had an operation on my foot, they wanted me to still come into work and just have flipflops on.

Rota system, being in 3 hours a day. The rota constantly changing without them telling you so you'd get phone calls saying where are you, even though you aren't due to start until 5pm, but they changed your rota till 3pm, late last night, or 20 minutes before ringing you so you looked like a liar - then pressured you to stop whatever you were doing and come in ASAP.

The pressure to get emails, insurance on products and an Argos card was just a joke - even so, when you're supposed to get a £10 reward for each bit of insurance you sold over £50 (i believe) but your manager never told you that and kept it all himself.

Short of it all, I got diagnosed with Depression after working here for a year.

One of the most exhausting and demoralising jobs I’ve ever had the misfortune to work in

During my time here, I found the work culture to be extremely difficult and unsupportive. There was a strong reliance on micromanagement, which often left employees feeling mistrusted and under constant pressure. Feedback was rarely constructive and the overall tone from management created a tense and discouraging atmosphere, especially when sales targets were involved.

One of the most troubling things I witnessed was the way younger or less experienced staff were treated. In one case, a 16-year-old colleague became so upset following a stressful exchange with management that she left her shift in tears and never returned. This should have been seen as a sign that something needed to change, but it was unfortunately brushed aside without reflection.

The physical demands of the job are considerable. Working upstairs often means walking over 20,000 steps per shift with limited support and little opportunity for adequate breaks. The expectation was to keep going regardless of exhaustion or how short-staffed the team was.

Scheduling felt imbalanced. Certain employees regularly received the most desirable shifts while others, including myself, were repeatedly scheduled for late evenings and weekends regardless of our stated availability. This made it difficult to maintain any kind of work-life balance.

Morale was low across the team and turnover was frequent. When staff raised concerns, they were rarely acknowledged in a meaningful way. Over time, this contributed to a work environment that left many feeling undervalued and disengaged.

If you are early in your career or looking for a supportive and respectful workplace, I would strongly recommend considering other opportunities. There are better environments out there that value staff wellbeing, provide fair treatment and foster a more positive team culture.


I worked at Argos as a Christmas Temp and left at the end of my contract. I was only trained in the stockroom (not on the tills), so a typical day for me would involve picking stock, putting away returns, sometimes pulling in the delivery from the van and putting it away, and doing stock counts of high value items. The work itself it pretty straightforward and very repetitive once you have learnt the processes. 

The people were nice and  were always willing to help me if I was was stuck. The managers in my store were really friendly and understanding. 

The hardest part of the job is probably getting to grips with the headset and the processes at the beginning (not actually that hard,just takes 2 or 3 shifts to get used to). In the weeks before Christmas it gets very busy and this can be stressful due to the shop being understaffed which makes picking all the order within target times extremely difficult. For example, there was one morning, two weeks before christmas where there was only me and one team leader picking orders and the shop was busy, and we were both completely overwhelmed. 

In the stockroom, staff use headsets. Although these headsets are needed for the job, most the problems encountered by staff are to do with the headset not understanding them and this either leads to things been voiced in incorrectly (through no fault of the staff) or staff members standing there for ages repeatedly saying the same words into their headset trying to get it to register what they're saying. 

Overall it is a decent temporary job, nice people and not difficult to get the hang of at all.

I have worked for Argos for 4years and in the beginning I believed it was a place to thrive and achieve more in climbing the ladder. Everyone worked together as a team and the management communicated well to each other however over the past few years of me being there the management has changed 3 times each time that means us having to adapt as a team to how the new management want to run the store. As the years have gone on due to all the updates the store has gone through this has meant more workload, everyday I work there I'm likely to be doing four peoples job at once this would be picking the items handing them out on collection whilst doing delivery and putting away the returns I believe my store is failing to remember team work and the management do not communicate well at all as one the stock room manager may tell you to do something and the shop floor manager will tell you to do the complete opposite. I have been given the opportunity many of times to be team leader and I have acted team leader but I believed due to the extra amount of work load on top of what I was doing was not worth an extra pound for a lot more stress. At Argos I am what they call an all rounder they are able to place me anywhere in the store weather that being front of house or back I have learnt management skills there the only part I haven't learnt is cash office due to not having time to train me I tend to train up the new members of the team and I can very firm but fair. 

My job role includes:
Till/ customer service 
Picking items 
Returns
Delivery 
Taking the tills off at the end of shift 
Sorting damaged items into cages 
Sometimes sorting out the weekend work shift by sorting everyone's lunches 
Giving authorisation to other team members on overriding prices etc.
Training staff 
Stock check 
Security stock check 
Jewellery sales 
Store change over

Expect to only ever be on a 6 or 12 hour contract although it will be implied that this will increase over time at your interview, barely makes it better then being on a zero hour contract. There is sometimes overtime available as staff are always leaving and staff that have been there for more then 2 weeks don't want any more hours, those who do want extra hours have to compete with the brown nosers as they get special consideration above the people that actually do their job. There's two job roles standing behind a till for your shift having to ask lots of questions and selling insurance being constantly monitored or working in the warehouse either picking items or stacking shelves with shifts starting from 7:00am. Most of the management seem to be incapable and inexperienced which isn't surprising as promotions seem to be decided on length of service rather than ability or whoever they can get to do the job on the disappointing wages and instead of being “competitive” as described in the advert minimum is a better description, which leads to most of the management not caring about the store or staff as they are just there to pick up a wage packet, and explains the little amount of training you receive and are just chucked into it and being expected to know what to do and moaned at when you don't. Expect rotas to change with little notice or even being told they have changed with no week being the same as the next. Expect to be treated as a dispensable commodity and with no respect. There always seems to be someone off ill mainly because of stress and not wanting to be there. Don't expect to get paid commission for pushing store cards and product insurance on customers or expect to work in a enjoyable work environment and any complaints get ignored by management, even in-house HR don't follow up on complaints.

A typical day at work for me was, arriving at work 10 minutes before my shift and recieving a briefing on the work i would be doing that day (Stockroom, Collection, Tills or Customer Services) and a briefing on the store itself to see if it was meeting targets, such as feedback, add-on sales etc... for the previous day. At Argos i learned a huge amount about what it is to be in a customer facing environment and what good customer service is. I learned the importance of the small things (a smile and hello when meeting the customer, a goodbye/Have a nice day when the transaction is complete) and how I can effect a customers experience at the store. Management were very good at their jobs, i constantly recieved feedback about my performance which helped alot, the only thing i could critisize would be that i was never stationed anywhere for very long (i'd be at tills for half a day then stockroom for the rest and collection the next) and this made it extremily difficult for me to hit the targets that i was set because i was never in a place long enough to meet the target. My Co-workers were all very friendly. The ones that had been at the store longer than i had were always very keen to help out where they could and this created a very nice environment to work in. The hardest part of the job i have mentioned earlier, trying to meet set targets when i was the person that they were able to send anywhere in the store to work, and the most enjoyable part of the job i guess would be the same thing in a sense, i was the person that they trusted enough to be able to work anywhere. I was trusted with handling the stockroom on a saturday for half the day on my own near christmas time, which is an extremily busy time of year, and in the same breath they could call me downstairs to work on collection or tills without a problem either.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Driver 2 salaries reported	£47,100 per year
Warehouse associate 1 salary reported	£26,177 per year
Customer service representative 1 salary reported	£12,000 per year
Client advisor 1 salary reported	£20,631 per year

Working at Argos: company overview and reviews

Argos

Argos ratings

Popular jobs at Argos

Salary satisfaction

Jobseeker tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected