store manager

support worker

family support worker

project specialist ii

home care worker

Barnardo's

I've been volunteering with Barnardos for 2 and a half years and feel unappreciated. A typical day at work has me sent to the shop floor to man the till, when i ask if there is something else i can help with i am usually met with: "not just now" leaving me to stand at the till from start to finish. To cure my boredom i rearange the shop displays and tidy the clothes rails, leaving some areas untidy to save some excitement for the next day.
The management in my shop could be better, sales assistants are made to do all of the same work or more as the manager but for longer hours and get little free time or holidays. There is an abundance of tea and smoke breaks meaning i often need to leave the shop by the rear exit for advice on customer queries, leaving the shop unsupervised. Shop supplies are often scarce and it could take weeks for staff to order what we need. Potential volunteers are sometimes made to wait long periods of time before their applications are processed. When they are, it is often the existing volunteers that give most of the training.
2 sales assistants have been and gone in the time that i have been there, both left due to the hours they were doing as opposed to what they were contracted (around 35-40 instead of 21) On the plus side, there have been improvements in management lately due to internal  complaints.
My co-workers are all lovely. We have had a few bad eggs in the past but, when confronted on their behaviour, decided to leave promptly. We all look out for each other and get along well, working as a team in everything we do, coordinating group tasks and dealing with customers, and we can always have a joke with each other or offer advice on issues.
The hardest parts of the job are; Dealing with shoplifters and unpleasant customers, as well as seeing your hard work undone.
Knowing how to talk to shoplifters is not something you are taught. There is a brief portion of the induction video which explains you are not to chase after, or talk down to shoplifters, but only to calmly ask them to return the items. Many will argue with you to no end, whilst others will quote their 'rights' denying you any chance of getting back stolen property.
As for having your work undone, on a busy day, we will receive large amounts of donations to the point where the back room in the shop is totally full. This can be a safety risk but thankfully we always remind each other to watch our footing etc. When the shop gets too full it is nearly impossible to work competently as there is no room to move or to gather shop supplies such as bin liners and price gun refills, and certainly no space to put anything down. After a long afternoon, or even as much as an entire few days of tidying and sorting when it gets quiet: the back room will be returned to a normal workspace environment. Feeling proud of our process, the staff will resume normal activities only to have the mess and obstructions return over the course of 1 morning. Not only that, but after organising under the till, members of staff will manage to return the workspace into disorder in a short time, leaving you unmotivated to work.
The most enjoyable parts of the job are; Receiving thanks and praise from satisfied customers, and getting to know the volunteers.
Some of the regulars, or just friendly customers are very pleased with our customer service offer their thanks and give compliments on a good day. We always strive to make everyone feel welcome which eventually pays off on days of that nature. Getting to know the staff is pleasant as many new friendships have started between the volunteers, some becoming inseparable. Taking on each others problems and sharing jokes and stories makes the workplace much more enjoyable.

Overall I wouldn't recommend working for Barnardo's as many members of staff are found to be miserable after a few short months of working there. There will be more rewarding retail jobs out there. However the team are very nice and you get to meet some great people of different backgrounds.

Manager treated me with passive-aggressiveness, borderline abusive texts in and out of work, bullying, and contributed to an uncomfortable work environment. Constant corporatisation of what should be a charitable effort? Pushed for targets to sell overpriced rubbish from the out of touch New Goods team. Training for the basics was all but comprehensive. Expected to take abuse off colleagues who are aware of pre-existing conditions through "Wellbeing Action Plans" that meant nothing, as there were never any changes in attitudes, behaviours or meaningful adjustments to accommodate any condition you have.

Near constant gaslighting, double standards, and being put in overly-stressful situations where I was expected to do a million and one things with little-to-no help, in stores across the region. Manager admitted she only took the job as her position as a Store Associate had been taken away by the company, after her own experiences with abusive managers which never got properly resolved. You would not be mistaken in getting the feeling that these managers have NO soft skills, NO idea how to manage and lead a team, and NO idea how to treat those younger than them who are looking for support and guidance. Her training as a manager failed her, my team of volunteers, me, and anyone who could possibly come into contact with her in the workplace. 

This is a truly thankless job filled with lazy, incompetent managers. if you are under 25 you will receive no respect or support. Area Manager admitted that this position is NOT for store associate, but rather an assistant store manager and  that the pay does not match the responsibilities attached to the role. 

The only positives I can gather from this role were the amazing volunteers I worked with who I was able to make meaningful connections with, shared my sentiments with the corporate-nature of what is supposed to be a charity, and recognised the fact that I was being exploited and put under a level of pressure and double standards that were not reasonable for an 18 year old, and helped me so much day-to-day.

Again, please don't make my mistake and think this will be a fun and meaningful job, especially if you are younger. They will take your good will and passion for helping others and will treat you horribly and take advantage of you. Before working for Barnardo's, I used to be a fan of charity shopping and would visit charity shops weekly, now, having experienced what I have and knowing that I am not alone in my experience, I simply do not enjoy it anymore. They took what passion I had for the charity sector, for the objectives of Barnardo's, and for preloved shopping, and have left me disillusioned and cynical to the true nature of these "charities".

Executives and anyone who works in corporate are in the higher tax bracket, while the people who actually make the charity money are underpaid and are told that investment in stores and staff is not possible, with volunteers having to pay out of pocket for travel expenses in order to perform their labour for free. Mix this with hollow, empty statements regarding mental health awareness and institutional racism in the UK, it is near impossible to feel that this charity stands for anything. 

Arriving early to set up the shop, go and  check the sell buy date and either reduce price's or put in a recycle bag. Make sure there was no hazzard's, the floor was clean. Then go to the safe for the cash open the till and sign the beginning of the till roll. Unlock the door for the customers to come in. Keep putting out the items that are for sale, price them before you put them in a place where customers can see them. Then when other staff came in they would make you a cupy. If you were short staffed you just had to have it if and when you got a chance. If we had all the workers in you would be able to go to the back shop and  put your feet up. There were a few ladies that prefered to serve at the till so you could go down stairs to do steam cleaning, empty the donation bags that had been handed in. The latest bags went to the end of the line. Then it would be lunch time before you knew it. It would depend on how was in first thing they would go to lunch. So that would mean there was always two people on the counter, one checked the price of the item or items the other would ring it up in the till and took the money and helper would wrap  or fold the item into a plain carrier bag. Then after lunch you would do it all over again. People would bring in there donations into the shop and leave them at the till so we would get someone from downstairs to take them down stair to keep the floor clear, nothing for the customers to trip or fall over. Then its three in the afternoon, that is when most of the people down stairs leave (they are people on community pay back) Then about four o'clock time to cash up. Useulay it would be the manageress that did it. But like most things if you can prove you are honest and able to do so, you would do the cashing up. You would get the keys and open the safe collect the float that was used for the till to exchange the takings out of the till also take a reading from the receipt roll for the total off the tackings. You would also take receipts for the outgoings with the money to the back office. You would write down in the cashing up book the total of expenses at one side then court and bag the cash write that in the bank pay in slip then count the notes write them in then check that the totals are both the same, finally take the money to the bank. Then It's back to the counter check the rota for tomorrow. Then it's time to lock the door and wash the floor. Take the drawer from the till with the start of tomorrows takings to the safe open and put in side, then lock it away till the next morning. Check all the doors and windows are locked up put the lights out walk to the door unlock go outside lock the door pull the shutter down and lock.

At Barnardo's Charity as a Sales Assistant, I would arrive every day at 8:30am, prepare the shop for opening and uphold that store with volunteers, I used to get into some excellent conversations within this position, allowing myself to get to know volunteers well and enabling them to see me as an equal and not their boss, whilst undeniably I was their boss I would not like to be viewed as a boss in which they could not communicate their problems at.

I learnt many skills at this workplace, with till usage, stock taking, delivery management, health and safety guidelines, stock maintenance, volunteer training and leadership and many more minor skills which I will no doubt take on with future organisations.

Management was absolutely fantastic, I could not of liked my manager more, whilst my manager no doubt held up a tight ship, I was trained extremely well and got on with my manager since day one, we did have our odd heated discussions, however these were always creative and never hit a personal level. This created a happy workplace for the volunteers where they would feel welcome at all times.

My co-workers, were the volunteers. Hearing and learning of their personal stories and circumstance made me admire them even more for their dedication and service, I still maintain contact with several volunteers to this day.

Hardest part of the job work sometimes be the lack of volunteers, some days volunteers could not come in for various reasons, therefore I would uphold the entire store by myself. Whilst this created a lot of difficulty and back room duties could not take place during these times, I held up the store and kept customers happy until a volunteer or my manager would come in to assist my efforts.

The most enjoyable part of this job was working with the volunteers. I absolutely adored all of the volunteers during my time in this position and in response to my great relationship with my volunteers I was able to work with them extremely well and upheld the store with ease.

Back in 2017 during college, I did work experience at Barnardos and after my internship was finished I was asked to volunteer at Barnardos and it was the best choice for me 

Throughout the years I have done loads of different tasks from working the till, sorting out stock, cleaning the shop floor, dealing with customer enquiries, and the best one of them all sorting out the toys/board games and sorting out the toy shelf and displaying the toy shelf well and customers would always say that they toy shelf was displayed amazingly.

Every time I went to volunteering four days a week it was always a quiet day or sometimes busy with lots of tasks and customers but overall I was always happy coming to work and I gained a lot of experience that helped me get some paid employment roles and every time my employment  roles came to end I always came back to Barnardos to gain more experience.

The managers and sales associates I had at Barnardos were brilliant and gave me  loads of support  and criticism on things to improve and I always took it well and this always completed my targets and lots to improve on

The other volunteers I worked with at Barnardos were always great and I had the chance to gain great friendships with some of them and also had the chance to help a few students doing work experience at Barnardos and it always a great day with the other volunteers and I also had the time to have great chats while working as well 

Overall I enjoyed working at Barnardos for seven years and I was really gutted when I found out that the Wickford Branch was sadly closing down and every time I walk past the empty shop I always remember the memories I had working there and also the experience I gained about the retail experience 

If any of you guys are planning to gain some work experience in retail or any work experience this is one charity I recommend 

Typical Day 

Manage the day to day provision of Leeds Reach and provide leadership.

Work with other integrated multi-disciplinary teams, providing high performing support for young people and families. 

What ive learnt

Assessing a young person correctly is key to providing worthwhile holistic support.

Maintaining networks within the industry is key to the above .

Management 

Providing statistics for the work completed (i.e. measuring both hard and soft outcomes) and the impact it has on the wider community as has on a  whole is paramount for third sector funding and sustainability . 

Monitoring the work and performance of team members is pararmount in order to make sure that their skills are in line with the needs of the young people i work with. 

Making sure that the service is up to date with governement rhetoric and it is implemented correctly which also meets the needs of our partners i.e. schools and local authority. 

Co-workers

It’s important to create a professional working culture that adapts to the needs of the service users. Where possible staff are managed at a macro level and have the agency to complete their duties proficiently, so that they feel empowered to provide the correct support for the young people.  

Equally it is important that staff feel empowered to ask for help, information share and share good practice i.e. it’s not just up to the management to provide news ways of working with the young people. 

Hardest Part

Finding a work and home life balance, work hours can be long. Third sector work is organic so this is no such thing an a typical day. 

Enjoyable Part

This has to be enpowering the young people and seeing how the correct support plan can help them develop. I like to see young people that i have not worked with for years return to the service to give an update of their lives. 

NO TWO DAYS ARE THE SAME. GAINED NEW FRIENDS AT WORK WHO NOW WORK AS A GOOD TEAM.EACH PERSON IS OF VALUE ,WHETHER THEY WORK ON THE TILL,STEAM,PRICE. THEY ARE A PART OF A TEAM.TAKE AWAY A SMALL PIECE AND MACHINE STILL WORKS BUT NOT AS EFFICIENTLY.EACH PERSON HAS SOMETHING TO GIVE TO THE SHOP.
SOME DAYS IT FEELS WORK LOAD IS HARD,BUT YOU MANAGE TO PULL THROUGH AND THE BENEFITS AT THE END OF THE DAY SHOW IN THE TILL.PREPARATION IS THE KEY IN THIS TYPE OF WORK.PLANNING FORWARD IS ESSENTIAL ANY UNFORSEEN THINGS CAN HAPPEN.VOLUNTEERS ARE AN ESSENTIAL PART OF CHARITY WORK BUT SOMETIMES DO NOT REALISE HOW MUCH.SOMETIMES NOT TURNING UP TO WORK OR CALLING TO SAY NOT IN.THIS CAN HAVE A KNOCK ON EFFECT TO SHOPS.THIS CAN CAUSE UPSET BETWEEN STAFF.SO I FIND THIS HARD AT TIMES.I HAVE GROUND RULES THAT ALL STAFF PAID/UNPAID FOLLOW.THIS GIVES BETTER WORKING AREA FOPR ALL.STAFF ENJOY BEEN INVOLVED IN HOW SHOP IS PROGRESSING.WHERE WE ARE IN LEADER BOARD.
I HAVE LEARNT NOT TO TAKE THINGS AT FACE VALUE.IF YOU WANT TO KNOW SOMETHING ASK THE QUESTIONS FACE TO FACE.DO NOT RELY ON HERESAY.
MY SHOP WAS HARD TO START OFF WITH.NO STRUCTURE. IT WAS LEFT TO ITS OWN DEVICES,WHICH DOWN THE LINE CAUSED ALOT OF PROBLEMS FOR ANYONE TRYING TO WORK THROUGH THE MUD.
I FEEL I HAVE ACHIEIVED A GREAT DEAL AT THIS SHOP.MAKING IT A SHOP THAT CUSTOMERS WANT TO SHOP
IN.CUSTOMERS SAID THAT PREVIOUSLY THE SHOP LOOKED MEESY,SMELLY,NOT OPEN AT CONSTANT TIMES.THEY WENT ELSEWHERE TO SHOP.NOW GOOD COMPLIMENTS ARE RECEIVED ON A DAILY BASCIS.I FEEL PROUD OF MY STAFF,VOLUNTEERS WHO HAVE TURNED THIS OLD UNLOVED SHOP AROUND.WE WORK AS A TEAM AND A GOOD ONE AT THAT.
" FAIL TO PREPARE THEN PREPARE TO FAIL" IS MY MOTO

My typical day at work would involve greeting the children on arrival, and getting breakfast for those who need it. I would be involved in planning through out the day, and set up activites for children to participate in. It was also important that their were different areas of the room for the children to play in, in order for them to explore and enjoy. I have learnt a lot through out my time at this nursery, partciularly how important it is too work as a team. I feel it is important to go into work with a positive attitude, as the children can sense it and it makes them enjoy their day more, knowing they're being cared for by cheerful practitioners. 
I feel the management did everything they could to help each employee as individuals. Supervisions were carried out every 4 weeks so everyone was able to speak about things they were worried about, or something they were partciularly happy about. 
As soon as I started at this job I felt welcomed straight away and felt as though I was part of the team immediately. It has been enjoyable to work with everyone in the team and there has never been a day I havnt looked foward to going to work.
The hardest part of my job is sometimes dealing with situations where you feel a child may be in danger, or being harmed, however as a practitioner it is my responsibility to stay strong for the child as they're the main priority.
The most enjoyable part of my job is knowing I am making a difference to vulnerable children's lives. Although some of the children are funded and only attend nursery for 4 hours a day I still feel a sense of pride knowing that they're enjoying themselves and getting time to interact and be happy with other children.

As a volunteer I always arrive approximately one hour early so that I can put the till on, then check that everything is ready for the customers like clothes which have slipped off their hangers overnight or need putting in their proper place, If anything does need doing I set to and get it sorted. I train new members of staff in all aspects of shop floor work from general house keeping ,till work, merchandising, visual merchandising, gift aid,dealing with donations and decoding. I tell them of the importance of greeting customers and building up good customer relations. I have management support in how I deal with staff I always try to do my job well as it leaves my Manager to concentration other matters.  Members of staff work well with me, and I have  good teams to work with. the hardest part is getting them to talk to customers. Having customers leave pleased with their purchases and knowing I have given the best service I can with good sales results and surpassing sales targets is even better. I have learned it is not easy dealing with some customers and some members of staff you deal with little bit of though. I know there are thing which my Manager would like to do  but has to go through higher Management to get the go ahead.  I know that I have enough confidence and experience to do most things and only need training up on ordering stock and the computer side of and business side of things. Finally I would just like to add that I get a lot of satisfaction working for you and I enjoy my work so much that I really would prefer not to work anywhere else.

DON’T WORK HERE, YOU’RE JUST A NUMBER.  No support from managers, they only care about profit being made. I worked every weekend while everyone else had weekends off, I was pressured into taking money to the bank (in my own car) while managers stayed put in store. Expected to lift and carry heavy donations with no help. I was denied holidays for no reason while other colleagues holidays would be approved instantly. Pressured into doing volunteering work and made to feel bad and treated awfully when you decline. I covered a manager while they were on annual leave and I was left on my own some days and I had no support or pay increase or not even a toilet or food break. Stressed out to the max for minimum pay. My mental health deteriorated big time while working here. Most paid sales assistants behaved like volunteers, did no work, constant smoke breaks, sitting down reading etc while I would run round like headless chicken. No teamwork or moral in the place. Sales assistants expected to cash up start and end of the day for free, while managers walked in hours later from opening and left hours before close. The tills are awful they are constantly crashing down. You work so hard and still get criticised on little things and never appreciated. I was told no holidays in November/December yet management were booking time off in those months. It’s one rule for the people they don’t like and one rule for others. If you don’t commit your life to this place they will treat you awfully. 

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Store manager 13 salaries reported	£24,140 per year
Support worker 41 salaries reported	£27,569 per year
Family support worker 11 salaries reported	£30,361 per year
Project specialist ii 15 salaries reported	£30,619 per year
Home care worker 16 salaries reported	£31,213 per year

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