manager

trainee manager

store manager

deputy manager

retail assistant manager

Poundstretcher

A typical day involves clocking in grabbing a trolly, getting out stock while helping customers and covering the till all at once.  
Little to no security in store, mangers and head office can watch you on camera, only training is watching somone work and work with them, looking what they do for a day, the same way they learnt, no proper training, your thrown into the deep end.
You get online training quizzes every other month and just have to read through description part before taking quiz, which is multiple choice and keep redoing it until 100% to show you are safe at work and know your rights, to keep up with company pretense.
But if you try and actually use them in store, management looks at you like you have gone nuts, but if something goes wrong they accuse you of not following online training and lectured in front of all staff who also get told off for not following protocol. This you have to then follow until managment lets things slide again and then look like your wasting time and being over the top again to follow online training. They only want you to pass quiz for pretense to cover their backs if anything goes wrong, so you take full countability. 

The customers don't understand why there is no one at the till,  as the person working the till is not a cashier, as poundstretcher doesn't have any,  it's just a designated sales assistant, key holder or manger covering the till while doing multiple other jobs. You get unreliable tasks where you have to do the job of 3 in 1, and it's even harder for key holders, as you don't just open and close shop, no your a back up manager without the name and pay. There is no supervisor or deputy manager just manger, key holder and sales assistant. The arial mangers are no good, they usually look down on all staff and only communicate with mangers, usually scolding them for not completing unrealistic tasks and arial managers only communicate with staff by ordering them around in front of mangers to show who is in control. 
Generally other staff feels as hard done by as yourself and just pushing through for the sake of a job and pay, they can be understanding of situations and sympathise, but with no power to do anything. Higher up put pressure on mangers to handle the staff in ways to cut the payable hours, do job of 3 and bullying staff in to doing everything and taking the fall if not passed arial managers expectations. If you go to anyone about the issues  like HR you will be targeted, by either treated more harshly at work giving you even more work load, and they will either put you down to minimum hours, which is usually 4 hours for sales assistance a week or 8 hours for key holder a week. Or they overload you with hours, doing 40+ hours a week, so there most days for long shifts so you feel like your living there. They dont care how this effects you finacially. They do this to break you either to be on their good side and follow every whim or push you to quit as what they are doing is not against their contract. 

If you work under 6 hours on shift you don't get a break, if you work over 7 hours you get half hour lunch, which is not paid for and if only 2 staff in store you have to bring lunch in and if called during lunch for help you have to go help, and as soon as lunch is over you don't get to enjoy those extra minutes until time runs out, no you are pushed to go back to work early, if 3 or more people in store, you take turns for lunch and get to go out for half hour, don't come back early, wait until last minute or you will have to work that as well. Your shift can change last minute and you have to be avalible on days off incase they need you. You get rota week by week usually on a Friday or Saturday for the upcoming week starting on the Sunday. 
You rarely get accepted for holiday and will only be put down as minimum hours on those weeks. 

If younger like just come out of school to work, you will get more hours as pay is less, so the manager can stretch the budget further with more workers. Anything to cut corners. All other staff hours will be cut when new worker or younger workers join, which sometimes leave some staff to resent the younger workers, especially when half of them dont eant to work but only work as parents pushed them to get a job. Thay usually have the pay while still living at home with parents while older workers that have rent and bills to pay can't afford to as hours been cut, giving younger workers a harder time at work as resented. 
You have 3 month trial period where you can be fired without cause or notice if you pass this they will use what's in the contract against you to make you do what they want
Also you can't be ill if work as sales assistant, as minumum hours 4 hours, as if not working above 16 hours every week you will not be given sick pay even with being signed off, as not entitled to the statory sick pay as don't work or earn enough monthly to be accepted for it, all it does is is stop you from being fired while signed off sick. 

A typical day in Poundstretcher often consists of maintaining a store environment that is a pleasant experience for customers by managing many employees simultaneously. Work begins fairly early in the morning, often before the shop location opens, and an 9 to 11 hour workday begins. Poundstretcher managers handle a wide variety of routine tasks, such as writing reports; supervising employees; managing cash; ordering stock; handling schedules, payroll, and marketing and promotional roll-outs; and securing the store upon closing. In addition, as the manager I deal with customer complaints, employee work delegation, staff shortages, equipment failures and other unexpected things that occur in a retail environment. 

- Good time management

As a manager I learned that you are often expected to complete work to deadlines. Therefore managing the time of the teams and myself and prioritise work so that projects are completed to deadline.

- Interpersonal and relationship-building skills

Working closely with people in the team, assigning them work and ensuring they get appropriate training to do their jobs. As well as keeping staff motivated, being responsible for hiring and firing them. In order to do all of this, I found that as a manager must be approachable, compassionate, diplomatic and have good communication skills to listen to and reward the staff.

- Communication

Being a manager I noticed that I was the main line of contact between the frontline staff, senior management and customers.

- Problem-solving

Encountering problems at work, I am able to think on my feet and solve problems as soon as they happen. I am able to this because I am an expert in their field with 10 years experience in retail and customer service and be able to remain calm and focused while I come up with solutions.

- Administrative and Financial skills

I would usually be expected to be within budget, manage them and carry out other admin such as writing reports. For this my IT skills came in very helpful as well as Maths and English literacy.

 - Leadership

Being a leader involves persuading others to follow the direction I want to go in. As such I would lead by example, have reasonable expectations of their staff and are excellent persuaders.

The company isn’t that good at all it’s a disorganised company to work for  and the people higher up don’t have a clue what they are doing either. 
I have had no support when I was made trainee manager when store managers have been sacked for ridiculous reasons  through area managers being left to run a store with 3 or less people,low budget when running a high theft store which is ridiculous how they expect that I really don’t know  not even taking any consideration of the store it self with the theft and for anyone’s safety either.

security was a main issue for the store as they don’t have a permanent security guard which isn’t safe for the staff who work in the shop yet alone numerous staff members also part of management who get abuse and physically attack by the customers leaving staff members and part of management at risk and also unsafe for their own safety.

Managers don’t last at all either they sack them for unfair dismissal or just sack them for the sake of it no permanent manager ever been there to run the store always left for the trainees to run the store whilst being paid on a trainee managers wage which is awful not to mention the contracted hours (40 hours a week) by being told apparently isn’t good enough and should be doing at least (80 hours a week ) 

No training as got rid of the store manager so I had to learn off my own back whilst run a store with only 2-3 staff members in the evening and day time staff wasn’t that great either due to the low budget.

No support from no one in the company 
Area managers never pick up their phones when you need them the most or if your having some problems only if they want you to call someone up

They don’t call you back even though when you try and call them several times and leave them voice mails...joke 

This company refuses to pay people properly when they are owed money from previous months,Don’t get paid properly general staff assistant are always complaining about their wages are wrong and still owed more then what they are expecting ,when it comes to pay day having to chase money after each month which you work for the company is a complete joke I have never known a company like this in my life.

All depends what your looking for if it’s part time work and your a parent who can work while your kids are at school it’s a great job. If your wanting full time it’s very hard your not guaranteed many hours as the budget of the staff keeps getting adjusted. Luckily I have a great team of co workers who work with me. I have heard from other shops from people who come in for a day to cover someone that our shop is the only one where we can have fun at while working. When the higher ups come in they don’t acknowledge you or anything or say anything positive when they leave they don’t say goodbye to you or anything. They always bring out the negatives in the shop they never say anything positive. Also the fact that with the hours which keep getting adjusted is not good for those who are seeking full time work. We are getting paid minimum wage which is expected but the amount of tasks that we have to do feels like we should be earning more. Another problem is the fact that you think you have done some great work by getting more stock out but when the higher ups come in they immediately want it changing because it does not look good in there eyes. Customers are always complaining about prices going up and we agree everything in the shop is on the rise except our pay. Many customers love a good interaction which we give them. We are not allowed phones on us at the time of the shift so if you get a emergency phone call you probably won’t be able to see it or if you do keep your phone on you you can’t get it out because they are constantly watching you on camera. The funniest part of the job for me is just having a laugh with my fellow co workers but you can’t do that for long because as I said they are watching you on cameras. The hardest part of the job is trying to stay motivated on a day to day basis as I said earlier you think you have done something positive to get stock out but the higher ups (not management) come in and shut it down. You get a amazing offer in 10% discount off which I think is very low compared to other places where I have worked at. 

A typical day at work would include getting the delivery onto the shop floor, organising bay shelves for weekly promotions. Whilst covering the till to serve customers and to help with any queries or concerns they may have. Then at the end of the day tidy up the whole store for the next day and count the tills and safe to make sure they are correct from the days trading.
Through working at Poundstretchers I've learnt a few things such as how to cash up and also how to improve my customer service skills so to deal with sometimes difficult situations.
Management at the company are very good although at times lack clarity in their plans not only to the staff base but also to those within the management which can cause confusion and delays at times.
My co-workers are very easy to get a long with as in my personal experience they have always been open and friendly whilst still taking their job seriously. Obviously there are cases of a few bad apples when it comes to working in retail but in my experience I haven't come across any while at my stores or when covering at other stores.
The hardest part of my job would be dealing with thieves or customers that are rude. However not a daily occurrence it does happen regularly and is a difficult part of the job as to try and recognise potential thieves and having to make sure they don't take anything. Then with difficult customers I found it harder to deal with them when I first started at Poundstretchers but now I'm able to handle majority of situations with ease due to customer skills improving over time.
The most enjoyable parts of my job are two fold firstly getting to know a lot of the customers of which makes the day go quicker and they come in for a chat and feel welcomed so increasing their loyalty to the store. Secondly is the travel as on many occasions they have warehouses or shop floors which need fully reorganising or even a stock take or refit and so I get to travel all over the regional stores to do these tasks which adds some variety to my days

First of all i’d recommend poundstretchers highly, especially for younger people who are looking for positive experience that helps you endure new skills in the work place. 
In my personal experience i had a really bad run of management in my first year but it quickly picked up when we got new management.
 I can honestly say i have never worked in an environment as understanding and encouraging. My disability plays a big role in my daily life and sometimes makes it hard for me to enjoy things i do each day but all of my co workers make the environment so much more enjoyable  and i look forward to going to work. 
The jobs come with great ease once you get into the groove of what you are meant to be doing, when i first joined my co-workers were always happy to help me understand the way of things. i can safely say this is still the case. 
There are plenty of different jobs to be given in the workplace. Sometimes you’ll find yourself being put on the same jobs quite often (like on tills or putting out delivery) but that’s normally just through management seeing your strengths in the workplace. if you become agitated or want to switch up your job that day, you can always express this to management and they in most cases will let you switch out!
as mentioned before i’ve nearly worked here for 3 years, and looking back i can see such a big improvement in terms of support for employees and the actual store.
There is an employee app where you can avail of discounts & there’s even a counselling service you can get involved with free of charge.
Every year that you’ve worked there you can get vouchers to spend in store, which come in so handy!

Overall i’d say that a job in poundstretchers can be so worth it.

the only con i can think of is there can be a pretty low budget meaning you could get very little hours in a week. so i’d more so recommend this job for people who are looking for part-time work, are students or even with low capability for work!

Ever since I started working their a few months back things are dreadful. We had a sold month or almost 2 where the actual manger wasn't around so we had airea managers and deputy managers running the store and it was actually lovely but ever since the actual manager came back things have slowly been getting worse.

There's been countless occasions where the actual manger would go home early and leave the deputy manager to close now this would be okay if it wasn't for the actual manager putting on the system he was in early and in every day (witch he wasn't). 

Then ever since I started I only ever saw 1 pay slips and that was on the office pc and apparently they were supposed to be emailed to me but never where. Talking to other staff they never got their pay slips either. 

The actual manager he would alway be on his phone as on one occasion he walked around the store on his phone and kept going to his car to talk on the phone and now he just talks on the phone in the office. 

Also since I started we are on our second deputy manager the other one left because of the actual manager and went to another store. We've had a keyholder who left withi6 a month. 
We've also had 2 sales assistants leave within a week all because of the manager. 

I have to say stay away from here because the actual manager is threatening nasty and a liar he seems to care about more himself than how the staff actually feel because he will talk down quite loud to customers about you negatively. 

But if you actually start working their you will fill our a sheet of paper with the hours you can do the actual manager dose not stick to it at all so you may possibly be in hours you can't do and don't try to ask your it to be changed as the actual manager requires a weeks notice (also for holiday)

The daily tasks are what you'd expect in retail: stocking from warehouse to shelves, cleaning, and customer service.  It has never been a super high pressure environment, maybe sometimes a little stressful during the holiday rush. 

My manager and colleagues are great, but I imagine this can be what makes or breaks your experience working here. I've always had my studies worked around so that there has never been any collision on the rota.

I occasionally ask for a day off every now and then, and it has always been approved, I have no complaints there.

The pay for the job isn't great, it's standard minimum depending on your age, so if you're under 18, expect the bare minimum. Your hours are likely going to rely on how much budget your store is given, which in my experience tends to be less than what's needed to actually get most things done.

There is a bit of pressure from upper management to get things done in short time constraints, and they don't seem to care about anything that's preventing some things from being done. All they expect to see is results. To be fair, the store visits are from members of higher up staff who are understanding about these issues and do have some sympathy.

There are add-on sales to be done, but there has never been much pressure in my store to go out of your way and bug customers to buy things. Just a simple ask and leave it at that.

I wouldn't go out of my way to work here, but it's a decent job for gaining customer service experience which can be used to apply for better roles in other companies in the future. It seems to be a comfortable role where you don't need to worry about a fixed-time contract, unless you're a seasonal staff member.

Met some nice people was a good and safe working environment our managers took our safety and safety of the customers very seriously and helped me learn new things I never knew before which was how to give good customer service, effectively sell products, saftey regualtions and how to work on the tills and aswell as on how the retail industry works. The managers and co-workers were great to get along with. Co-workers always given me help when I needed it. I was always keen to arrive early and start working. 

As it was leading up to Christmas the hardest part of the job was how fast paced the working day was and the work load and there was quite a bit of heavy lifting involved aswell as climbing ladders.

The most enjoyable part of the job I have to say was putting the stock out preferably working on drinks in the food isle and in the cosmetics isle it felt satisfying to empty full pallettes of deliveries before the end of shifts as it meant I worked hard. I tried to set myself a goal of completing atleast a pallette and a half in a 5-6 hour shift and 2 pallettes on average.

I also re arranged the goods on the pallettes when I came in early as most of the time alot of the products were mixed together and jumbled on one pallete meant for different isles. So I organised all the products onto their own pallette for the isle that they're intended to be stocked on instead of taking off products randomly which were all for different isles.

A typical day is a slow flow customers where the staff get the easy jobs done such as labels, POS, cleaning etc. Rush hour comes and all staff but managers are usually on tills if there's enough staff in. Sometimes there is only 1 member of staff working tills and 2 managers working delivery which gets really hard.
At the end of the day is tidying up and cleaning, getting any sales ready.
On non delivery days its usually shelf stacking and remerching.
Even though the day is tedious the staff and the customers are always really friendly and easy to get a long with.

I learnt alot about patience, advertising and displaying products correctly, staff are constantly learning on the job and managers are willing to answer questions.
The problems come when we pass managers and go higher up. Head office like to forget things, pay roll is too short and the equipment is always breaking. The store has no cleaner so time that could be used to display products and ensure correct labeling is spent on cleaning. most of the staff are college students because their hourly wage is cheap, due to the lack of money this is the best option, more man power for less money.

The hardest part of the job is delivery at Christmas time. The store always gets more than it can handle and it becomes impossible to fit in the warehouse. This leads to working off pallets in the yard or on the shop floor increasing security risk.

The most enjoyable part of the job is just talking to the staff because they are all friendly.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Manager 13 salaries reported	£16,585 per year
Trainee manager 11 salaries reported	£16,155 per year
Store manager 7 salaries reported	£20,300 per year
Deputy manager 4 salaries reported	£16,225 per year
Retail assistant manager 2 salaries reported	£16.89 per hour

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