truck driver

surveyor

regional sales manager

installer

consultant

Sharps-Bedrooms-Ltd

The bad:

The designer/salesperson roles are self employed, so you make only what you sell and no travel expenses are covered.

The requirement is to make yourself available for a minimum of 20 appointments a week, 5 of those being “prime” appointments (evenings/weekends) they ask your availability up to 4 weeks in advance.

They may not fill your availability and the appointments are very poorly qualified which leads to some customer expectations being set far to high based on the sales they advertise. then they blame you if it doesn’t sell, a customer won’t get an average price unless they book for a salespersons visit (it’s £3.5 to 5.5k for a 5 door run which is in the sales script training) 

There’s no compensation if the customer isn’t in when you knock the door or if the customer cancels that day although you’ve made yourself available in good faith. Some will cancel on the doorstep after you’ve traveled up to an hour getting there. Your not allowed to contact them beforehand to make sure the appointment is still going ahead.

Customers buy into the sale which is the same price all year round regardless of what’s on offer. (Think DFS)

Sharps do pay you once it’s sold (25% deposit) however if the customer does cancel they will take that money back off you so could lead to you owing sharps money.

working for sharps becomes a lifestyle due to the self-employed nature I would regularly work 12/13 hour days most of that time is travel that’s not covered. Your work life balance is zero.

You have to purchase the samples for £250 (refunded if you leave)

They fine you up to 30% of your commission if the overall discount is to high.

Although self employed you will work more than the traditional full time hours.

I started around 6 months pre-covid when it came it was see you on the other side with no support nor had I worked self employed long enough for any support off the government.

The good:

You can make very good money.

Paid weekly

You will never make a cup of tea again

The office staff are nice.

Advise: 
If they offered a basic salary I would imagine the staff retention would be a lot higher.

Overall:

I don’t regret working for sharps because you can earn good money but be prepared to put the hours in and have money behind you, I had to make a change when my daughter said “dad we don’t see anymore, your always at work”

I thought initially this would be a new career opportunity for me but I could not have been more wrong.
I was under the impression I would be in a busy work environment but sometimes not a single foot would walk through the doors. If you don't make an appointment you get questioned for it, how can you make appointments if no one wants to come in or if they do but they're not ready? It's not like you're popping out to get another pair of shoes, this is a big decision for people and a lot of money so people will only come in and book if they know it is 100% what they want to do. 
The CCTV in my showroom was not legit and just for show, so I never felt safe working on my own with an open door policy.
My probation period was extended for no reason, even though I was told my appointments and sales had improved and the figures were increasing.
I resigned mainly due to the constant bullying from my part time college who I had only met twice... For someone 3 times my age it was an embarrassment and the behaviour towards me was disgusting. Managers did nothing, HR did nothing and the company big boss did nothing. God knows how they got away with it. It was bullying, there is no other word for it and I wish I could make what was said and done public.
I was only there for 4 months and it felt like four long, miserable years. I knew leaving was the best decision I could ever make as everything had influenced my life outside of work, I didn't sleep well, had awful anxiety, miserable, crying every other day and struggled to eat due to stress.
Bad experiences effect people in different ways, but I would not recommend this company to a single person to work for. 
It is not appealing for young adults looking to make / further their career as the company as a whole is extremely dated.
I learnt a lot about myself working for Sharps but unfortunately not in a positive way and it will now and always be the most unpleasant job I have had and a big regret of mine. 
If you're in your early / mid 20's, or any age, don't do it! Find something suited to you with kind people, a positive and secure work environment with room to grow and progress and ultimately be happy.

The work's ok once you get used to overcoming their frequent mistakes and wrongly supplied or damaged materials, but be prepared for accepting jobs that pay less than or around 100 pounds a day if you complete in the time they arbitrarily allocate for installation.
You will have your good weeks, but then there's also the weeks where you'll earn less than half a good weeks pay. 3 and 4 day weeks are  common if you're not prepared or unwilling to work 7 days a week. 
Be  prepared to spend half a working day driving to and from jobs that are 130+ miles from your house with a pittance paid for fuel. No subsistence pay for staying away from family and no money for food while you do. You do get to claim back for a hotel or digs (Upto 45 pounds a night- good luck finding a hotel for that) which is repaid to you as gross salary so you pay income tax on it again before it gets back to you.
Your Field manager will most likely be good to you and will make lots of promises and give you assurances to keep you going and make sure you finish that job but then come back and let you know that sorry unfortunately as it works out his hands are tied by the head office...
The work is relentless, they're certainly a busy company but don't turn down any of the work they push at you or you'll soon find yourself not receiving other jobs, certainly not any well paid jobs.
Incompetent office staff with arrogant and ignorant senior management add to your problems and will cheerfully leave you out of pocket whilst telling you it's just a 'rough with the smooth' situation and that it's going to improve, it might do for a week or two until they take their eye of the ball again and tell you too much time has now passed..
If this sounds bitter then its because I am, I wasted 4 years working for these clowns earning less each year than the year before and listening to their nonsense. You're better off doing something else.
Don't say you haven't been warned

I've been working as an Installer for nearly 10 years, I've found the Office, Technical department and factory staff to be very helpful and friendly, also the back up from the Field Installation Manager is Excellent, 

I like that there is plenty of work which is varied and sometimes challenging,
 
The fitting systems are very good and once mastered you can earn very well, 

I find that if you have a high standard of work and you are polite with  the customer and respectful of their home you will have no problems and  it makes the fitting process very rewarding,
I always engage with the customer throughout the fitting process and they feel they get a more personal service and helps them get the bedroom of their dreams.

Sometimes the days can be long but on the flip side they can be quite short too, 

There are days that don't quite go to plan like everything in life but the back up is always there to help keep everything heading in the right direction.

Over the years I have done onsite training and enjoyed teaching and guiding new Installers, some have done well but some haven't, 

I find quality of work, cleanliness and being polite and respectful helps in the job, 

At the end of the day, you are the face of a company that supplies custom built luxury bedroom suites to customers homes that will be there for decades.

 So if you have a Very high standard of work and are polite and respectful, you can do very well in Sharps and have a continuous stretch of varied work with a good earning potential.

This is a company that'll keep you as busy as you want most of the time, so long as your prepared to......                                 #1,travel wherever they send you within your region, (your not paid for the time spent in your vehicle, which could be 2-3 hours a day),                                                #2, be prepared to work for an average £150 a day before tax, often lower, as you'll receive a percentage of the customer order value after VAT. Jobs are often underpriced, (suiting the customer) leading to fitters having to work very long hours just to make a decent income.
 You will also spend a fair proportion of your time getting over poor quality manufacturing issues, survey issues & design issues, as the mentality amongst various departments is "oh the fitter will get over it", or "the fitter will sort it out", therefore wasting time.
 You'll need to learn the product inside out, (there is alot to learn). Training is given, albeit basic & not very thorough. A head for problem solving, getting over issues & damaged materials etc. is essential as you'll not get paid until the job is complete, no matter how long it takes.
 To sum up, you'll ideally need experience in this line of work. If you like working 12-13 hour days, being paid a pittance for the skill & care you put into the job, & receiving no thanks for 'going the extra mile' when needed, this job will suit very few people.
 

worked here 6 weeks, their idea of training is yelling at you until you get it then yelling more when you don't. 
They use computers for memos only, theres 4 spreadsheets to fill before you even deal with the customers query .  Its all paper based so forget about technology as they don't have it, they don't even have proper phones with screens. 
No  one talks to each other , managers wonder in to complain about you for whatever reason, for example i had some small envelopes on my desk and they complained my desk was a mess. 
No  one likes each other, nothing there makes any sense, you press this button for this reason but if its some thing else its this but if you don't know you phone this dept and they tell you, there are hundreds of codes to look at that make even less sense and i never heard any one apologise to a customer, for compensation they give flowers so imagine that call when the customer has paid thousands and got poor service, or chips, dents, wrong colour, rubbish to be collected,   they fired me as i was common and too friendly, its a customer service role, i have to be friendly, they said i was common as i asked a customer to hang on while i got his order up. Worst place ever and I'm glad they fired me as i now have a better job with great training and its paperless.

The training is dog s**t you go to there showroom in Milton Keynes basically get put in a small space get a brief description of what they do and then your left to to crack on your told it's 2weeks training its 1 week in Milton then you shadow and experienced fitter for 2 days before your then send out on the field to complete your first fit,  this for many even me having many years experience in all aspects of carpentry was frientening new thing product you barely know and the potential of upsetting a customer but you cannot give away the fact you are absolutely lacking in experience for me I enjoyed the job to some point as regardless of the hours I would usually put in to see the customers reaction to the work had done was like no experience I ever had but when it can to the few jobs that resulted in bad product deliver to the customer that mean you could not complete that work also meant no signed satisfactory form from customer and also no pay not even a percentage so you when find yourself work weekends etc to get those works completed which is where i started to loose my enthusiasm for the work otherwise I would have stayed 

There are too many obstacles in the way of getting paid:
- a lot of highest standard scribing to make which slows down work progress. Yet If you dont finish a bedroom in 2 days its not worth the wages.  
- If you screw up a panel, the whole building process can be stuck, you dont finish in 2 days, not worth the money.
- One bedroom fitting is rewarded with only around 300. 
- if the customer is fussy, you are delayed
- if the customer does not want to sign the job for any reasons, you may not get paid, but be delayed for sure

Too many stones to stumble on and the payment is not that good in the first place eighter.
Yes, if you gained experience in their bedroom fitting you may be able to make better money. Yet there is a painful learning process and months of wasted wages to get there. (At the beginning you loose 2 weeks of earnings, because you have to do their 1 week course, and 1 week apprenticeship, which is only paid 300/week.)  
I dont think it is worth the hassle. 

Probably this is the reason why this company is advertising for new installers all year through, constancy on every possible job sites!

On a daily basis I would be sent out to addresses that would have been emailed to me in the morning. I would set out to visit the client to discuss their needs hand carry out a space consultation which consists of assessing the use of space amount of space and the how to make it more efficient.

I worked very independently with this role managing the load scheduling and the client visits as I worked remote from the main office. I had been exposed to a variety of individuals

I had been trained to carry out technical drawing which was a very staple part of the role. I very much enjoyed this as you could see the   customers eyes light up as they saw their room come to life.

The hardest part of the job was being exposed to dangerous people, as a woman working alone I felt it was unsafe for me particularly at night.

I enjoyed creating new and wonderful spaces for people for them to enjoy. In contrast meeting interesting individuals and knowing more about London and finding locations I had no idea existed.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The staff at sharps are all great guys, you can always have a great laugh with everyone.

The work at sharps was very fluid and once you knew what you had to do it was a very easy job.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The job was never really stressful, the only bad part was learning that the morning shift had done next to nothing. Other then that it was a great place to work.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Absolutely amazing. There’s different cliques at Sharps so there was someone to talk to or make friends with very easily, everyone is welcoming and extremely helpful.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I always got to work pretty early as did a large group of us, so we’d all be in the smoking shelter chatting and having a laugh till shift started. As we’re clocking in, clocking in the manager would let us know the plans for the day. We’d go to our work stations knowing what the plan was and just smash out the work.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Truck driver 10 salaries reported	£37,032 per year
Surveyor 8 salaries reported	£34,750 per year
Regional sales manager 4 salaries reported	£60,000 per year
Installer 3 salaries reported	£27,720 per year
Consultant 4 salaries reported	£16,241 per year

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