store manager

retail supervisor

assistant store manager

warehouse lead

trainer

Toolstation

After some deliberation and reflection regarding my work experience at the Toolstation branch in Inverness -  I can say with complete clarity that it was/is an undesirable and unsatisfactory workplace for several underlying factors based on my personal experience as a word of caution to any would be applicant as I have recently seen their job listings and wouldn’t want anyone else to have the particular negative experience I did. 

1. Unrealistic expectations demonstrated early on; There was an emphasis on speed as soon as I had begun my position. Regardless whether the knowledge was there or not. At my first week summary I was told that they expected me to be progressing faster than expected. I was 18 at the time and had been in the job for just shy of a week alongside full-time education and a lack of training and unhelpful condescending language towards my performance. Even when I personally felt I was providing swift service, seemingly not fast enough!

2. Poor feedback on your performance which disadvantages you long-term. You are intended to get summarisations regarding how you are doing regularly during your six-month probationary period. I only had one summarisation consultation in my four month period as an employee and feel that as a result of me not entirely knowing any aspects I faltered on, I failed. Fair enough - retail is busy, management is busy, but crucial feedback of any kind is needed!

3. Zero room for error at all. You will be penalised on every error you make. Due to the store’s lack of influence and capital in a region dominated by superior stores with better stock capacity, any mistake made will count. Make too many, you will face repercussion and scrutiny. You will start a shift somedays and they will inform of you of any errors made previous shift. Which is very demoralising knowing everytime you walk in for a long, hard shift they will chase you up on it.

4. Questionable behaviour by some members of supervisor/management positions. A newer member of staff who joined following me had instances of exhibiting behaviour towards me that demonstrated a willingness to exude a form of superiority over staff in positions of less significance. I have a cognitive motor disorder which I had confessed to members of staff in confidence, which did not falter my physical performance in the role and played no relevance. This particular staff member would ask me if I wanted my shoes tied (which can be a difficulty due to the disorder) which made me feel HIGHLY disrespected and uncomfortable and made me feel like a daft child. Regardless of there was no intended malice, this was a catalyst for my retirement from the position shortly thereafter. Just a word of warning to any applicants. 

A more senior member of staff who had inducted me had demonstrated disrespectful behaviour towards me on a number of occasions. A notable occasion being an incident where I requested if he could check my locker for earbuds which I had forgotten. He asked about the cigarette lighter in my locker from when I was an ongoing smoker, and I told him he could get rid of it as I no longer smoked. He responded that It was alright and he was “just wasn’t sure about it being there” which so I felt implied something much more sinister and was a HIGHLY infuriating and disgusting way to talk to a member of staff.  I had never exhibited malicious behaviour in a job role EVER- and this suggestion made me feel highly disrespected. I had worked very hard for respect, which I never gained.   

5. Inequality in the role; To my knowledge, members of staff could be granted Travis Perkins discount cards during their probationary period. While this didn’t mean of much relevance to me, one occasion did catch my interest. During my process of leaving the position and was asked to return any keys or uniform I had in my person, I was briefed about the return of any TP discount cards. 

I was due to get one and remember vividly having to collect one from the office months prior but never having the opportunity due to the busy shift I had. I told my inducting colleague this to his response “Yeah, I didn’t think you were in the position long enough for one” However, Travis Perkins own website and policies permit that employees can be become eligible for a discount cards after three months of service? Which, when this conversation occurred on the 24th of January 2025 -  I was more than eligible and hadn’t received one? Also, months prior, there was one in an envelope addressed for me? Which seemingly disappeared following the shift. A shift that this supervisor was not working. I couldn’t care less about Travis Perkins Cards. It is the principle. Are management/supervisors allowed to make this sort of call by TP regulations. Don’t know, Don’t care - something to look out for though to applicants. 

This demonstrates to me that management had not been fond of me in general for reasons I genuinely had no clue
over - regardless of my hard work and dedication since I had started. Maybe for several factors I was unsure of. Despite how hard I had applied myself to the role. This was a common feeling. A feeling that I was always at risk of losing my job because I didn’t fit in with the majority older full-time staff. There are only one or two younger staff members and I feel there is an element of manipulation towards us as we are likely more part-time and less experienced by comparison in the branch. 

6. Poor treatment. My last day as an employee of the Toolstation branch on the 24th of January 2025 was an odd shift. When I had finished my final ever shift, no managers or employees (half of the staff are in manager/supervisory positions) took the time to formally say goodbye or thank me for the months of service, hard work, dedication, and timekeeping I demonstrated. At all. I wasn’t even engaged with the whole day. Which suggests to me an element of bitterness and informality in their procedures towards employees that they personally don’t like. It was a major slap in the face as I had left a secure job of two-years to give this position a try and was left in an unemployed depression for several weeks following this. 

You will be talked down to. They will undermine you. Sure, most jobs have this environment it is retail after all, but, regardless of where you properly worked and especially if you worked in a different field. Such as clothing or produce. There is feeling that you won’t be ‘tough’ enough to deal with tradesmen and that you are too sensitive and won’t stick it out - but it’s a retail environment? Not a trade. They are fairly decent customers to serve and are very kind. This sort of judgement from members of staff is unneeded, and gives off the impression that the position is more important than it is portrayed. The job is simpler than they make it seem during the induction period. 

7. I felt like I experienced a form of “Quiet Firing” by Management: If you are unsure. Quiet Firing is defined as when “managers neglect employees, eventually forcing them to quit their jobs in frustration or disillusionment” I felt that this was a very BANG-ON definition of how I was treated as a employee. The lack of feedback and training I needed. Underutilisation in jobs (always stuck on tills and cleaning) A Hostile Environment as I was isolated and ostracised from general chat among staff.  Lack of managerial attention in totality. These all are aspects of this definition and things I went through during my time there. 

A member of staff who was not the official head manager, but was a in a supervisory position held a meeting with me to discuss a serious mistake I had made in the role which I felt was due to a lack of training by staff which ultimately made me leave. I had unknowingly violated Data Protection in regards to a customer’s surname. I hold my hands up and admit this was serious, but could have been prevented with sufficient training. 

This staff member told to me bluntly in his personal opinion I might add, and “as a mate” which he stated, that I would not make it past my 6-month probationary period - and artfully and very intellectually urged me to look for another job and resign from my position and he didn’t think I was sticking it out well. However, he wasn’t the appropriate manager to make the official decision regarding my probationary situation. That was the head manager who was NOT present that day. Maybe he would have kept me on despite this, who knows. This speaks to me that this was the ultimate informal and subtle form of quiet firing exhibited towards me in my position at Toolstation and It worked like a charm. I left shortly then after. Only through hindsight I can what was happening. I worshipped the members of staff very highly until recently. 

Despite my treatment. The job set me up for the future. I am currently working for a rival store and am thriving! I am granted plenty of overtime and had established myself firmly in the team and feel that I have found the perfect job for me. I feel accepted, cherished, I am appreciated, and I am never on edge the same way I was in Toolstation Inverness. 

Toolstation Inverness is a very solid and strong shop overall. Staff are hardworking and dedicated. This was just one person’s general experience :) thanks for reading! 

My overall experience with Toolstation is rather okay. I’ll start with the positives: Job security is a big positive for anyone and I can say going forward this looks to be continued with the constant opening of new stores on a weekly basis. Especially over the past couple year with the Covid-19 pandemic and uncertainty of Brexit as well. Working in the retail part of the business is really straight forward and overall a pretty easy job as long as everyone pitches in on the work you should be able to get all expected tasks and jobs completed(delivery put away and Perpetual inventory and of course serving customers and everyday house keeping tasks). My most enjoyable part of my role is the interaction with my customers and getting to know them and the projects they are working on. Always get a good bit banter going especially with the tradespeople that shop with us.

Cons: managers don’t manage staff very well. spend most of their time at a desk from my experience, when they should be leading service from the front of the store. I do believe this will vary from store to store but is more common than not. We are then asked to push for google and customer reviews and push on offering trade credit accounts for tradespeople while Managers are given info on conference calls around these and never from my experience feed it back to the staff. I have also taken part in the Retail Development Program or RDP as it was more commonly known. This for high performing supervisors and assistant managers looking to progress within the company and eventually run their own store. My experience was poor from this. The work they expected you to do was at times was ridiculous in that you were expected to do most of it at home rather than in store and not be paid for it. You were reviewed on your work that you carried out on a monthly basis which rarely happened because regional managers would change dates or cancel at short notice and expect you to chase them up for the review. My experience with the reviews were poor in that the RM carrying out mine did not seem the least bit interested and spent their during the review talking to my store manager or on their phone talking with other people in the business when really they should send an email out saying they will be unavailable during a certain time when carrying out a review and spend the time on the individual. Which in turn meant I could not be bothered because they didn’t seem to care. Also other managers I know of took part on the RDP either plagiarised other people’s work or got signed off when they hadn’t even completed the minimum workload that was expected to be signed off. Although this has now been changed and replaced with the "Toolstation Academy". Poor reviews are common in Toolstation, I have been here for almost 5 years and for over 3 years have not received a 6 months performance review. My Last one was carried out by my stores original manager in January 2019 and since then we have had five store managers none of which are interested even though I have constantly complained about it, it’s even become a running joke in my store amongst the staff. There’s no legal obligation to do these with employees but Store Managers are expected to carry them out. Also very little recognition for any staff doing a good job, but quick enough to point out when you’re doing something wrong. Also in the winter shops are freezing, in January 2021 everyone in my store worked in temperatures below 13 degrees Celsius(which is the minimum legal temperature) for over 4 weeks before the inadequate heating was fixed but again nothing from Regional manager level except “report it”. If I was the RM I would have visited to store to make sure staff were okay and thanked them for working through it. Another issue seems to be around staffing. Stores local to us are constantly short staffed and others stores are expected to cover them. Problem here I think is again due incompetent managers that don’t recruit the correct people first time as it’s always the same stores looking for help. They will phone you expecting you give them cover not taking into consideration your store as well. If you send staff to help another you end up leaving your team short staffed. Another downside is you’re expected to know everything there is to know about every trade. Customers will come to store and ask about plumbing, gas engineering and electrics etc can be a bit funny if you can’t answer them. Many of them believe you are qualified to say so and can't be bothered. Also during the First lockdown my team were verbally abused on numerous occasions due to us only offering a click and collect service and no returns due to the COVID pandemic. This was reported to a regional manager but they believed it was an attitude problem with certain staff but in fact on multiple occasions it was happening all over the country according to a Travis Perkins health and safety advisor after a conversation I had with them and we were told to report anymore as near misses on our incident reporting and then they would need to start dealing with it. The job over the past two to three years has really ground me down.

Overall the jobs a typical retail job. Low pay, short staffed, overworked and lazy managers. Could be so much better.

All good at first until I wasn’t paid my first wage. Spent the new couple of months chasing it through the management/HR and when I did finally get it I was massively taxed on it, due to the time of year/it being paid within a month I worked lots of hours to cover staff that had left. (45hours of work) was more or less halved. I could have worked anywhere else and gotten a lot more money and for doing less hours. I felt robbed. Completely robbed of my time with my family but all I kept thinking was the paycheque will be worth it. But nope I didn’t even get it, and wouldn’t have even gotten any of it if I hadn’t of been asking for it, or even noticed it wasn’t there. So that had already soured my experience/expectations of Toolstation.. no matter how amazing you are
At the job there will always be something to moan to you about that you didn’t do.. micromanagement is massively important to the higher staff in stores. Which for the most part I am ok with, but when it’s constantly being pushed when In Work & when home on the text about all sorts of issues. When most of the time it’s the higher up staff making mistakes whilst the lower staff get all the flack. Dependancy leave is non existent and you’ll be told to have a better plan for your family if a child is suddenly sick. (I’m an Single parent and not much family to help but they work/ live far away so it’s not like they could have a day off for my sick children) but I need to ask a friend next time and have better plans in place. (Insert eyeroll) the stress and f making sure you do absolutely everything isn’t worth the money you are paid. I could work in a supermarket doing a lot less for more money. There is no point in using your fob to clock in/out because the hours get changed on T&A by management (so hours you’ve worked over your shift, will be removed as they need to keep to the store’s allocated time/hours) there is no sick pay. So any days off aren’t paid. And you’ll never actually work 20 hours (contracted) as you’ll be covering for staff off all the time but you’ll never accrue holidays back for all that extra time you work. Even though you’ll be doing 39.5 hours -Never 40 plus as they don’t want to be paying you over time.  I don’t  think I wouldn’t get overtime even if I ever did work 40 hours (lol) seems to be cut off all the time at 39.5. You are expected to read work emails at home in personal time and to be available vie phone/text 24/7 in case the store needs you. My role was constantly threatened in the store due to various reasons. Which helped me decide to look for employment elsewhere. 
No matter how good you are and how much you do/get done in store it will never ever good enough as there will be something to pull you up on.
You can never plan anything or have spontaneous days with family as your shifts are different week to week, and you’ll struggle booking holidays as you have to work around each other time off/holidays within the store. So none of those last minute deals on booking.com as you won’t get your holiday as someone else will be off (team of 8). You get questioned when you take your break also, ‘it’s retail there’s no such thing as a break’ (insert laughing face.) yet management take breaks and spend a lot of time on mobiles etc. whilst we get squashed into our thrive/guide toolboxes. 
Whilst the job did have some perks (customers are great) there was far too much negativity and frustration. And it made the job tedious/ stressful and made you feel uncomfortable due to there always being some tiny fault you’d done or not done. 


I worked at the Malvern branch of Toolstation for a short while, it was a decent job but the people there were hopeless. The salary is good the job was pretty slow paced at times but it’s not a busy location. 

Certain staff there who had authority definitely shouldn’t have. This isn’t indicative of ALL Toolstation stores or their employees as I bet loads have good staff. But. This store did not. Generally nice people but there was a lot of half-assing things. From cleaning to putting things away. Idk if this is poor management and poor training or a poor attitude / work ethic from all. I suspect both are at play. Even little things like misreading quantities, picking wrong items. Simple things that frustrate customers. I think they have had a fair bit of staff turnover recently after I went including some moving to the far busier Worcester store. Some coming in from other stores etc. 

If this is the case then I feel for those at the Worcester branch as these staff would not cope. Especially when some are often late, like to leave 7 hours into an 8 hour shift etc just cos they are in charge and nobody there can say no. I bet that just wouldn’t work at that store especially when they didn’t have a manager anyway from what I heard, 

I’m hoping my experience here is useful to those reading. Remember this is my experience in just one branch. Your local one may be far better. I recommend attending the interview at the store and get a feel for the place. Make sure you ask questions too. 

One final point I’ll make is that they very sneakily put in the contract that by signing, you opt out of the whole 11 hour rest law between shifts. So if u finish at 8:20pm, they can legally ask you to come in at 6:40 the following morning. So say conservatively you get up an hour before work begins. That’s 5:40. So even if you’re somehow back home, eaten and in bed by 9pm the night before that’s barely 8 hours rest. So if you value family time this may not be a job for you although you will need to discuss this in your interview. The managers I will give credit here do try to avoid this scenario where possible, but it will still happen to you eventually.

Oh and a quick comment on job security. There is none. Some basic minimum notice periods etc but the big bosses adjust how many labour hours a store can work based on sales. So if you have a quiet month for whatever reason. You could lose like 20 or 30 hours a week as a store. Depending on the store this could be a whole staff member. So even if you’re doing perfectly fine and very competent, if you’re on a shorter contract you are the most expendable. This will always be the case regardless of how good or bad the staff are. This is also why they mostly offer 20 hour contracts with the promise of overtime. So if their hours get cut and you’re doing 40 on a 20 hour contract, if you suddenly get slashed 20 hours you have no legal standing to complain as you’re technically doing the contracted hours. 

I’ll leave this here as I’ve said a lot already. The job is easy to pick up, the salary is good and the perks are alright if you understand cash back. 20% store discount is healthy too very useful. I went in with 0 trade knowledge and after a couple weeks knew enough. The catalogue is your most vital tool there. Unfortunately though on the flip side who you work with and for is very crucial. Some managers I have no doubt will be nice, accommodating, cooperative and competent. Others may not. Similarly with the assistant managers too. 

A good job for between proper work, not a long term career option.

I joined on a 15 hours contract due being a student which I made clear during the interviewing phase.

In span of 10 months that I've spent there I've had maybe a month in total (not a consecutive one) when I worked my contracted hours.

Staff retention is terrible. In the store branch that I have been in, by the time I left, there was only 1 other person from the original team when I started (out of about 6-7).

Despite my committments I was guilted into helping out the store, with the promise of staff shortages being sorted out being dangled in front of me, but it has never happened.

A lot of shops are in the same situation, even regions. 

At some point I was made to work 4/5 days a week, despite having the contracted hours that would make me work for 2-3 days in a normal situation, basically just being an "oh well, too bad" from the management.

Most of my shifts recently were closing (starting anywhere from 12:15 to 15:15 and staying until closing) which effectively cuts you off from any socialising outside of work and takes its toll on you.

Teams are close knit more often than not which creates a good atmosphere to operate in but the job itself annoying and it does build up resentment as you work there.

The customers are often rude and very frequently operate under a self-inflicted delusion that you know everything about your product range, including its actual use which you are not trained for nor contractually obliged to learn, nor paid adequately for it.   

Delivery is an antiquated mess. You come into the shop during opening, get a large number of roll containers with boxes with the items in them. 

It's all paper based and more often than not items are in the wrong boxes (sometimes some of the items aren't there at all!) so the process is slowed down and it's slowed down even more once you get customers coming into your store as the staffing levels aren't adequate for quick processing of all the items.

Stock is often lacking and more often than not you can't do anything about it besides redirecting the customers to another branch.

As for progression, besides in-store retail there is little to none. Most office work occurs south England so the further north you go, the fewer opportunities there are within the organisation outside of retail.

If you started as a store assistant you can progress further (Senior Store Assistant->Store Supervisor) but it's not worth the effort.

The working hours range 6:45-20:15 (shorter during weekends). Typically it's split into opening and closing shifts unless you are understaffed, then people just do double shifts. These opening hours are absurd and you're unlikely to be able to justify it financially. It's rather dead before 8am and after 5pm/6pm.

Sometimes you get situations such as being made to close the shop, finishing at 20:15 only to come back at 6:45. Considering you are likely to have a personal life, the commute and that haven't ate your dinner or done a plethora of other things (including sleeping) it's simply a slap to the face.

You frequently get e-mails haranguing you on importance of forcing more items on a customer for profit margins, with an ever-growing emphasis on knowing the product range but there's no actual incentive.

Since then I have graduated and moved onto much greater things.

Please, have the love and self-respect towards yourself and keep looking for something better, you're worth it. Toolstation is not.


DO NOT WORK HERE!
Seriously, just go to Screwfix instead, better management and pays more, they also care better for their emloyees.

E ww my assistant manager was very inappropriate with me, why did he lift me up? why did he ask to go into my room one time i allowed him to give me a lift home after work one day. Weird..

Anyway, toolstation do not care about their employees! There is NO HEATING!! You might think "so what? It's a warehouse" that just makes it worse, it's not that bad when its a very hot summer day but you wait until summer is over, especially in winter!! I had so many customers complain to me about how cold the place is, I had to tell them there's nothing I could do about it which was a shame. Your fingers become numb you can barely function. Also there are mice so if you have a phobia, don't do it to yourself, they didn't even fix the problem. 

Workplace culture: The branch I worked at was mainly full of in dians and they were pretty much racis t, only looked out for their own. My supervisor was in dian and he had an obses sion with me, he would always swap shifts so that we were working together. He would also follow me around the store and watch me work. He also lied about me several times to management just because I would reject him, also, he and the other supervisor (who was new at the time) would both sell AND smoke WE ED in the store. I wish I had spoken up. One other worker I know was for sure aware of it.
Manager was unfair, always had me work every single weekend (everybody alternated but I STAYED working every weekend) even though I was not weekend staff and it was not part of my contract to work every weekend. 

Poor management, working in very cold conditions, staff are very f ake and everyone there was trying to get each other fired, This is why I had to tune them all out and just do my hours and go. What I learned from this is not to trust anyone! One minute they'll smile at you, the next they're making up lies about you to the managers. FAVOURITISM happened a lot! The head manager liked the new keyholder a lot (think she had a crush on him) so whenever he wanted a day off she would allow him but one day I (well TRIED TO) call in sick because it was day 1 of my period and I was in a lot of pain, i was told I had to come in regardless). but later on that same day (I came in because I was scared to lose my job) i heard my manager say to one of the other workers that she let our keyholder stay at home because he called in and said he wanted to sleep. He wasn't ill or busy, just wanted to sleep!?! 

We were not allowed to drink the hot drinks from the dispensers even though it was free for customers, even on colder days we were not allowed to.

My life was dreadful when I worked at Toolstation! I'm glad I quit! 7 people had already left by the time I quit (7 people left in the space of like 11 months) shows what a "lovely" place Toolstation is to work. :/

Everyone that stayed (apart from 2 people) can go to the place opposite to Heaven *Kanye shrug*

A fairly typical trade counter working environment at first glance. 
Underneath, there is very unfortunately, a raft of issues that make things way harder than they need to be.
Paper work, red tape, endless checklists for tasks, constantly moving goal posts and unachievable goals.
The fact that a lot of the processes really do not work in store seems to escape upper management.
There is ridiculously high staff turnover and has been for a long time but this doesn't raise the right questions. No one seems to want to address the core reasons why people do not stay.
If you're like me and easily frustrated by problems that you know the answer to, without any power to change those things, you'll go slowly mad.
The generic responses from recruitment to these reviews are just buzz phrases. The snide  "this might not be the right job for you" comments are supposed to make you feel that it was your issues that made you not want to stay.
That should tell you everything you need to know.
The final straw for some this year was the constant drive for sales and "multi line transactions" fired by an email from head office about falling sales and a difficult climate, coupled with a charity promotion AND an internal world cup style competition for sales. All the while managers were laughing it up at an all expenses paid, free bar, hotel stay, travel and accommodation  paid knees up over three days disguised as a conference.
What a kick in the teeth for the non managers left to run the stores.
The distribution centres are not fit for purpose. Constant errors, bad packing and shocking attention to detail. Unfortunately if there are missing or damaged items affecting your stock availability you have to take it on the chin as they rarely resolve issues.

The positives, I enjoyed the day to day work minus the admin. Customer service is my passion and there's so much opportunity to engage and retain trade.
The staff in store are a fun, good hearted bunch that made the days fun despite the hard work.  The store manager is a diamond, who frankly deserves better and would be an asset to any company worthy of his time.
Some of the regular customer are great, you'll build rapport with them with the right attitude.
If you're the type of person who can go into work everyday and ignore the operational issues I say go for it.
If you are already an experienced manager or supervisor you could end up constantly frustrated by the processes.





Store manager selfish and unsupportive ( Calls out of hours meetings and threatens with disciplinary action when unable to attend)
Regional managers don't care about you but are happy to expect the world from you for such little pay. Have gone weeks trying to contact but has avoided me and not given one second to listen to me.
Competitive with screwfix on product pricing but not salary!
GREAT PLACE TO WORK GREAT PLACE TO BUY
This new logo was released to stores but since then have yet to be given an example of why its a great place to work.
Poor working hours all to accommodate customers and get as much money out of them as possible. Vicious pressure to get more and more SALES! I'm all for growth but tactics employed cause stress to staff and given zero support in doing so plus no reward if targets are met!
Training poor! CSRs start and left to fend for self. Only myself out of 4 managers offer support to those struggling.
When concerns are raised to manager they get brushed under carpet
Then as already said when going to regional manager for additional support you'll be lucky to hear from them!
Get used to hearing their answer machine...
My life has been impacted massively working for this company. 
Nothing but stress and hard work for poor salary and unsociable working hours. Couldn't tell you when i last had 2 days off next to each other despite it being very easy to manage!
Slave drivers.
Insult to injury the only day we close is XMAS DAY so absolutely zero time to enjoy the season with loved ones so again i'll say it no work/life balance! 
Customers are rude at times and your expected to take the flak despite Toolstations outdated and cheap system.
I have many times received abuse from customers because Toolstations poor system has meant the customer has been wronged.
I have been told by customer support to go along with a lie they spun as they didn't want the customer to be aware they were at fault!! I obviously refused to go along with the lie the contact centre had told the customer.
Such a poor poor company. 
Avoid at all costs. If you want a job in this sector id recommend screw fix (better pay,hours, more investment in staff, NOT STINGES LIKE TOOLSTATION!!)

It’s really upsetting to read some of the reviews regarding head office as I had a totally different experience.

I worked at head office in Bridgwater in accounts, I was new in the area and felt welcomed from day one. I only knew 2people in the area (none of which worked at tool station) and not once did I feel excluded or mistreated. I never experienced the management to be unfair or “clicky”, I was never held back from expressing my opinions on any matter and never felt like I wasn’t listened to or not offered progression or recognition. 

I had the loveliest manager that offered the best support I could have asked for. Whenever I needed help or advice she was straight to my aid or anyone else in the team. There were many occasions where she was going to be late to pick up her children because she was going the extra mile to help her team. Personally I felt like the rest of my team, and the whole accounts office were of the same behaviour. I never felt I couldn’t ask ANYONE in that office for help, including the new MD when he asked for something urgently that I hadn’t done before.

The atmosphere in the office was always happy, I think to say it was like working in a playground is very far fetched. Doesn’t everyone want to work somewhere where you can be happy and build relationships with colleagues?

I agree there were lots of outside work activities planned, but this wasn’t a case of the same group every time; whenever someone made a plan an email to everyone was always sent round and the opportunity to join was offered to everyone.
I found this really helpful being shy, new in the area and struggling with anxiety. But whenever I declined an invitation I was never made to feel like it was an issue or that I would be excluded next time.

Working for toolstation was genuinely the best job I’ve ever had and I miss it everyday, but unfortunately my circumstances changed and I was unable to stay in the area.

If you’re looking for a job here please take some of the reviews with a pinch of salt, it’s a lovely place to work with career progression opportunities. Work is what you make it, it all starts with your attitude towards it.

Typical work day would be an 8 hour shift with 1 hour lunch usually in the middle of the shift. Managed a small team of people usually 5-8. Responsible for Reconciliation, Stock Management, Time & Attendance as well as housekeeping & customer service and any health and safety tasks. I gained a lot of experience from working with the company and also learned I was a lot stronger and patient than I thought I was. Management training poor/ to non existent unless you were lucky enough to be part of the Retail Development Programme, but that was more of a if your face fits kind of thing. If you didn't have a strong management team it made things very stressful and very complicated. 5 members of staff had a mental breakdown during my time in the company, not surprising I too had one. Co workers normally a nice bunch of people but sadly there are always a few who will slip a knife into your back when not looking, one of the reasons why my loyalty was questioned and I was dismissed (long story in a nutshell, I worked my backside into the ground, pulling sometimes 60hr weeks, whilst others lets say got away with murder, very unfair dismissal in the bigger picture, need I say anymore). The hardest part of the job was the amount of pressure you were put under, not much room for human error (hence my sacking) and not an awful lot of support either, the company is very an*l with procedures and god forbid you step one foot out of line with that dreaded guide, you would have one of there wonderful auditors on your case in no time ( and that's being polite :') ) The company tends not to care about its staff and should really use its staff more to better the business. Senior retail team very un supportive and unhelpful and sometimes took forever to get back to you when you needed the help & support. Most enjoyable part of the jobs was meeting the customers/trade, some lovely people who would always put a smile on my face, also enjoyed working with those staff who were nice and made some good friends from it. Overall I would say if you are looking for an easy job but not for long term it might be a good place to work, however long term I would steer clear unless you are strong willed or slightly insane.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Store manager 3 salaries reported	£30,000 per year
Retail supervisor 13 salaries reported	£12.53 per hour
Assistant store manager 36 salaries reported	£25,859 per year
Warehouse lead 2 salaries reported	£16.81 per hour
Trainer 10 salaries reported	£14.98 per hour

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