retail store manager

volunteer

marketing executive

fundraiser

partnership manager

Cancer Research UK

A day at Cancer Research UK (CRUK), greatly yet positively changes throughout each and everyday in an amazing way which cannot be described by wording alone, but can be told in a story, being where each daily event has a hard work ethic culture, with huge aspect on family feel between all management, staff & volunteers.

Most importantly is the joint aim to beat cancer sooner - Myself like all others in our shop have had someone pass to Cancer or someone they know close to them. In my case my fight against Cancer truely fueled when my Gran who I was very close to, used to visit the store when it first opened, always delivering newspapers to do her bit as she would say. As well as losing our 16 year old dog from Cancer at the same time, this was dramatic enough to involve great action not only being the first volunteer when the shop first opened, but to really enforce the mission by absolute standard, to always be about raising funds via sales tactics to really hit hard at destroying this deadly disease once and for all.

Many of the company staff/volunteers I have worked alongside will go as far to come in hours incredibly early, even though we didn't have to, just to get our shop a head start in preperation of sales, distribution of hundreds of cards of Brought In Goods (BIG) [for example] and other areas such as Homeware, Toys, Shoes & Bags etc, which has led to high levels of gratitude and self worth/teamwork in an overall very positive and relaxing environment to work, talk and have fun in.

As for the management of our store, I can't say honestly and truthfully a single thing wrong, only everything right about our managers - We are truely blessed to have such caring managers who have really inspired myself and others, who truely saw the potential in me even through a time of hardship, to really make a success from volunteering thousands of hours to paid staff and beyond, it's an incredible experience, no words otherwise!

Yet to add: I have never met such a superb manager who really teaches you the ropes, gives you the ability to learn from error and correct via success with the aim to use simpicity to really get the job done at every stage, whilst maintaining complex organisation through simple terms, so knowledgable and brilliant at teaching others, plus has really helped myself, volunteers and staff, through their caring & thoughful actions/leadership - They truely connect with the individual and especially volunteers & staff alike!

In the first year, I got loads of support and the area manager was absolutely amazing.  Best area support I’ve ever had. Very short staffed, but with their help, I turned the shop from being in a minus to very much into profit. The area manager left, the business changed and was taken over by someone who was nothing but a condescending bully and a gossip who played shop managers off against each other. Very personal comments were made in regards to my weight, my mental health and my capabilities to run the shop. Long, long hours, (sometimes 50+ in a week due to no staff), unrealistic targets for the area and my salary was less per hour than a sales assistant. I was lucky if I got 20 mins for lunch all day, due to the shortness of staff. I was belittled, made to feel inadequate, told it was my fault if people left the business, told I couldn’t run my store, told my team hated me, even slagged off to other shop managers, until I mentally couldn’t take any more. It was like walking on eggshells all the time and although I constantly asked for support and training, I never got it. They even broke GDPR by discussing my sickness with another shop manager. Made complaints to HR about their unprofessionalism, but I was ignored and nothing was ever done. I had to involve a staff rep and eventually went on the sick due to a bad shoulder injury that was exacerbated by lifting heavy bags, which they knew about, but no risk assessment was ever done. I was also told that I was underpaid for 2 years, but I would never get it… made me feel absolutely worthless. For such a reputable charity, their policies and procedures may as well be made of toilet paper and flushed away, as they mean absolutely nothing.. If your face fits and you’re willing to break all the company rules to make a few quid for the business and be the area managers best friend, then you’ll do fine. If you want to run a proper business, with proper staff, then forget it. Never experienced corporate politics until I worked here. A real shame because other good managers have left the business for exactly the same reason. 

- Typical day At Work

A typical day at work will start by sorting out the stock and labelling & tagging the goods at their discounted prices. Together as a team and individually we then merchandise the goods that are ready for sale. After this I personally handle all the customer service and till work for the rest of the day. Once finished I work with the manager in cashing up and the essential cleaning of the shop floor.

- What you Learned

Since the first day at work I learned a lot about retail from in terms of stock management, merchandising, shop floor management and most importantly about customer service and sales. From this I have personally built up a lot of confidence and respect for my hard work, where I have picked up valuable experience that I can take forward to any work opportunity in the future.

- Management

I feel management is an essential part to the success of any business. And through management it is important to build a strong and caring relationship with your staff that you can get the job done as required by management, but also be trusted to handle difficult situations when it occurs. My Personal experience with management in Cancer Research is that my managers have taught me a lot and have always been very supportive to my success and progression as well as the organisation.

- Co-Workers

Through working with a diverse team, I have learnt to respect each others views and ways of working and be supportive to each other when and where it is required.

- The Hardest part of the Job

Although throughout my work period at Cancer Research I have not experienced any part of that job that is particularly hard. Sometimes it has been a little challenge to get the training when needed due to sudden changes to staff availability.

- The Most enjoyable part of the job

The most enjoyable part of the job has been the Customer Service work I have carried out, as this has given me the overall confidence in communicating with different people. But has also let me meet and help different people.

Speaking from my experience working within CRUK in store management for almost 2 years within the Kent area.

-Unprofessional Interview processes.
-0 Support from Area Management.
-Constantly belittled and blacklisted for being different and suggesting adaptive commercially viable alternatives.
-No real control over the creative/commercial vision of your own store.
-Very low pay for the level of responsibility and work that goes into the role.
-Due to never having any staff you can barely take your full lunch break and as a result can be penalised for trying to take annual leave if you don’t have cover for your store.
-Very cliquey / toxic work culture that promotes competition over team work.
-Area managers think they are invincible and can say or do what they want to people without repercussions.
-No bonus scheme or equivalent to reward paid staff for overachieving.
-No real work / home life balance, my former assistant would never work weekends so I went a year with working every weekend so no rota system.
-0 career progression and if you are a younger manager you won’t get anywhere in this particular area as they only hire people with 10+ years of experience unless they are desperate. 
-Never appreciated for successes in the workplace and was told it was never enough.
-Very money obsessed to the point where its profits over people within this particular area.
-Volunteers really lovely to work with and will always support you.
-Good to gain experience to use to move onto bigger and better things. 
-Nice to work in a job with a higher purpose.

I write this review in hoping people will read and consider carefully before they make their decision in regards to working in a retail position within this company.

In summary, you work very hard, constantly on your feet, sorting through a lot of donations, pricing, steaming, putting items out (the aim was 100 clothing and 100 non-clothing per day, sometimes by myself). I was a Sunday Assistant, meaning it is a much more solitude position (as not many want to work on a Sunday). Sundays were of course quieter, but this meant there was more pressure to meet targets with replenishing the shop-floor (etc). Don't get me wrong I dislike jobs where I am doing nothing, so CRUK was great in a sense because I was rarely bored or sitting there with little to do. There are always tasks to be done! The only 'boring' times were when the shop floor would go incredibly quiet and volunteers had left to go home. Saying that, the volunteers are all lovely, as well as the staff. Honestly would be a lot harder to run the shop without all of the volunteers we had at our shop. However, the management was fairly disorganised at times, not informing me of certain things and I also had issues with my overtime pay which was a nuisance. Being a charity shop, things are often done in a slightly more old fashioned way (leaving handover notes, banking on paper, etc), but this was not too bad when you got the hang of it. At the end of the day it is a fast paced environment, where you do work for your money, but you're rarely bored or stuck with little to do and it is all for a good cause! Curing cancer is incredibly important as so many of us know someone who had suffered with it, so working there always put forward a message and reminded me that the hard work was important so profit could be made for the charity to save lives :)

To put it simply, I love volunteering for Cancer Research.

I started volunteering just after my 18th birthday and been a regular volunteer for several months now.

Management are wonderful, everyone is working towards a common goal and its a great way to gain some retail experience. I've been trained on how to work a till, converse with customers and given insight on how sales targets work. The management I have are truly kind and patient people and a massive credit to the charity.

They are very flexible with volunteering hours so I usually cover one afternoon a week on the till but I also volunteer extra hours when I have free time. The whole environment is very relaxed and friendly, management have great communication with volunteers and accommodate any preferences or needs. I like to work on the till but overall I don't mind, some volunteers only like to work in the stock room so whatever is comfortable for you.

I've encountered some difficult customers but management was quick to step in and diffuse the situation. People have mainly been upset with the COVID-19 procedures and our customer limit inside the store which creates wait times to enter on occasion.

The shop I work at also supplies free tea/coffee and some biscuits for your break, I like to bring my own latte sachets and have a wee chat with other volunteers when it is quiet. I've also been provided with a free uniform but wearing uniform is not mandatory.

I can't give any insight on paid employment with Cancer Research but I highly recommend volunteering especially if you are interested in a retail job in the future or just want to support a good cause.

Working at CRUK is okay.

The atmosphere is relaxed and it's easy to get along with your co-workers. I learnt a reasonable amount about the systems that I was responsible for but there is definitely a sense that key knowledge gets lost across the organisation as people leave.

Management are reasonable, friendly and approachable. But don't seem to have more than surface level knowledge of what their direct reports are working on.

Workplace culture varies massively from team to team and some business areas are a lot closer than others. A big factor in your experience will be the amount of days that you're in the office and if your immediate team makes the effort to come together. Away days and team events do happen, but they're not common with around 2 occurring each year. If you want a social environment this is NOT the place for you.

The job itself is easy and the only difficult factor is the speed (or lack thereof) from other stakeholders. Otherwise work life balance is generally solid but again this varies from team to team and I've heard some business areas are overworked and underpaid.

Speaking of pay. Don't expect a high salary or even the industry average, CRUK pay across the board is lower than both the private sector and other charities. Benefits are also extremely limited, but it is generally easy to book time off and there are 'quiet periods' during the year where most of the organisation goes on holiday (particularly in August and December)

Overall CRUK is a okay place to work, staff turnover varies in each department with some people leaving within a few months and others staying there for years.  The key takeaway is that some teams are better than others and your experience will vary heavily based on who you work with.

CRUK fundraises for an excellent cause and the shops can be great fun, especially if you have such an excellent team as I did. Everyday is different. 

However. 

- You are not just the Store Manager; you will work every job there is and more, and far longer than the 7.5 hours/day paid. 
- You are not just the Assistant Manager; you share management responsibilities, including working solo days. The only difference between myself and my manager was that they worked an extra day than I did and received the emails. 
- Pay? Honestly not adequate for the sheer volume of work.  
- External fundraising is expected on-top of store management. This has taken myself or the manager out of the shop when we have not always had the time to do so or working days off.
- Claiming in-lieu days back is a nightmare. It just doesn't happen. Overtime not always guaranteed.
- Volunteers are just that; voluntary. You cannot expect things of them as you would paid members of staff and many, fairly, do NOT want the responsibility of things like banking or opening/closing/maintaining the shop in a manager's absence such as for holiday cover.
- Area Managers can be absolutely wonderful or completely useless. 
- Lots of management changes. HR/upper management not overly responsive to problems and feedback not well listened to, imo. One size fits all approach often applied to shops. It doesn't work. 

tl;dr loved the job at the start but a total lack of response from up above when real support was needed + the constant changing and adding of extra work with little benefit eventually pushed me away. So much to do, so little time with more always added and expected. For the money I earnt and how much it exhausted me day-in day-out? Not worth it.

When i was in cancer reaearch i learned lots of things thier like how to work , how to make friends and also it teaches me to work hard and because that time when i do hard work in cancer research i more likely understand my inner capeilities and my qualities.

I was working for 4 hours per day and I was doing almost everything there and i enjoyed also. that was like my second home the co - workers and managers all are very jolly and nice, we helped eachother, we enjoyed, we learn lots of things from eachother, we support eachother.we were working as a team and as a family member. cancer reserch was like our family home.

The co- workers and the manager are very good the manager has managed everything very nicely , Everybody on the work knows thier duties very well from they start to work till they finish the working hours this way everyone do the work that would be most relevent to them,they dont get confuse on every stage that once they finished some work what to do next , this way time saved and every one can get engaged.

The hardest part of the job for me was sitting idale without work thats why whenever i finished my work i start to looking for new work that i can do or i can help my co-workers who is already doing some work. this way my most boring time becomes most enjoyable part of my work because i like to work as a team and with new people. thats why wroking on the till was my most enjoyable part of my job also that way i can meet new peoples. I love to meet new peoples and learn new things.

That was the best experience and most enjoyable time in cancer research and i am looking for a work something like that when i can earn, i can learn, i can enjoy, and i can emprove my personal and my compony's growth.

Thank you.

A typical day involves sorting through donations that have come in either by donations directly from local people who come instore, or also wae can get deliveries of donations from a central warehouse 

For the first few months things were fabulous, we were working fabulously as a team, I then stepped up and ran the store whilst the store manager was away. At first things were ok, I was being supported by a wonderful deputy area manager I was told that i was doing an amazing job, who then left and this is when things went downhill. 

The person who took over the deputy area manager role, had a mission to get rid of both myself and the store manager. This is because our faces didn't fit with theirs. i has a review and was told that I was not doing a good job and that I needed to improve or I would be let go.Obviously this contradicts what I was told when I in charge of the store, therefore they were doing what they could to get rid of me because my face didn't fit.   

We were acccused of stealing money from the safe, they made me ans my manager both suspicious of each other, however there was another person who had acceess to the safe, and she was alone in the office at the time the money went missing. 

I did quit, and the store was left without a manager or deputy manager and therefore the store was closed for weeks as they had no cover. They shot themslves in the foot there. 

Do not work for any CRUK stores in the south East of England, especially in Berkshire. If your face doesn't fit you wont last long.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Retail store manager 1 salary reported	£32,749 per year
Volunteer 102 salaries reported	£20.00 per hour
Marketing executive 9 salaries reported	£29,978 per year
Fundraiser 3 salaries reported	£31,750 per year
Partnership manager 4 salaries reported	£38,750 per year

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