store manager

trainee manager

retail manager

assistant store manager

visual merchandiser

DEICHMANN

I worked here for a year. The job itself isn't great, and the pay is literally the bare minimum - which I think isn't on, it's no way enough to live in Brighton. One of my colleagues turned good friend sadly had to move back to her home city as she couldn't afford to stay in Brighton with the pay her supervisor position was giving her. 
When dealing with the rude types of customers that come in, £4.40 as a college student who pays their parents rent and buys their own things they need for general life (Like shampoo, toothpaste, clothes) is no where near enough. I know the minimum wage for 16-18 y/os was £4.25 at the time (and that's on the government who should realise teenagers need to afford to live too), but in such stressful and demanding jobs with countless problematic customers, the company should really value their staff more. I have a new job now with a small local business and they pay much more than Deichmann. If a small, independant business can afford a couple extra quid, why can't a huge international business?
Plus breaks are unpaid...although that's a petty thing to complain about on its own.
I also saw 3 managers in my time there, the first 2 were lovely and I wish them all the best. However the last manager (who I've been told by an old colleague has actualy left now) wasn't the nicest person. She was great at dealing with nasty, problematic customers, however with staff she was very passive-agressive and would find many things to complain about. Even talking with another colleague for a few seconds while cleaning up in the same area. It made the whole atmosphere quite dull, which was a change from the fun enviroment I'd been used to with the previous 2 managers. She'd also picked a favourite staff member, someone from the same country as her. I appreciate it must be nice to have that in common, and that would be fine, it's just she would order everyone else around and complain about us talking with each other (despite the fact we were still working and doing things that needed doing), but she would keep this particular girl with her at the till and they'd stand around chatting in their native tongue for ages.

Enough of the nagative though. My time at Deichmann at least gave me another thing to add to my CV and gave me further experience in the retail industry. My work colleagues were all lovely too, and our team was very diverse - we were of all different nationalities and ethnicities. 3 of us handed our notices in on the same day, which was kind of awkward but empowering too, as we all felt we were mistreated and not valued as people, but seen as just a number. I've stayed in contact with them and we all still meet up. So Deichmann gave me some amazing friends, and I'm thankful for that.

Honestly, one of the worst places I've worked. Being a young adult the wage was extremely poor. The lowest I've ever been paid for my age actually. The days were very stressful and so much is demanded of you for that meagre wage. If you are young person I advise you do not work here. I was on a small hour contract and ended up working 6 to 7 days a week within the first month. Your life will be Deichmann with no room to negotiate, one reason being that everyone keeps on leaving because of this; so some stores seem to be incredibly low on staff.  You are required to subsidise part of your uniform, which is mandatory to wear. So its just another way of the company trying to get more out of people. Not to mention the relentless pressure of targets given to you. being told to offer every customer a shoe care product when the product they're buying doesn't even need this, some staff even trying for a second or third time in one purchase trying to hard sell something the customer obviously doesn't want, making it embarrassing and awkward for everyone. You are also given training modules and booklets to complete outside of work, considering the wage I was on I was not happy about devoting all my time to Deichmann. 40+ hours a week when I was looking for a steady part time job. Coworkers are lovely and the lower management seems bearable. But like a lot of big businesses. There is no soul , and they treat their staff as dispensable and don't consider they have any life at all. I was told also that my thick strapped vest I was wearing on a 32 degree day was inappropriate when other members of staff wore the same thing around me on much cooler days, with no mention of their uniform from management. Slightly discriminatory. But why? They also play the same music over and over again and the playlists are 40 minutes long, so if you are on an 8 hour shift you hear the same songs 9 times a day. I feel that is another way to degrade the moral of the staff. Along with running up and down stairs all day and 'multitasking' being one of their base rules of the job, along with upselling, of course. Studies have shown if someone tries to multitask the outcome is that they do both jobs worse. The opposite of productivity. Most of the job consists of running around and cleaning up after customers which literally wreck the shop. You are also required to try and stop shop lifters and even run after them in some instances which is just plain dangerous. And clearly they don't value the safety of their staff because they would hire a security guard if so. All in all, I would just say. If you are extremely desperate like I was. Do it. If not ,almost anything is better.

deichmann used to be a great company to work for. staff morale was high, serving customers was an enjoyable experience as you had the proper time to do so, and all work was able to be completed to a high standard in full as you had the motivated and numbers of staff to do so. this all changed as many others have said, when upper management changed. now you're just a number to the company. deichmann genuinely used to feel like a family, but its so cold and disconnected now. its understandable that they want growth, but what they don't seem to understand is that not investing in your staff is going to create a disconnect here. upper management will pile on the workload, increase the amount of sale launches that are happening, which again, is understandable, but what isn't understandable and is completely running staff morale into the ground is the fact that they will cut payroll to the point where you barely have any staff in, and also for any new staff they are not receiving proper training as you physically dont have the bodies in store to do so. you would think that growth in tasks and responsibilites would result in an increase of staff allowed in the store to help? wrong. this results in you having to often do the work of multiple staff members trying to launch sales, keep the shop full, adhere to weekly upkeeps of store and also provide 100% customer service on top of this at all times. its impossible. if the company would just invest more in payroll they'd see a massive improvement in sales, a cutback in theft rates and also improved staff morale, but unfortunately this is something they're going to have to realise for themselves, that yes its great theyre saving some money by cutting staffs livelihoods, but its just ruining their reputation, sales and customer experience. they will hire many young people under the age of 18 with part time contracts who only want a bit of pocket money instead of investing in a few yes more expensive but full time staff members who are willing to dedicate more time to deichmann, and this results in just having a team of young people who aren't actually willing to invest themselves in learning the job properly cause theyve usually got other stuff going on. i truly hope that one day this realisation is made before its too late for the company, as it could genuinely see deichmann become an absolutely great company to work for once again if they just invest a bit more in the staff.

I've worked here for a few years now and Deichmann like to work you to the bone. 
As a manager we're contracted for 40hrs a week, hand on heart the least amount of hours I've ever worked is 45 even at quieter times. At busier times such as the back to school period, sale launch, Black Friday time, Christmas the list goes on be expected to work around 55+ hours a week. You will expected to do store moves and promotional launches out of hours which might meaning working until midnight and starting again at 7am. None of the additional hours you do are paid and you don't get time back in lieu either.
Managers are paid a % of store sales as part of their salary, so if you're in a smaller, quieter store expect to be paid less than colleagues in stores potentially only a few miles away, regardless of what that person offers the business.
Each month you're paid different because of the % of sales, in September you can be paid over £1000 more than in the quieter months like Feb and March.
Shoecare can always appear more important than anything and that includes actual sales. The sales pitch can vary greatly depending on the store you work in, the imbox machine is a great example of this as dependinng on who is selling it the protection can last from 10weeks to the lifetime of the shoes! Nothing is challenged as its about results and not how you get there.
Training is computer based with no follow up by Regional Trainers. There is supposed to be shopfloor training but because we have no follow up, managers see it as a tick box exercise and its quite common to see all modules completed in a day. Its all about achieving that green KPI and not how you get there.
We are very very KPI focussed and its not important how you get there but the result you get. Things like customer service are ignored and its quite possible that you're lone working for the 1st 2hrs of the day or a maximum of 2 which does nothing for anyones stress or mental health. 
Managers are not allowed Saturdays as a day off ever regardless as time of year and it will always need to be taken as a days holiday.
We do pay our staff well but we expect our pound of flesh for this often at very short notice because of this people often leave. Staff turnover is very very high even for retail as there is no work life balance.
All 3 Regional Managers have left the business in the last 4 months.


Management don’t care about you as a person, they only care about sales targets and selling additional products (shoe care) Management are disorganised and let the workload build up which resulted in having to start shifts early most mornings and leave half an hour to an hour late almost every evening which was unpaid because the payroll was strict. As well as having to start early and finish late, you’re expected to drop everything to be able to cover shifts, it was hard to make any plans because the rota would change the day before and you’re penalised if you contest the new rota because work had to be the priority. Not only does it take weeks to come up with a rota that often gets changed, it’s so badly thought out that I was left on my own in the shop for an hour on two separate occasions because the manager forgot to put anyone else in with me, not only is this incredibly stressful, it’s a huge security risk as I had to be on the till with a lengthy queue, watch out for shoplifters and answer the phone to the delivery driver who was impatiently waiting upstairs. My personal mobile soon became a work phone and I was inundated with texts about the shop from early morning, through the day until about 9pm whilst on shift as well as on days off. Management favour newer colleagues over the older members of staff that have been in the store for years and the store manager often spoke down to me and other members of staff in front of customers. Management left early most evenings, it didn’t matter if the store was messy because it was everyone else’s problem. The district management think it’s acceptable to call me to the office to watch myself on the camera and discuss a page of notes that had been written about what I was doing/not doing and proceeded to tell me how wrong my sales technique was even though I’ve had no issues for the entirety of my employment in the store. I was then made to act out a transaction on the till in front of customers which was humiliating and unprofessional. 
To summarise, if you want a job that offers a good work life balance and you want to feel appreciated/values this is NOT the company for you.

Generally, this is a very low morale retailer to work in and operates in a very outdated way. Very dated in how they manage their business, from as early as the interview they discuss working longer and extra hours in order to complete tasks. Very manipulative and they verbally promote that to get any where and progress, you must work extra hours. Contracted 40 hours but long days, hours and long weeks are the norm (this is not rare or exceptional circumstances). Consistently working 12 hours per day and consistently staying on at short notice. Micro managed with very frequent visits - district managers have to visit stores every single week. On top of this any move, photographs must be sent, sales and KPI’s consistently being asked to be posted in WhatsApp messages. Holidays are never approved until last minute so difficult to plan life, and very backward salary structure. Every store manager in the company receives a very low basic salary, but then gets a garantee if the store is not performing or will get 0.7% of overall sales. This means some months you could have very little salary coming in. This company does not compete with other retailers in regards to salaries and the way they manage and expect/ force mega long hours is disgusting! This company is awful when compared to many other retailers thag are hiring. Unless you have no life and keen to progress, I’d avoid! Also, it is stated in contract you are never to have a Saturday off! District managers are very weak in their positions and unprofessional. Not very nice people to work under. 

I used to work for Deichmann in the Cardiff store and i was there for nearly 6 years and with my 6 years experiences working for the company I find that they over work their staff, get promised things like a higher promotion and never keeps their word but makes you do more jobs than you should in your job tile and never get payed for doing higher role jobs. It's like they say anything to make their staff stay in the business. To be honesty I'm glad I'm out of their now cos I wouldn't never go back and i know people who worked their the same time as me or even longer in the business and they feel the same too. 
I even ended up missing my best friends wedding cos i wasn't aloud it off even though i booked the time off. also where i booked 3 weeks off before for my wedding and it was all authorized by one of the managers in the passed who used to work in the Cardiff store. when the time came closer i was only aloud to have 2 weeks off even though i booked 3. so their for i had to push my honeymoon back a month which i thought was fair at all. 
i just think the company doesn't care about their staff at all and its all money with them that's why so many people have left the company cos they can't treat people right. Also you don't have a balance lifestyle in there and there is always moves in there and changing the store around every 2/3 weeks. i think the company need to get their provides right and stop over working people. what kept me going in their was the people you work with because the staff is so lovely. but the job its self was awful. 

I actually enjoyed the daily tasks; I liked learning about shoe care and learning what type of shoe would suit what type of customer better. I liked serving customers and talking with them whilst wrapping and bagging their product.

I found it very beneficial learning how to work my way around a warehouse setting, as they essentially had a very small warehouse for a stockroom. 

But that’s where the line stops. Everything else about the job I disliked. I didn’t like the working atmosphere, as I found the staff members very ‘Cliquey’, and if you weren’t exactly like them they weren’t interested in getting to know you properly. Except for two members of staff that would always make a effort to include me and ask me how my day was going etc. 

I found management to be very snobbish and rude at times, other times really friendly and supportive. It really just depended how they felt on the day and how long you had been working there. Also, didn’t like the fact a member of staff could get blamed for something they had not done, without even asking them first. 

I REALLY don’t appreciate members of staff being reprimanded and berated at the tills in front of a PACKED shop for some simple mistake. I found
It very unprofessional indeed! 

Training is also lacking in a practical sense, and you’re expected to know everything after 3 days of being there. So please bare that in mind when applying to Deichmann. 

A typical day at Deichmann is easy work, but for the higher-ups it can be demanding and stressful. Summer and Christmas are expected to be busy, so we are advised that we aren't allowed to book holidays from November to December.

We're expected to hit 3% shoecare sales targets every day at the minimum. If we don't, depending on who's the shift manager for that day, we might get pulled aside to ask why we aren't hitting these targets. You're not allowed to have a bad day of shoecare sales.

The district managers are extremely rude, condescending and demanding. They WILL find some problem with your work so they have an excuse to tell you off. You are also expected to tackle thefts, without security or proper training, and will get told off by these district managers if someone steals some shoes or you aren't doing enough personally to stop them. 

After booking holidays many months in advance, they may not be approved and we don't find this out until the rota for the week is posted. I feel I can't book trips for risk of my holidays being rejected, even if I give as much notice as humanly possible.

For the positives, my colleagues are fantastic people. They're all very lovely and our store managers are amazing and hardworking. I'm also not asked to work too many hours, so it's perfect for university, if you have kids, etc. I have very rarely been called in to cover anyone and the managers are understanding if you can't cover someone's shift.

Started as a trainee manager even though I had 15 years retail management experience. Moved twice for the company on a basic £23k salary. Sold as being a family business with great values but focus on shoecare is ridiculous to the point of insane. Very heavy workload every style shoe has to be out, area managers check this by scanning stockroom on visits. Deliveries are constant and a pain to get the shoes out, as all in sequence so can sometimes need to move an entire wall of stock to get a new style out.
Thinking of a nice 9-6 job? No chance overtime after stores close is almost mandatory and have seen other colleagues ‘managed’ out of the business for wanting to just do their contracted hours even though they are hitting their targets, and on let’s be honest a pretty terrible salary. Had to cover 6 others stores as managers and staff are constantly leaving. I’ve heard up north the company is completely different. Staffing budgets are extremely tight but expectations on customer service, restocking every hour and standards are completely unrealistic.
Worst part of the job is by far September for ‘back to school’. Always have offers on, parents get their kids to try on a million shoes and just leave them all on the floor or worse still shove them back in any box so good luck hunting for that shoe later! 
My first day I was greeted by the supervisor saying “ oh I hate it here and want to leave” and realised that pretty much everyone in the company is the same. 

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Store manager 124 salaries reported	£31,460 per year
Trainee manager 10 salaries reported	£26,500 per year
Retail manager 58 salaries reported	£26,086 per year
Assistant store manager 4 salaries reported	£28,000 per year
Visual merchandiser 1 salary reported	£25,500 per year

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