merchandising assistant

delivery manager

store manager

software engineer

quality assurance engineer

Footasylum

I didn’t even think retail could be this bad until I set foot at footasylum, it doesn’t even feel legal. 
It’s so intense - you really gotta come and die for that minimum wage. The company don’t care about their staff at all and it explains why the turnover is SO high, the store is new (been open less than 3 months) and they’ve already lost half the staff, most of the remaining are looking for new jobs. 
Company policy is that you have to have a minimum of 2 weeks rotas at any time, yet they come out every Friday for THAT week meaning you have 2 days notice for that working week - work life balance is impossible. 
The store closes at 9pm but you have to stay until 11, on a Sunday it closes at 6 but you have to until 10. This is to spend hours doing exactly what you’ve just been doing all day. Folding sleeves over and over and over again and undoing laces on trainers and then relacing them - when the store has been closed for hours. 
All staff are on a much smaller contract than they work but holiday is only given to what they’re contracted. People are working 40 hours and only allowed the amount of holiday as someone working 8 hours. 
An extremely unwelcoming and unfriendly atmosphere, most staff won’t speak to you or introduce themselves when you’re new. They will stay in their cliques and look at you as if you’re not even there. 
Even managers don’t introduce themselves and will stand there in front of you delegating without even asking your name. 
The day consists of doing “standards” - 8 hours of folding the same sleeve over and over, you can’t leave your section, talk, or ever not be doing anything whilst it’s quiet. 
You have to be searched (including under your clothes, socks, bags and shoes) every time you leave the building which eats into your break and makes your 11pm finish later than 11pm. 
Discount goes in ranks, people earning the least money get the least discount. Discount can’t even be used online and the selection in store is 80% men’s so if you’re a woman don’t bother as there’s nothing there. 
They are even getting rid of cleaners so sales assistants will have to clean the toilets. 

During my time as a Christmas temp I was allocated to the trainers department which involved interacting with a lot of customers and using my customer service skills to the best I could. I would replenish the stock that needed to, merchandise the shelves so they looked presentable and general house keeping. I would help the customers with sizes and styles and make a sale. I also got involved with team work which involved talking to the staff in the stock room over the radio and identifying the different styles of the stock that the customer required. I was also allocated to the stock room to sort out the new season stock, pricing and tagging each individual item ready to be shown on the shop floor. 
I learnt about the different styles and items in the shop and the background of the shop and which different companies where partnered with Footasylum. I also learnt about the different customer service required with in the work place. 
The management were very interactive with me and gave me feedback about how I was doing and reviews. They were very friendly and made it a comfortable environment to work in. My co-workers where very easy to work with and all worked well in a team which motivated me to do the same and formed a good friendship within the company with the people I worked with. 
The hardest part of the job was around Christmas time when it was extremely busy and there where a lot of complaints and high tempered customers, but I handled it well and kept calm throughout.
The most enjoyable part of the job was learning the different items of clothing and styles of shoes and the backgrounds of each. I also enjoyed being in the store over Christmas and being put to the test with complaints and unhappy customers and changing that to a calm environment and happy customers.

If you just want 2 4 hour shifts to cover some time after college then expect to be stood around doing standards for the full 4 hours while you watch managers stand at the front of the store on their phones or talking amongst themselves throughout the whole day while they have staff do everything. It started off with managers could only do refunds and exchanges when the new tills got put in to then having set staff members do it so the managers didn’t have to keep coming up to the tills every so often. The managers have no empathy towards you, you need to change a shift? They’ll hold it against you. Treat you wrongfully until you do them a favour and help them out. They have favourites and you can easily tell by how they’re treated compared to yourself. Expect your rota to change every 2 days so don’t make plans. Don’t offer extra shifts as they will literally work you into the ground with no thank you afterwards. If you want to actually enjoy Christmas don’t work here, you’ll ask to work certain days certain times and they won’t give you them and have you in the store till 7pm Christmas eve even if you have children Or family you see on Christmas Eve. Expect to have your breaks either super early or super late where the shops have nothing in them for you to eat. You get no bonus, nothing to say thank you after you’ve worked so hard but the managers will get a bonus regardless of them doing nothing but stood around telling people to stop talking to others while they go and stand with whoever they want and talk for hours. Expect managers to sit in the office for however long they want and if you get robbed in that time “it’s staffs fault for not being in sections”. Except a new manager every 6 months so you’ll have your availability changed until you tell them you’re availability time and time again. 


Where do I start...

expected to work ridiculous illegal hours and never get paid the correct amount or get the time back

store management changes about once a month with staff constantly being swapped around to different stores as people leave so often they don’t have enough management to fill all positions

all management know each other from working at JD so they all are best friends who let each other get away with everything and favourite them for promotions when they are incompetent and sit in the office all day doing nothing

staff who actually have been in the company for a long time and would do anything for their job get taken for a joke and exploited

head office staff try to be very intimidating and think they’re so much better than everyone else, even making personal comments about the appearance of young staff members to make them feel bad about themselves

head of retail is the biggest melt I’ve come across in my life, again try’s to be intimidating to staff and junior management in front of customers which leaves such a bad impression

customer service would tell us to do one thing when dealing with customers and senior management would tell us to do the opposite so we could never do anything right

staff all sleep with each other and have personal relationships within the work place (yes, literally, IN the workplace)

abused and harassed by customers for following procedures, constant stealing and robberies

honestly the worst, most unorganised, chaotic company I’ve ever worked for so if you’re looking for an actual career and progression please stay away from Footasylum as it will ruin your mental and physical health, cost you your work/life balance and all for an awful wage.

Footasylum used to be a great place to work; campaigns use to be good and about product stock was up to date and on trend. Now it seems the company is Digressing. Spent to much money opening new shops and bringing new people in instead of working with the people they already have. Managers are being put under pressure with  lack of support or leadership from head office. Footasylum brags about equality however over Christmas all head office staff had free massages whilst staff in stores got nothing but a £1 selection box. All shops are understaffed therefore the staff that are there and are sticking it out are doing the work of 2-3 people. New uniform rules yet head office walk in to the store not following the new code of conduct. Head office personal walk around like they are better than you chewing gum and openly swearing on shop floors whilst they tell managers in front of staff what a bad job there doing. Lack of organisation from the top means that you always have a conflict of opinions when visits occur one person says one thing one says another. Bonus scheme is good but made unreachable as a soon as your near your target they give you even bigger ones. Footasylum it’s self needs to re-evaluate what it is doing and who it’s customer is as it seems to have lost its way,  more and more people are leaving every week because it’s become a horrible place to work with no leadership just threats upon threats. I am glad I am out of there.

To start with the temporary staff that get hired decide when they want to work e.g ringing in sick or swapping unauthorised shifts which leaves more work for the people who actually turn up. Head office doesn't take the Nottingham store seriously. They come for a visit and say everything is fine and then go off and say the stores terrible to other members of the head office. I've heard members of head office be verbally racist to other members of staff thinking its a joke and also had it happen to myself when most of their marketing and campaigns feature people of colour. They also hardly ever hire people of colour or from a minority group. They only hire people who are under 18 so they can pay them less which makes it hard because most of them have no experience and they expect sales assistants to teach them how to do their jobs which the managers should do. The owner of the company is very rude to staff when he comes into the stores and belittles them like the people from head office do also. The Nottingham store also does not have a VM so the managers and sometimes the staff have to place new clothing, shoes and accessories which is above their pay grade. Sales assistants only get 20% discount which is capped at £1500 so if you buy a pair of trainers for £100 then with 20% discount then the original price is deducted from your yearly allowance. All they care about is making money and not the treatment of their staff. Overall a terrible place to work for they treat their staff like the scum of the earth definitely do not recommend.

This is one of the most fun places I has ever worked at!

I was not directly working for this company but through agency on a contract basis, in one of their offices. 

The work itself is not to hard itself, as long as you have a basic sense of computer literacy. This is what is worked with most of the time. 

It can be a little repetitive and mundane at times as you are essentially doing the same thing from beginning to end (between emails and live chats) 

The work culture is very laid back: there's no dress code, you are allowed to eat and drink within moderation, every body is very down to earth with each other. SO all is good as long as you do the job properly and meet set targets.

What could be improved is their approach to dealing with struggling or misbehaving agents.
If you start to fall behind they tend to patronise you a little by either standing behind your screen and watching you for some time, in front of the whole office, or calling you out and checking if your ok - again, in front of the whole office which doesn't feel very nice., even for those around listening. 
Disciplining was done in the same way. If someone acts out of line, it is dealt with, but in front of everyone. There is no reason why you can't pull them to a separate room and discuss this in private. 

Apart from that, all is fine.

The managers at this store are disrespectful, rude and careless. All they care about is money, not staff what so ever. 
You constantly get put on shifts that aren't on your availability, and then they mark you as not turning up to it!
You tell the manager and they "sort" it, until you leave the office and they put you back on that shift you have just spoke about. 
They expect you to go above and beyond for them and then when you do they don't appreciate it or even notice.
You get accused of things, and I can't stress enough how badly the staff are treated. Every time in the staff room there is always atleast one staff member telling the rest how they have been disrespected by management. 
All staff members are miserable there and want to leave. They are the only good things about the store though, as they are all lovely and hardworking and don't deserve to be treated the way they are. 

I was told before I started that staff are treated really badly but I didn't listen and went to the interview anyway. I wish I did listen and stayed away.

They also got rid of me with no notice what so ever. Just pulled me in 1 hour into an 8 hour shift and told me they have made that decision and to collect my stuff. I was so shocked and upset but it was a blessing in disguise to say the least. 

Please don't work there! Save your time and stress because you deserve better than this place.

Don’t get a job here if you value either Routine, consistency or your overall sanity. 

Management is poor from the top down. The supervisors try their best but don’t get the support they probably need due to staff restrictions or a general lack of synergy. 

Nearly all of the long-standing staff have been replaced by teenagers most likely for cost cutting measures. 

The shop is dangerously understaffed due to staff budgeting issues. This in my eyes is because of a vicious circle created by the management that I will try to explain below:

All experienced staff leave > Staff replaced by people with no experience > inexperienced staff don’t know how to sell on the shop floor or get KPIs effectively or simply don’t care because they’re earning about £5 an hour > shop doesn’t meet target > staff budget cut > the vicious circle restarts. 

In the recent minimum wage increase as of April 2023 all staff were put onto minimum wage, this did nothing for morale as the staff don’t like being used as tools for cost cutting measures when everyone works so hard.

Hours are long and unsociable compared to other businesses located close by.

Overall I’ve made some good friends and memories at the company but it is time to move on before the company either does not exist or moves elsewhere. 

Store management  on point,  shame you cannot trust the area mangers, higher mangement within headoffice  and the HR team. No work life balance due to poor communication from head office everything last minute the company very unorganised and very unrealistic. Pay is terrible only ok for farvourites and with hold bouns any opportunity. Expected work 6 days work; over time is never get paid especially for stocktakes you get told the pay you and then argue with you after you worked it I am owed 30hourd never been paid.Never sign for anything as they hold you to a sheet of paper and loss prevention twist your words. Area mangers put far to much pressure and very unprofessional the language there use is very undermining and blame everything to store. Love to take photos of bad things never anything you done well always negative very glad to get out. Expect you treat staff like Machines not humanin or fair from area managers and higher mangement. Sad to leave good people within the store. Head office communication laughable your area manager visual manager footwear manager and buyers don’t work together so when you get visit they all tell you different so always stuck on who to follow and none them get on just keeping them selfs in high paid salaries.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Merchandising assistant 3 salaries reported	£21,667 per year
Delivery manager 6 salaries reported	£53,750 per year
Store manager 1 salary reported	£32,605 per year
Software engineer 3 salaries reported	£48,500 per year
Quality assurance engineer 4 salaries reported	£41,250 per year

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