shop manager

deputy manager

book manager

volunteer

shop assistant

Oxfam

I work for the Oxfam charity on a regular basis. I work for 4 hours on a saturday afternoon (1 - 5) and really enjoy it. I have met lots of new people who I have formed very close relationships with over the time that I have been working there. I have learnt some highly important skills such as:

- Organisation
- Team leadership
- Team management
- Time keeping
- Stocking
- Culling
- Banking
- Cash handling
- Customer service
- Pricing

All of these skills I have learnt in the period that I have been working for the charity (which is a little under a year) and I have also enhanced my existing ones, which could come in useful in the workplace

I often get referred to as the 'assistant manager', this basically means that when my manager isn't in, I have to manage all the staff in the workplace and set them tasks in which to complete. I am also in charge of recruiting new volunteers into the charity, as well as training them up on areas such as:

- Pricing strategies
- How to work the till
- Culling
- Window displays
- How to work effectively with others

Many of my co-workers I manage. I get along with these people very well, this is mainly due to my outgoing, chatty nature. Although my co-workers would describe me as 'bossy', they appreciate the work I do and see that being bossy is only part of my job. Many of my co-workers enjoy working with me as I make their day at work enjoyable.

The hardest part of my job is dealing with awkward customers, this is something I have to deal with quite frequently. It is hard because I have to stay calm to try and resolve the situation. Also trying to find solutions to problems that a customer or a co-worker has, is often very difficult too, as sometimes I cannot think of an immediate answer. I always make sure that customers and co-workers are happy and will always try and think of a solution to problems instantly, although this sometimes proves a challenge for me

On the other hand, the most enjoyable part of my job is probably working along side my co-workers. I enjoy this because I get on very well with them and they have become very close friends of mine. They always lighten my mood, and make my day at work very enjoyable, when often I am stressed as the shop can be very busy. Also dealing with customers is also very enjoyable, as I get to meet new people and sustain my customer service and communication skills

I work there on a Thursday and a Friday. On a Friday morning I arrive there to start work at 9 am. I am usualy working on the till in a front of house customer service job role, answering the customers enquires face to face or by phone. I easily build a rapport this comes naturaly to me. I have a friendly out going nature; I am easily approachable, and have a passion for looking after the customers and delivering a high level of care. Shop promotions; for example asking customers who are donating items if they would like to gift aid, If they would like to! going through this procedure with them.

When the deputy manager goes for his lunch. I go for mine for an hour at 11 pm I run the shop as a team leader at 1pm some one else goes on the till. I now work on shop displays, sorting and pricing stock and general stockroom duties working in the back of the shop. Sometimes printing gift aid barcode labels on the computer.

Once a month in my role as the health and safety officer; I carry out the shop monthly health and safety checks, following the check list and writing the report, action to be taken, and action that has been taken. I last did this on 20 June. I am also responsible for health and safety in the shop for all and keep a look out for situations implementing this at all times. I finish at Oxfam at 4,45pm

Every other Friday during my lunch break I help out in another voluntary job a meet and greet job role at the Bicester Job Club. At the moment I am enroled on a customer service course it started last week and ends next Friday. So I only work in Oxfam before the course and from 2pm.

I have learnt most of my customer service and retail skills, sales,till work and promotional work, shop displays, how to confidently work with the customer. My duties as the heath and safety officer as well as workers risk assessments. I have used my transferrable team leader; managing a small team supervising and training colleagues work experience and skills from H.Bronnley. At Oxfam I also train people in till work.

I enjoy working as part of the team working with my co-workers, sharing our skills and knowledge to provide an exceptionaly high level of customer service.

The hardest part of the job has been learning to be unaffected by occassional bad shop behaviour.

The most enjoyable part is interacting and building a rapport with the customers I am passionate about this and shop promotions.

OXFAM has provided vast capacity building, the great value and principles  in humanitarian aide to  most  vulnerable population to reduce poverty and suffering and respect of their rights,  great teamwork, vast exposure to various countries and respect to diversity. I learned and devloped a lot of skills  while working with OXFAM. 
A typical day of work would be in a refugee or evacuation camp managing a team of 20-30 staff, meetings to address  the water, sanitation and hygiene related risks, meetings with community and stakeholders and government.  Another typical day is at the office for coordination meetings, planning, writing proposals and donor reports, budgeting, logistical procurement planning and management meetings.
Workplace - physical environment wise on the country being deployed: big office with huge team to manage, requires team player skills, capacity building work to improve staff, different languages and culture, requires adaptation and  fexibility of various   living condition in countries hit by natural disasters or conflict/war stricken areas where basic facilities are mostly damaged.
The hardest part is working more than the regular hours to save more lives, especially during acture phase of programme response or diasease outbreaks to reach more people provided with water/sanitation/hygiene services - while dealing with security issues, accessibility etc. But ultimately despite the hard work,  I greatly enjoyed and felt fulfilled with all the achievements and being able to support people in need, saving lives , working with the affected communities and working with the teams of different  expats and national staff in different countries. I enjoyed capacitating the national staff and improving their skills. Its also great to have rest and recreation provided by the company to refresh me from the hard work and difficlut living conditions.

It's a volunteer position. I think that maybe I hit the wrong button. But that being said volunteering at Oxfam is a good experience. It's not demanding. But when you're there, it really feels like you're a piece of the machine. Handling donations and talking to people who really believe in the mission statement of the company. A lot of people are here for a little direction, people who want something to do and something they can have a little pride in doing. It's great experience that covers a huge amount of areas. It's a holistic education in retail (stock room work and till work) married with a charitable spirit that lends itself to a more liberal love for products. Rather than a rigid company style and product, in the stock-room you evaluate a wide range of products on their quality and their appeal to the wide range of customers who come to sample merchandise and engage with what Oxfam has to offer. 
There's also a far more human level of interaction with potential donors. Other retail has a rigid relationship with deliveries. Whereas strangers come to Oxfam looking for something good-hearted. Making them feel wanted and at home and that their coming down and offering something is a very good thing. Making them feel a part of the team. It encourages them to come back. People can often feel uneasy about donating. There's a lot of cynicism about charity, especially Oxfam. And engaging with that cynicism and re-working it as a positive thing. They want to donate somewhere that will actually help and it's fulfilling to present people with real evidence of change for the better on the behalf of Oxfam. And they leave with a reinforced positive view of the company. Public relations and retail-work married together far more closely than any for-profit company.

Oxfam Knaresborough is a small shop always looking for more volunteers.

Oxfam has a fantastic manager who is very empowering. My confidence has grown enormously since she took over the role.
I have had the opportunity to try many new duties and realise I can be successful at them.

I joined initially to gain experience of an electronic till.  I enjoy meeting and working with the public. I have been trusted to open the shop and put the float in the till, I am trusted to go to the bank with the takings. When the supervisor was busy I was asked to give a Health & Safety presentation at the volunteer meeting. I had never done anything like that before. I thought volunteers could be bored with it, so I put serious issues into rhyme to make it more interesting and everybody not only listened but clapped!

Since then I have been asked to make up poems to advertise Gift Aid for donations and also other events such as Valentines Day, Mothers Day etc, throughout the year. These have been displayed in the shop window. I have also had the opportunity to dress the windows.

Twice I have been elected to go on the Oxfam market stall on Wednesday's. It is different selling to the shop envirionment, as I believe I have to approach people and talk to them, getting them interested in the stock on the stall. Last time I made the most money of the day. In the shop I say "Hello" but customers usually browse until they ask for something or want to pay. 

I enjoy filling up on my department which is books and I am training to put old and valuable books on line so Oxfam can raise more money.

Oxfam is a good place to meet other volunteers and make new friends.

Overall I had an incredible experience in the Oxfam shop I volunteered in.
I have also had experience working in a different Charity Shop, one with a more conventional cold atmosphere.

My experience between the two is that Oxfam functions in a much more friendly and negotiable way. You choose your hours, you are made to feel important with interesting tasks, you are only asked to do what you can manage and altogether it does not have a firm corporate mentality but rather more of a family atmosphere.

The events and gatherings organised by the Manager (Once a year the Manager received an Oxfam bonus to take us all out for drinks) were very special memories.

I was a student at the time who had been recovering from mental health issues and all of this, I felt was taken into consideration unlike other charity shops where you where made to feel like you are in a regular job, working hard for no pay and not much thanks.

Oxfam made me feel prepared to take on a real job and left me with some very special memories. I cannot guarantee that the staff would be as lovely in every shop however the way Oxfam is run is certainly better than other Charity Organisation. More , human.

I was very saddened that the Charity had never explained anything openly about their involvement in funding pro abortion charities.
As my personal views are against this I felt sad to leave Oxfam and found it awkward to explain why.

By no means should this stop you from joining Oxfam however I wish they where clearer with potential Volunteers about what the Charity really funds.

Honestly, I love working at Oxfam for multiple reasons. My typical workday would start at 10 am, with organising shelves with new stock before people came inside, to then working behind the till, then onto pricing and steaming donated items. It would be stressful, I admit, sometimes during days where there would be an influx of customers on the shop floor, but overall the ambience around is very comforting.

Having worked there for about a year now, I have learnt many things ranging from customer service and presenting yourself towards a customer to using electronic equipment and pricing items correctly. Working there has really increased my self-esteem and improved my attitude towards working, whilst also allowing me to progress as a person and make new contacts.

The range of different ethnicities that make up our volunteer team astounding, and I love that everyone can be whoever they are without prejudice.

I feel like the hardest part of the job was two things, keeping up with time management and deadlines which required a lot of planning and effort from my part, and coming out of my shell to be more open towards other people. Additionally, working in such a busy, bustling area like London can be quite tiring/stressful at times.

Yet, it is the most enjoyable parts of working in Oxfam that makes the negatives insignificant. We as a company have been working hard towards sales and co-operating as a team, and to hear how much we raise over the course of a week, month or year is exciting. Speaking to other people from a range of different backgrounds is always a nice and engaging thing to do and, the underlying prospect of raising money for a charity is always something heartwarming.

(Note: Salary/Benefits is one star because it is not applicable. You won't be paid for volunteering at an Oxfam store.)

Volunteering at Oxfam has been a rich experience for me. On an average day, I'd bear witness to a huge variety of people with a huge variety of requests. I'd learn about books and artists I'd never heard of before - two examples I can think of are When The Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs, a graphic novel on nuclear war, and Muddy Waters, an American blues musician. I'd even walk away with a pack of gorgeous playing cards.

I would recommend this sort of thing to anybody who needs experience in the field - at an Oxfam store in particular, you'll learn how to use the till, which becomes a doddle once you get used to its arcane layout, as well as the ins-and-outs of how such a shop runs. I've also found it's great for dealing with confidence issues, as the people I work(ed) with are very easy to talk to. Can't really think of a better way to put it.

Plus, there's the clientele that you'll need to deal with in a semi-professional manner - I say this because many customers will probably let you off for most mistakes, and don't really mind waiting a couple of minutes if the till doesn't obey. Because of this, you'll find that the whole experience is quite laid-back, and this is actually perfect for building up confidence with both the till and your customers.

To put it simply, if you have free time or need to bolster your CV with something a bit extra, I would absolutely recommend popping over to an Oxfam store - or any charity shop, for that matter - and volunteering. You need only do as many hours as you can, and it's definitely worth your time.

A typical day at work consists of managing the volunteers on site, identifying the shop departments needing attention to boost sales and appeal, Dealing with all communications from head office, implementing new procedures, keeping new products stocked up, delivering regular training to volunteers, delegating tasks throughout the team, general day to day running of the shop from open to close and providing weekly and yearly reports to account for the shops activities and sales. I am also responsible for creating budgets, health and safety for both my shops and following self generated business plan.
I have learned a great deal at Oxfam. I have learned how to manage two shops simultaneous, manage people/volunteers, financial management and treasury, dealing with the challenges of managing volunteers ans sourcing stock to sell in a charity shop environment, pricing, sorting and preparing stock for sale, researching high priced items and learning how to multi-task a high workload effectively.
I am a hard worker and this job has really showcased to me what I can do in a pressurized environment.
The team I have created and cultivated are well structured and a harmonious team. I have total respect for my team as they have for me. 
The hardest part of the job has to be the workload but I have managed it effectively for the past 4/5 years and it has taught me to be hyper efficiant. 
The most enjoyable part of the job has to be the volunteers, charitable contribution my shops make and the satisfaction of doing something fundamental good.

My typical day starts around 5 a. m because it was far easier to get things done, i.e. stock replenishment, banking and the cleaning. Around 8:30 a. m. Frances, the deputy manager would arrive and we discuss the tail end of the day befores events and what was going to happen for the rest of the day whilst I'm there. At 9.00 a. m. I would take the day befores takings to the bank and return to finish replenishing the shelves, I would deal with customer enquiries and midday I would go home, have lunch then undertake a job search. I was a senior volunteer who came to the bookshop as part of the New Deal programme for thirteen weeks and stayed eleven years, which did not do my attainment of a full - time job any good. But. It was fulfilling and well worth it, inspite of what the folks at the Jobcentre might have thought. I helped in any way I could to raise money for the starving in the world and I did good, because I care for society which still remains true today as it did then.

My fellow volunteers came from all walks of life and some remained as very good friends, I had a sort of adopted family which is also one of the positives of the work. They all had their various reasons for volunteering, some good - some bad but the thing is, when the going got tough we all pulled together for the comman good.

Working for Oxfam was pretty good altogether and the reason why I left was in a change of management and area manager, with whom I did not see eye to eye, plus I was starting to get serious pressure from the wretched Jobcentre.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Shop manager 1 salary reported	£28,620 per year
Deputy manager 1 salary reported	£28,392 per year
Book manager 1 salary reported	£22,750 per year
Volunteer 4 salaries reported	£21,661 per year
Shop assistant 13 salaries reported	£12,464 per year

Working at Oxfam: company overview and reviews

Oxfam

Oxfam ratings

Popular jobs at Oxfam

Salary satisfaction

Jobseeker tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected