store manager

retail store manager

fire risk assessor

sales assistant

manager

The Works Stores Ltd

Till Teller/ Loyalty cards. 
Like some companies The Works makes their employees reach individual sales targets and loyalty card sign ups. However they are unfairly graded and the products they try to get you to sell are terrible and no one wants them. Servers who are on the till the most do the worst where as employees who serve the least will have the most 'till tellers' because they either completely avoid going on the till to ensure their score doesn't go down or they will buy their on till tellers on their own accounts. Employees get scored daily, and if you do not achieve the impossible targets of 1 in 3 customers (1 in 1 at Christmas) you will be told you're not good enough and given informal meetings which lead to disciplinary action and being told frequently that you are at risk of losing your job. When I've previously been unable to reach target, I have been encouraged to purchase my own till tellers to improve my score. 
Whilst serving customers employees also have a 'script' with questions that you have to ask them, which include, till teller up sell, loyalty card enquiry, loyalty card up sell, bag up sell, linked product up sell, ensuring they found everything they needed - any other promotional items behind the counter. Whilst I agree a store card and linked sales may be important - but if you have to ask every customer all these questions it does cause queues and makes customers frustrated.
Tasking.
The Works is a fast paced environment like many discount retailers, theres a lot of tasking to complete, which is fine if you like to keep busy, but not all employees will contribute to the tasks that have to be done. Tasking on a daily basis will include delivery, signage changeovers, promotions (windows, tables and sections all have to be changed for this.) events, weekly actions, payday deals and of course stock counts. Now reading through a lot of these reviews it seems that the staff that has been working for the company the longest all have the same attitude to working - none. So I feel comfortable saying that it is a company wide problem and not just individual stores. Younger staff members are left on the shop floor on their own to complete tasks but also have to serve at the till which is at times incredibly busy. Whilst managers, assistant managers and any other staff that have worked there for 15+ years will be sat down in the back gossiping and drinking coffee (at least 3-5 times a day plus 1 hour break each) Managers will then come out to the shop floor and ask why the task isn't complete. I've also had my manager tell me to work through my break because I've complained I didn't have enough time to do the tasks that was left for me to do. 
Pay.
Supervisor pay is decent and competitive compared to similar  discount stores, (£8.66 per hour) however under 21 is minimum wage (£5.80) and pretty awful for the actual work they have to do. When the company is trying to cut down on wage cost I've had my manager put me down for breaks in my shifts and not told me about them so I wasn't paid correctly (you'll find this is quite normal and happens all the time). The gap between under 21 and supervisor pays is quite a bit, and sales assistants that are under 21 are sometimes forced to do supervisor shifts (opening store/closing the store - cashing up) they do not get paid the extra money they should be earning for supervisor pay and when they complain about this the manager has told them they're ungrateful. 
Work/Life balance.
This company does not care about your outside of work life, I've had to cover other stores and managers when they've just walked out. Once working a 70 hour week and attending university - they do not care about mental health or understand that when you leave work you have other commitments and plans. I've been repeatedly contacted on my days off to ask about tasking and also to come in on my days off because the manager would understaff the rota to cut costs and I'm the closest. When doing stock counts until 1 in the morning on my own I've broken down and cried and informing my manager of this just made them laugh. I'm not being over dramatic about how stressful and toxic this environment is, I'm all for hard work but as long as its fairly distributed and you're allowed a life outside work. Since I've worked at The Works for 2 years, 3 supervisors left (due to stress) and an assistant manager left (due to under training and stress) 
Rotas/Shifts. 
Whilst this might not be the case in all stores, mine however was very biased. The younger staff would only ever get the weekend shifts and late night shopping shifts. My manager would never do weekends or late nights and would rarely do a close unless assist manager/supervisor was on holiday. This is also the case of some of the staff that has also worked there as long as the manager. The rota's are ready 1-2 days in advance of the week and shifts will change dramatically the same day, (scheduled to start at 13:30-20:30, I would be called at 10:00am to start at 11:30, because once again they tried to save costs by under staffing the rota.) As I and another colleague were leaving, the manager and asst manager were planning on hiring a supervisor and sales asst to work the 2 late nights and weekend shifts so that they wouldn't have to work past 6pm. The manager will rota themselves on from 8:30-17:30pm everyday but will leave at 16:00 everyday because they "didn't" have a break, although they did because they've been sat down for 3-4 times a day drinking coffee in the back. Once my manager left the store during a busy Christmas shift for 3 hours with a co worker with no explanation of where they had gone or when and if they were coming back, but finally returned stating they needed to have a drink at a pub because THEY were too stressed out. 
Training.
You'll receive "training" on a computer for the company requirements, but if you're struggling with targets and tills you will be shamed and told off, but not told how to correct your approach. Management will be easily frustrated if you make mistakes on the tills (even if you're a new starter) because it means more work for them. 
Engagement survey/Times 25 top employers
The Works placed 18th in the Sunday Times best big companies to work for in 2019 this is based on the best companies index scores (BCI). Every employee is forced to do the 'engagement survey', they send out daily reminders to ensure that everyone completes it and were encouraged to answer in favour of the company - whilst the company overall got a good enough score to be included in the Sunday Times 25 employers, individual stores were also given the results of the CONFIDENTIAL results. When my manager received less than positive feedback about their managerial style we were individually questioned about what we entered on all the questions. Some of the employees had been confused by the phrasing of the questions and answered them incorrectly to what they thought - my manager berated them during their check ins and overall made everyone very upset. Instead of taking on board the feedback about their managerial style they thought all the employees were wrong. When asked do I find my manager enthusiastic towards me when I complete tasks (I answered strongly disagree, and told them this when questioned about it)  My manager informed me that I wasn't doing anything that wasn't required by my job title - so I didn't deserve praise or constructive criticism.   
All in all, I know a lot of what I'm saying is a store problem - but as my manager has managed the store for 25+ years it has to be a company problem and reading these other reviews it does appear as every store has an issue with management. It's an okay starter job for someone not in management, you wont be there for long as you'll get frustrated with the company requirements. 
I would never consider working here again.

The Works easily represents one of the most petty, difficult and unorganized workplaces I have had the misfortune to work for.

I had worked for the company for over five years, progressing from Sales Assistant to Store Manager over that time period. Regardless of job level a typical day involves serving on the till, processing the delivery pallets and usually rearranging the shop or otherwise creating some kind or promotional display.

I will say I previously enjoyed my initial time working for The Works. I worked with a great store team, however even during those early days the time was marked by periods of gross incompetence by the middle and upper management, and the store support team. Examples of these include but definitely not limited to: 

Failure for management to review and support the store - promises made to support the store or even come for a basic visit were often broken - usually with little to no notice. Requests for transferring excess stock, arranging cover for understaffed stores (I've regularly had to work six day and occasionally even seven day weeks. Times I've had to do this as a manager to ensure the basic functioning of the store has been essentially unpaid. Time off in lieu is supposed to compensate any overtime done, but wage rotas are unrealistically tight. Any attempt to actually take the time back is impossible as it leaves the store understaffed. Requests are all met with assurances of support and 'looking into it' but ultimately materialize into nothing.

HR/Payroll miscalculation holiday entitlement and overtime.

Mercurial visits from Regional Managers - usually with requests to create physically unsafe displays that limit the floor clearance around the shop - severely hampering the ability for any wheelchair users or pushchairs to manoeuvre around the store.


The Works has a very strong focus on targets, particularly on Loyalty Card and Add-on Sales (Till Tellers). These targets are measured both individually and aggregated into how a store compares against the whole company. Over the years I have watched these targets grow to near maniacal focus. Lists of individual performance against these targets are regularly shared in weekly area wide emails. Individuals who fail to meet these targets (usually 1 in 3 for Till Tellers but does fluctuate between 1/4 to 1/1 at Christmas, 30% participation for Loyalty Cards) are named and shamed in these emails - usually with a demand for the performance to be explained. This puts incredible pressure on the Store Managers, who in turn put pressure on their Customer Assistants. (Generally doesn't help that the till tellers are generally either somewhat pricey pens or some cheap tat the company bought too much of and are trying to get rid of - though they're are occasional good deals like kids sticker books etc). During my time at The Works I have notice a dramatic rise in the normalisation of 'drumming people out' staff members who fail to meet targets, regardless of any other consideration. The process begins by putting a staff member on a pip, escalating to a disciplinary, before firing the involved staff member. This process was actively encourage by my area manager, with a general attitude of 'get shot of them by any means necessary'.

Of course this single minded focus has resulted in an environment where staff members are coerced in making targets, any way they can. Buy their own till tellers, scan fake loyalty cards. During my Manager's Induction I was even told tips by the other inductees on how to fake the other targets. Give Click & Collect discount to the next customer in the queue, scan though a same priced Till Teller product instead of what the customer actually is buying (eg scan through a £1 TT pen instead or a £1 book), scan though a same priced Top 50 product instead of what a customer is actually buying. Upper management seem to be aware of the culture they are creating. During the same induction the trainer warned about other managers who had been fired for padding their results, yet were paradoxically praising themselves for the uptake in their Click and Collect add-on sales results, which at the time had only recently been added as a Dashboard Target (and had suddenly improved by over 100%). However as the company had recently gone public, it seems that focus has shifted to whatever they can 'show improvement on' to their investors.

This desire to demonstrate a 'good face' to the public can be seen in they way it has behaviour regarding it's inclusion into the Top 25 company list. The survey was conducted not long after The Works public flotation. Staff discount was increased from 20% to 25%, as well as giving staff a week long 50% discount event. It was considered compulsory for all staff members to complete the survey, with bi-weekly emails naming and shaming individuals who had yet to complete it. Despite being 'confidential', the results are disseminated to the area and individual store mangers. Teams are generally not very big so there is little difficulty in identifying what staff member said what, with the expectation of identifying 'troublesome' members of staff. See above, 'drumming people out'.

Daily tasking is often unreasonable with large deliveries (managers get very little control over what stock they received with most of it being allocated) with skeletal staff particularly over Christmas. The Works seem quite proud of the workload they pile onto their staff over the holidays, 'There's no Christmas like a Works Christmas'. While this period is an understandable busy retail quarter, any store suggestions on how to ease or improve work flow are ignored and have been for years.

Shops are often freezing due to company policy to keep the doors open at all time. No investment is made in providing adequate heating for staff.

No CCTV. Staff can be threatened, stock stolen... literal waste of time to contact the police about shoplifted stock as no actual evidence.

Please spare yourself the stress of working for this company. They will completely destroy your work/life balance, fail to compensate you adequately for your time and will fail you time and time again. AVOID.

The upper management is awful, which drips down and infects the in-store management. Hours are sporadic, and with a 4 hour contract, can range anywhere between 4 hours a week to 30, but that's only if they don't have enough staff members left that haven't been put on forced holidays to save time scheduling. Hope you don't have other commitments, because if someone is on holiday, or sick, or quits, you're forced to take on more than you're contracted, regardless of your personal life. 

Expect to get messages to the group chat about how you're statistics are measuring up to each other, and expect call outs to those who could be doing better to match their ridiculous targets. The things that you have to sell on the till are, for the most part, utter tat that would usually only be bought due to pressure from the server, or on a mad whim. But if you don't sell enough ice-cream shaped bubble wands or hand crank fans then you can expect to get told, usually in public - in front of customers - to do better.

Constant motion is required. Naturally, you can't expect to stand around and do nothing, but take a few seconds to breath and you'll get asked what you're doing, why aren't you working? Stop looking at that wall, trying to figure out where to put some stock, trying to work, you've got work to do! Oh, you turned your back for a second to put some stock out, why aren't you paying attention to the till that has magically appeared out of nowhere in the two seconds you looked away.
Honestly, it's like they can't trust you to actually do your job without constant hounding. If every nanosecond isn't spent looking productive, even if that time is spent trying to be productive, then obviously you aren't working hard enough, get on with it!

Speaking of putting out stock, the amount of stock you have to put out is stupid. Things can literally be falling of the shelves because there's no more room for it, you still have to put out more because somebody upstairs probably ordered too much. And you better make it look exactly like they want it to, no matter how awkward and unwieldy it is for customers. We can't have the customers actually look at what they want to buy, not without it falling over because it had to be set up like a game of Jenga, because clearly aesthetics are more important than, you know, actual customer service. Disabled customers in wheel chairs and scooters have been embarrassed because they've knocked things off the over flowing shelves, and have had difficulty maneuvering around the numerous tables. Several have complained about not being able to get around the shop properly.

What I've learned from this job is that customer service is a lie. Customer service only matters as long as they've been bothered into buying more things than they want. Customer service is them having their time wasted, offered things they have no need for, no desire for, all that matters is milking their wallets for all their worth. The hardest part of the job is having to repeat the same lines over, and over, and over again, bugging good people trying to go about their lives, by offering them inane, pointless tat like a set of colorful strings to do Cat's Cradle.

My only real positives from working there are my fellow staff members, aside from the manager. I've had a customer say to me that the manager should take one of the staff members aside because they come across as abrasive and confrontational; I had to tell them that was the manager. Every shift I share with the manager has me feeling anxious, on edge, just waiting for them to call me out on something I've supposedly done wrong. Most of the time, it causes me existential dread just being in the same room as them. It even makes me feel physically ill, sometimes. The days that I've been on without the manager have nearly always been enjoyable, the kinds of days that don't make me hate my job, where I feel like I can get on with things without having someone breathing down my neck.

The staff discount is also nice, but certainly not worth the kind of treatment you get there. From what I've read online, my experience has actually been better than the usual, which will tell everything you need to know about this company.

Simply the worst company I have ever worked for! You are forced to run the shop with just an extra 1 person every single day whilst doing massive deliveries, putting them out, making sure all their silly moves are done (and they happen every single week), they either send you very very large amount of items that you don’t need, because you already have a mountain of them and they never send you anything that you actually need! So you have to do the store move every week because of it! All of that whilst making sure all the KPIs are done and you have sell as many loyalties to people as possible, now they’re forcing people to “opt in” so they can send non stop spam! They refuse to give people any extra hrs, (when they are contracted for 4 hrs) and they would rather hire an extra staff. They call their staff “bodies” like they are some lifeless beings. Store managers abuse the rules, yet if you forget to sticker a book you will get a disciplinary! HR completely ignores any complains about store managers! They want you to do more and more and more and it never ends...! Higher management, instead of helping stores who struggle, they just tell them to “suck it up or you will be replaced”... I have seen people turn to alcohol and drugs, because they just couldn’t handle this horrible company anymore!! They told me to cancel my doctors appointment because management “should be available 24/7, and if I do have any plans I have to cancel them immediately”... They refuse to get CCTV cameras, and I have seen my previous assistant manager being threatened with a knife, there is no security in any of these shops! You wonder if you will get stabbed for a tenner today or not... and you wont be able to prove a thing! This shows how much they care about you and your wellbeing. They lie and pretend that it’s all fun environment! When in reality you will be getting grey hair sooner than you were expecting! All management is leaving, their “internal vacancies list” is getting longer and longer every week... they want to open more stores yet they don’t renovate their old stores! I worked in one store that was missing a huge chunk of the wall! They just don’t care, you have to survive and make more and more money. Salisbury store please avoid it at all costs! Store Manager has been lying to HR about people that work there, saying that they are aggressive and have mental issues just so they can get rid of them! Store Manager is also a bully! She picks on staff and talks behind their backs, lies and lies about them to HR and other managers! She over exaggerates everything, just so she could “fit in” and have something to chat about to higher ups so they can feel sorry for her! She gives a lot of work to others yet doesn’t do anything herself, apart from eat all day long in the office! She has denied promotions and transfers to different stores by contacting those stores and saying that that member of staff has mental health issues! She asks you about your private life and then discuss it with other people! She lies about you to HR and threatens with firing you everyday! So she holds your job over your head! She has no sympathy to her team and she has favourites too! They get extra hours and they get less work to do! This place gave me PTSD! They say that they’re 18th best company to work for but it’s pure lie!! Avoid at all cost!!!!!!!

Overall i would have to say that the works is a very busy environment, there is always something that needs doing or someone who might need your help and advice, the company takes pride in trying to offer the very best service that it possibly can and is always open to client review and critique as to what new products to sell and what items are most popular at the time, so we're never left in the dark as to what is most in demand and do our best to fulfill the request.

A typical day at work within the Works varies daily, on some days we can have no customers at all, whereas on other days we find ourselves with many new customers visiting, there is often a number of things to do to keep yourself busy, including restocking shelves with new stock, completing deliveries and taking care of in-store click-and-collect purchases, as well as a steady flow of all-day-round cleaning duties.

Whilst working at the company i would have to say that it has taught me a great deal about interacting with others, as i sometimes get a bit tongue-tied when interacting with people and may come off as shy or indirect, but because i am more often than not in charge of working the register, it means that as a result i have gotten a lot better about talking with strangers and interacting with the customer, which has been a great help as far as confidence is concerned.

The management at the works is overall friendly and good-natured, We like to take up a friendly stance when interacting with management and feel confident that when there is a problem, the management will be able to solve said problem, we work as a team on most tasks and it is rare that we ever have trouble working together, overall the management is very agreeable, friendly, and approachable.

By extension the work place culture has its laid back moments, both management and other members of staff are open to discussing themselves and having an occasional laugh with both employees and with customers, creating a friendly, approachable and laid back environment. 

The hardest part of the job i would have to say is working deliveries. The store i work in is attached onto another store entirely, like a concession stand,so as a result we are only able to work on deliveries while the store is open, and consequently when there are customers in the store with us, as we are not allowed to stay inside our partner store when they close, since we do not have a key to the establishment, as a result, trying to both unpack a large delivery (especially during the christmas season) and see to customer needs can prove to be very stressful indeed.

The best part of the job however, is in knowing that you did a good job and that you helped someone significantly. Because i myself like to read, whenever a customer might enter the store who is having trouble finding the exact book they want, helping them to either find the book they are looking for, or else simply find them a similar title that they might enjoy, can be exceedingly rewarding to see them leave happy at having found their item or left with an entirely new purchase. Sometimes just knowing that you made a customer happy is more than enough to set the day off to a good start.

As a deputy manager the pay is about 45p an hour more than the minimum wage sales assistants. It's an absolute insult. I picked up this job for a few months when I needed some part-time work, and started planning my exit not long after starting. The company expect you to ram £1 shopping bags and batteries down every customers throat and expected to hit a store target, and can even get a disciplinary if you don't hit your personal target, as if there is some way to force people to pay £1 for a bag when they already have one. The company constantly put pressure on stores to drive sales and increase takings. The sales target every day is completely unrealistic so you're constantly told you're not hitting targets. The management whatsapp group for the area is extremely cringy, with messages from the area managers each day trying to tell us how the sales aren't good enough while trying to be upbeat and encouraging yet always coming across negative and patronising at the same time. Then the constant beg for approval from management in stores to area managers is unbearable, sending pictures of displays they've made and sales that have happened in the shop that day, or various different special efforts made to try and increase sales for a company that pay deputy store managers 45p an hour. more than the minimum wage sales assistant. The person completely in charge of the store in the absence of the store manager, 45p an hour more than minimum wage. It's some of the poorest management pay I've ever heard of. The area management are also constantly demanding you send a pic of this display, that window, etc yet the company do not provide you with WI-FI. 

The amount of hours allowed for the store is nowhere near enough. The majority of the time there were two people in my store all day, and you're expected to take turns to take breaks, meaning one of you being stuck on the shop floor alone. You're expected with only two people in store all day to go all out to try and improve sales and hit targets, and provide great customer service, but then some how process a whole delivery and make endless changed to store displays and merchandising. You have endless tasks to get done with no staff, yet you're expected to provide outstanding customer service record breaking sales at the same time. So many demands yet so little staff and completely unrealistic expectations. 

We also changed over to a new system for cashing up and banking and received very little training. Some evenings got out late and only ever got paid up to the hour scheduled on the rota, never for the time I got out. Also had to go for my management training at a store nearly an hour and a half away and never got any reimbursment for fuel costs at all for a week of journeys probably £100 in fuel, for a job where the hourly rate is already atrocious and not worth travelling that far.. 

The people I worked with in my store were really nice for the most part and I wish them all the best, but the company is not one I would recommend working for at all. 

Typical day at work would consist of entering and putting baskets out this includes products on the doors to show people we are open , as I’m not keyholder I start by greeting customers and tidying up ready for the day while my boss Does the figures and checks everything before the Day needs to start. Then serve people at the till and help people find the products they are looking for as well as find alternatives for them if we don’t have that exact product in store or send them somewhere else I know we definitely don’t sell that product. I blow up balloons if anyone needs them I also merchandise tables ,walls And books and pen stands, I reprice a lot of products and i’m known to do very well at clearing the stockroom and organising it to perfection… near the end of the day I bring in the baskets bring in the products from the door and I will sweep the entire floor change the bins and make sure washing is done… Again as I’m not a keyholder just yet I don’t Cash up the tills however I must count the money afterwards to doublecheck the keyholder has done a good job and it is perfect. That is my typical Day. From working at The Works I’ve learned how to talk to people and have small conversations as my confidence has grown massively, I have learned to work in a fast said paced environment… I’ve also learned to not ask for help and be confident with my answers and things are… I’ve learned and had a good example of what teamwork is me and my team have always got along and I’ve always worked together very well we all put our strengths  in the right places and together we smash it … my manager is The best manager I have ever had in my life… not only does she care about work life she cares about mental health and the parts that some places dismiss… She reminds us that we are human which makes us do much more because she never makes us feel under pressure or left out… she makes sure everyone puts their best strengths into the store because we believe if someone is a singer they shouldn’t be dancing… The hardest part of my job is our hours our whole team would love more hours as we need at least three people in store to be able to do the best but at the moment we are working with two people in store and sometimes even one due to our hours… This makes our job much harder because we are working on certain time limits and under certain pressure when running the store as well as till it can be very very hard.  Sometimes we are given terrible planograms due to other work stores layout ,our store has many windows Which prevent us from planning walls. The most enjoyable part of the job is going in I would’ve never expected to say that but I am… every part of my job is enjoyable despite the hours , I look forward to seeing the team every time and the people as we have a lot of loyal customers who visit near enough everyday …

I've been working with The Works for nearly a year. I've worked in retail for nearly a decade, but this was my first retail job in the UK - all my other jobs were in America, so take that into consideration. Maybe retail culture is much different in the UK. 

The pacing is kinda all over the place. Some days, particulary around the holiday season, you'll come and there will be so much to do that you're not sure you'll be able to get it all done. You'll be swamped with customers. I enjoy having work to do, so that was nice. But other days, you'll come in with very little to do, and find yourself wandering the store in search of work to be done. Management often had me spending hours marking off Top 50 and Drilldown lists. I understood the point, but it still didn't feel like fulfilling or necessary work.

The workplace culture is alright. People will be friendly to you, but don't have much interest in actually getting to know you or talking to you. If you have personal or medical problems, it's probably best to keep them to yourself. 

The most difficult part of the job was just how dehumanizing it felt at times. Management introduced a new rule that you can only use the bathroom on breaks, and you are given two 30 minute breaks in an 8 and a half hour shift. Never, in all my years of retail, have I been told I can only use the bathroom on my break, and I go A LOT. That was kinda the straw that broke the camel's back for me. If you're feeling unwell on shift for whatever reason, you'll be expected to work as if you're fine. Not a lot of consideration for mental wellbeing. 

If you're religious, I would also beware - you will be sometimes asked to lie to customers and tell them that there are no carrier bags, so they're forced to buy a £1 bag. That really rubbed me the wrong way.

Despite all this, it can be a fine job for just getting your foot into retail. The customers are friendly and often come in to show you the crafts and artwork they've created. The employee discounts are great. I loved the costume dress-up days. But if you want to feel like an appreciated human and valued member of a team, look elsewhere. 

Worked at the works for over 3 years. When I first started I loved it, great family atmosphere and supportive manager. Six months after starting my manager left, followed closely by the area manager. The assistant manager was forced to run the shop with practically no external help or recognition for their hard work, yet was expected to take full responsibility and blame if the shop didn't hit targets etc. 
Still enjoyed the job as we were a tight knit team that got on and worked well together. As time went on, however, peoples hours got cut down even at busy times because the rota had to be a certain amount. Obviously I understand the importance of budgeting but any time you wanted more staff on for a particularly busy time you had to fight to get those extra people. 
I think the main problem is the complete lack of understanding between the higher ups and the people who are doing the grunt work on the shop floor. When you have five pallets to get through, upper management will decide that a big move needs done that same day, which you are supposed to do alongside the delivery, providing customer service, pushing loyalty/ till tellers and making sure the shop does not become a health and safety hazard. All this with a skeleton staff of two people (if you are very lucky you might get three!). 
I truly believe the company has completely missed the mark on what good customer service actually is. No one likes to be hassled to buy an additional product, sign up for a loyalty card and buy a plastic bag yet workers are forced to do this, their success is tracked daily and if they do not reach the ridiculously high targets they are disciplined. Most of the managers I worked with also found these targets unachievable but were forced by the company to be seen to be doing something about it. 
Very disappointing that The Works management outside of the shops no longer appreciate their workers. I have seen so many great people leave this company who were great at their jobs. Would've a hundred percent recommended this job to someone  five years ago, would advise to stay away now!

I was a supervisor for the works for around three months. I think it would be the worst job I have ever had. I have over 5 years experience working in retail and none of them were as bad as The Works. First of all you cannot have a social life as they do the rota`s the week before but even then they change your hours last minute. Even though they said on my interview that it was supposed to be 4 weeks in advance. 

Secondly they put so much pressure on you and give you unrealistic targets but the problem is that if its  busy store you dont have time as your always talking to customers. If you ignore customers and get on with doing a display then you get told of for creating ques but if you end up spending most of your time talking and helping cusomers ( which is good customer service) you get in trouble for not finishing your tasks. They gave very little training but then complained if you didnt know everything about the job within the first few weeks. The managment was horrible and gave no positive encouragment only negativety.  My manager would even moan to me about other members of staff an it would really bring my mood down, but then I would find out she has then gone and talked about me behind my back. The area manager would only ring if sales were down and make it seem like ti was your fault. Even on my last day the area manager asked why sales are down but not once acknolegded that I was leaving the company or even said thank you.

Finally I even got shouted at and told that I did a really bad job in front of customers and within ea shot of sales assistants which was really embarrassing and very unprofessional.

Theres more I can say but ultimately I felt nervous everytime I went into work and it really affected my confidence. Bearing in mind I have over 15 years of work experience and a lot fo that being retail and certianly all of that being customer faced roles. On top of that my last job I was a manager for three years yet I still could not stand working for The Works. For the little  pay you get its really not worth it!

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