I have worked for this company for twenty some odd years and this is the worst I have ever seen it. There is no more customer service in any department because of the lack of employees ( due to labour cuts) and the ones that are working ( department managers and full time back ups, if you are lucky to have one) are so over worked that they are stressed to the max. This company used to care about their employees but that is not the case anymore, all they care about is making a buck. They don't care if they lose good, caring and hard working employee's but yet they will keep store managers, assistant store managers that don't have two clues on how to run a store and the 200 employees they have in their stores. If there was more structure in some of these stores and less pressure from head office maybe things would get better, but that is highly doubtfull. The company is putting on too much pressure on the people that really count, their staff, part time and full time. How does a company not care what the people that actually work in their stores are feeling? How does a company that used to care about their employees be so blind to what is really going on in their stores. Do you not think that if you have happy employees they will give better customer service all around, I know it used to be that way, but now I hear customers complaining every day, about the service, the friendliness, can't find anyone to help them, and these are long time loyal customers that we see just about every week. If Head office would stop wasting their time on their stupid comercials and actually took the time to try and find away for themselves (not the store managers) to find out what is really the problems in some of their stores maybe then things could start turning around for the better for their employees and maybe then the employees could start saying once again " What a great place to work" because right now it is not the case.
This sounds a lot like Office Depot. It's the same clueless self destructing corporate culture. This kind of toxic work environment enventually drive away good customers and staff. The end result could lead to corporate collapse and bankruptcy. Perhaps that's what it takes to make the top executives look bad from their retarded policies?
I am a department manager in one of the superstores here in Ontario and can relate to some of the comments made here. Our labour for each department has been cut yet again as of January 1st 2011. The expectations for conditions are still there but with almost 40% less hours to do it. Is this a stressful place to work? Absolutley! I used to love my job, now it's very difficult to go to work everyday. When I started with the company 11 years ago as a part time employee I thought wow what a great place to work, as a department manager they no longer let you run your department or make any decisions, they dictate to you when you work, which isn't always to the needs of your business. I have no life anymore, which is true for all the department managers. We don't manage any more, we are expected to do most of the work and work very long hours to get our management work done besides! (...) If you ever read this take a minute to reconsider some of the changes you have made in the past 3 or 4 years.......make this a better place to work again, not sure how long I can wait for those changes. I want to love my job again. I never thought that I would ever want to look to work for another company before I retire, but I think of it every day!