Cotton On Reviews

Cons

dont get enough shifts

Cons

Shift work- not many full time positions

Cons

Micro management, calling staff multiple times a day to check KPIs is excessive and there’s no sense of trust.

Cons

Limited hours for casual staff

Cons

Managers never want to close and if you have a closing shift you rock up to clean up all the mess from the day and they expect it to be done to perfection

Cons

Since there are a high number of staff, there is not much loyalty to the senior casuals or those who have been with the company for a long time. When a branch closes down, it is largely the employee's job to find another branch and secure a transfer.

Cons

Firstly, I started at Cotton On as a casual about a year ago and it was good. Everyone seemed friendly and easy going. Training was adequate, but definitely could have used more on the registers. For the first four or so months, the job lacked so much variety and the shifts were mind-numbingly boring and felt like they went forever, even though the shifts are mostly three and four hours, rarely being rostered on for a five hour. Even now, in a big store, it's almost a 50/50 % chance you're either on the front, or in the fitting rooms.

You get 'inducted' at the start of every shift, where your manager tells you what is the expected budget for the day, as well as the expected ratio's for customer purchases of charity items, with any purchase (WAP) items and sign ups to the Cotton On loyalty program. Along with the daily reminders of what the 'operations focus' for the week is. This is fine, it's good to have goals. You also get hourly updates on how you are going sales wise.

We get told every shift, that we need to be approaching customers to greet them, then follow up with them a few minutes later to see if they need any help. This is absolutely ridiculous, there is no way in which one person can greet every customer that comes into the store *keep in mind, I worked in a MEGA store*. I mean, secondly to this, customers just don't want to be approached and quite frankly, bothered by a sales assistant. I am a customer, and I hate being approached!!

Every day we get deliveries for stock, sometimes 20-30 boxes of items that are all expected to be unpacked in three hours (at 12pm). This is hardly ever achieved and managers make you feel as if you are slow and inefficient.

Regarding the deliveries, EVERYTHING IS INDIVIDUALLY WRAPPED IN PLASTIC! I'm saying ONE box may contain 40 pairs of underwear, 20 bras and a 10 pairs of tracksuit pants, and EVERY single one of them is wrapped in plastic. If you have a problem with the amount of plastic being produced and it's inability to biodegrade, than this is literally going to make you sick. Managers again don't seem to have a problem with this, and justify it by saying that can't do anything about it.

Now, getting down to the nitty gritty. Did you know that it has been discovered recently (and feel free to search this yourself if you don't believe me), that Cotton On does not even pay their clothing manufacturers in Bangladesh minimum wage? I'm talking 50 cents a day. To pay their workers minimum wage, they would literally need to increase their clothing prices by, get this, ONE CENT, to absorb the wage increase. Why is a company that is so hell bent of pushing their 'charity' items to help children in Uganda, South Africa and Thailand, so willing to let their staff in another third world country go without a minimum wage?

Cons

Didn't get my overtime pay

Cons

Room for progression was minimal

Cons

Management are cliquey bullies who only care about making the most money possible every day. Of course they do, but unless you're super extroverted and get close with them, you will be completely disregarded with a maximum of 10 hours a week (usually 3-6).