The Works Stores Reviews

3.3

62% would recommend to a friend

(564 total reviews)

Gavin Peck

74% approve of CEO

42% positive business outlook

The Works Stores has an employee rating of 3.3 out of 5 stars, based on 564 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The The Works Stores employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Retail and wholesale industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

564 reviews
1.0
23 July 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

the 20% discount is good, and the colleagues you work with are lovely

Cons

A constant chain of regional managers screaming at area managers who scream at managers who then scream at staff about meeting unrealistic expectations. You are expected to hand a loyalty card out to 1/3 customers and sell the garbage (till tellers) at the till to 1/2 customers. Obviously this isn’t realistic and staff are constantly bullied for not reaching these targets. I cannot even begin to count the amount of times in which I have been left crying because of this and was still expected to run the shop myself during so. Tears streaming down my face from mistreatment and I was still left to serve every customer, answer customer questions, help customers find things, put out stock etc all at the same time. Management do not care. The stress that is put on staff to give away loyalty cards forces colleagues into ‘cheating’ in ways such as scanning cards and binning them. When they are caught doing these things they are simply fired for being fraudulent even though they are forced to do so due to the pressure put on them to preform. Management have never questioned why people actually do these things. Rotas are changed without notice, you take a picture of one rota and are punished when you don’t know they’ve put you in for an extra shift and not told you. You are expected to drop everything around you for work. Staff rooms are tiny and crammed with hundreds of extra stock. There’s no space to even eat your lunch. Incredibly low morale due to no incentives, just long hours and minimum wage. Under 21’s get less than £6 p/h.

1.0
11 Feb 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I’m a bit of a retail veteran and honestly this is the worst retailer I’ve ever worked for. So none. We’re being asked to but positive reviews on here to make up for the recent wave of negative ones. But I refuse to lie.

Cons

Where do I start. It’s good to be able to be reactive to the market but the company just has no plan for more than a week away, which makes it really hard to plan your week and you end up having to mess all your staff about all the time changing rotas. It’s obvious the company are gearing towards “1+1” working - that means only you and one other staff member in the shop at a time. This is just about manageable in small turnover/sq ft stores but crazy for medium to large. As other reviews have said you end up doing 60+ hours a week and never having a day off to keep up. Considering how poor the salary is it just doesn’t justify the sacrifice. I have never ever had to resort to this, and it totally goes against my beliefs, but it is expected of you. I know managers that have worked on their holidays. My area 14 ASM is lovely but if you dare share any challenges that you need support on you start getting the negative label. I don’t think it’s her it just seems to be the culture of the company. They don’t like feedback unless it’s praise, even sharing an idea to improve just gets labelled as moaning. It’s like only head office are allowed to think we just have to do as we’re told. Payroll has been slashed so much, and they only want 4 hour employees it’s just near impossible to get good staff. This model whilst cheap is not sustainable, I have many retailers try it and go back to offer high contracts. The cost of labour turnover will far outweigh living wage, NI and pension contributions in the end. All the recent negative reviews share the reality of the current situation trust me. The positive ones are either fake or come from the select brainwashed few. The 12 hour sales assistant turned 40 hour store manager for example - all she has ever know is the works, if she spent just one week at another retailer she would see how far off they are.

1.0
30 Nov 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

None to be honest poor from the start.

Cons

What can I say!!!! Expected to work 50 + hour weeks when salaried for only 40 which alone you will never do!! Training for managers is extremely poor and the worst I have ever seen. Staff are nice when you have any as you are basically expected to do it all yourself. Very disjointed and disorganised with moves and plans thrown at you at the last moment! so expect to stay late to complete jobs. Poor management and extremely dodgy tactics when dealing with issues. Alot of lies and back stabbing. Really poor management pay ( the worst i have ever seen) If you value a work life balance, a friendly team , job satisfaction and good pay and benefits then steer well clear of The Works.

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Glassdoor has 591 The Works Stores reviews submitted anonymously by The Works Stores employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if The Works Stores is right for you.