WHSmith
WHSmith is a retailer. They sell books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, entertainment products and confectionery.
whsmith.co.ukBeing expected to do management-level tasks yet being paid minimum wage. Being overloaded with pressure from head office who have no idea what it’s actually like working in the stores. Management hiring too many college-age people who can’t often cover shifts because they have college commitments, so you end up working when you’re ill.
WHSmith Employee, May 2022
The people, they are lovely to work with.
Sometimes not enough tasks to do.
WHSmith Employee, April 2022
Collegues and the discounts
Supervisors on minimum wage no key holders allowance short staffed the damage to the buildings is just a Horrid waiting going on a year to get a leak fixed which is damaging stock on shop floor the bounce backs with stupidly long dates that get thrown back at staff as there was the same thing that came out the week before head office has no idea how the shops run and give unrealistic targets to get in a day customers are disgustingly behaved in store and that’s just scratching the surface
WHSmith Employee, March 2022
Some of the colleagues and the fact my manager is flexable
Head Office are so far removed from the store fronts its unbelievable. They have unrealistic expectations, the communication is poor, they cut staff budgets yet find the money to pay massive bonuses for the top, the cluster managers and regional managers contradict and are often rude and expect more (not to mention the general bigoted and racist comments they make)
You'll more than likely be running and entire store short staffed despite the work load and expected results.
Any additional responsibilities and training you are given comes with no additional pay
The vast majoritity of store leaders are merely coasting by with 0 consequences
Dealing with irate customers due to the greedy and uncompetetitive pricing of the products is daily
Any issues with the building or equipment are slow to be rectified, if at all. The company simply isn't interested in investing in the stores or making sure basics such as heating/hot water are working, not to mention the general state of disrepair of the stores
Noone seems to have any idea whats going on at any given time
Poor pay compaired to a lot of other retail jobs
WHSmith Employee, March 2022
The people I work with
The weird interactions I have or witness
Rude customers
WHSmith Employee, February 2022
Airport is good to work in
Management, boarding cards, angry customers, impatient business men, made to feel worthless, conglomerate bullying
WHSmith Employee, February 2022
Working with Books, my colleagues
managers
WHSmith Employee, February 2022
The old people are nice sometimes
Get screamed at for the pieces
WHSmith Employee, February 2022
The relationship with the team
The heating doesn’t work, minimum wage sucks lol and some customers need serious help 😭
WHSmith Employee, February 2022
Underpay, try to not pay you properly at times
WHSmith Employee, February 2022
Discount on drinks
Low pay, bad managers, bad communication, i haven't actually signed a contract.
WHSmith Employee, February 2022
Colleagues
The company and the fact that everyone above doesn't understand how the store works.
WHSmith Employee, January 2022
The customers
The upper management is toxic
WHSmith Employee, January 2022
staff members
most times there’s not much to do and too many staff are there to do such little tasks
WHSmith Employee, December 2021
The people you work with
The customers
WHSmith Employee, December 2021
Customers. Having a chat with them some can be really nice, depends on the day and time
Management and fake, two faced staff
WHSmith Employee, December 2021
Basically get on with things myself since I now know what needs to be done on a daily basis
Rude customers, unhygienic colleagues.
WHSmith Employee, December 2021
The people
The constant stress
Little pay for the responsibility
Lone working
High expectations from management with few staff
WHSmith Employee, November 2021
Being able to help people, making friends
Rude customers, expected to do everything, higher management boss people around and make you feel like you don't do things right, shouted at for forgetting to scan bounce backs
WHSmith Employee, November 2021
In the Post Office there are a variety of services and jobs to do. It keeps the day varied and interesting. Also get to help people everyday.
The company itself.
WHSmith Employee, November 2021
The people I work with.
Not enough staff. Stressful working. Too much work load when we have limited staff. Not paid for experience and the roles we do. Nasty, rude customers.
WHSmith Employee, November 2021
The job as a whole!!
WHSmith Employee, November 2021
The discount but it doesn't cover most things
I don't know where to start, overall horrible, it's corrupt and only hire family and friends as management
WHSmith Employee, November 2021
you get paid, and sometimes it’s actually right!
managers are incredibly lazy and get away with murder
no staff which means customers are constantly angry because of long wait times at the post office
pay is below living wage
holidays are booked at manager’s discretion, which means they’re rarely distributed fairly
WHSmith Employee, October 2021
people I work with
customers with no respect or manners
WHSmith Employee, September 2021
Underpaid no support from upper management
WHSmith Employee, August 2021
The customers and some of the colleagues
The unprofessional conduct of managers
WHSmith Employee, July 2021
My work colleagues.
Being called on your days off, stress, a lot of customers are rude, we are expected to do managerial tasks without managers pay, barely any training, you have to figure things out yourself. Managers aren’t trained. Cluster managers are unwilling to help even though it’s their job to. And I’ll say stress again just to make it clear.
WHSmith Employee, July 2021
The staff and some of the customers
Rude and obnoxious customers
WHSmith Employee, July 2021
Co-workers are really nice
The pay
WHSmith Employee, June 2021
you can learn new skills
stressful, shift changes, low pay
WHSmith Employee, May 2021
The team I work with
WHSmith Employee, May 2021
Staff discount,meeting new people
Management
WHSmith Employee, May 2021
Easy, friendly, located in a clean nice friendly area.
WHSmith Employee, April 2021
My colleagues are great, especially fellow students
Head office prioritises certain issues that take a lot of time to amend, and don’t seem to take into consideration how understaffed we are. Students like myself are heavily relied upon to take on extra shifts due to understaffing during the week, and I feel guilty as I have to put my studies first and can’t always take on extra hours during term time.
WHSmith Sales assistant, March 2021
We get to know people
Long hours and because of covid less customers after 6
WHSmith Team leader, February 2021
Self managed
Pay and workload
WHSmith Store manager, February 2021
Love the goods I sell, I'm geeky so working in a bookshop is nice.
Low pay
No value
Bad customers
Lack of management
WHSmith Sales assistant, February 2021
The team
Work load
Little support
No mental health wellbeing being given
WHSmith Manager, February 2021
I get to run my store as I think best. I'm trusted
Covid
WHSmith Store manager, February 2021
Challenges and working with the public
Systems, ho communications
WHSmith Store manager, February 2021
Staff team
Boring repetitive work and sometimes pressure to get things done
WHSmith Shop assistant, February 2021
The people I work with
WHSmith General assistant, February 2021
I work on my own
working out side in all weather
WHSmith Employee, January 2021
I love the people I work with and how well I get on with all of them
The pay is a bit low but that’s only because I’m currently a full-time student under the age of 18
WHSmith Sales assistant, January 2021
Easy and convenient for me because shifts are short and are after school hours
Strict management, co-workers/management can be hard to work with
WHSmith Sales assistant, January 2021
Making people smile, and colleagues are some of the kindest, funniest people I know
Pay, unrealistic expectations from head office and management, it’s truly thankless work
WHSmith Sales assistant, October 2020
The staff I work with
The pay
WHSmith Team leader, August 2020
Colleagues and manager are good, variety of work tasks.
Some head office priorities seem unreasonable or illogical from a store worker perspective.
WHSmith Sales assistant, July 2020
I get some weekends off
Head office changing things every five minutes
WHSmith Sales assistant, July 2020
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