A.S. Watson Group Career Development FAQ

Pros

Nice colleagues, well known brands

Cons

Poor benefits, no flexibility, feeling of being back at school with times clocked when arriving / leaving the office, lack of empowerment, feedback not taken onboard, no career progression

Pros

great opportunities to learn about fmcg industry

Cons

do not find any cons

Pros

Great internship Enough workload and opportunity

Cons

Not much. Location quite far away from downtown.

Pros

It’s good to work for a big, stable company in these tough times. They do things by the book and were very careful about COVID regulations. There are some great, hardworking people who really care about doing the best for their teams and their customers. The learning and development offering took big strides and I really benefitted from attending courses and training sessions. There are occasionally opportunities for foreign travel. If offered, go for it! You will have a great time.

Cons

Most of the problems that I suffered from were related to bad leadership and the top-down management style that pervades at ASW. Unfortunately, the company has a dated philosophy in these areas and tends to hire inexperienced managers who are chosen primarily for their ability to shout orders. This causes the following problems: - Lack of foresight on how projects will work or age - Lack of foresight on how chosen solutions will impact available resource - Junior managers left to explain senior management's often strange decisions to the staff below them, without support from above All of this saps morale and makes staff feel like they are overworked and under-appreciated. They see their work go to waste, or receive numerous last minute (unnecessary) requests for changes which lead to stress and burn out. This background will give you some context when I explain some particular issues that I had whilst working at ASW: - I was expected to work on producing a vital company project with very little support. When I ran into problems, my boss let me take the blame from senior leadership and told me it was all my fault. When I asked why I hadn’t had been offered more help, I was told it was my fault. As a result, I was made to work very late nights to fix the problems to meet an arbitrary and unrealistic deadline set simply because none of the managers wanted to be realistic about how long things would take. - I suffered a very sudden and significant bereavement and was pressured to come back into the office before I was ready. This pressure came from my boss’s boss, who wanted me to be available for a key project but hadn’t bothered to ensure cover was available should I ever need to be absent. I felt no option but to return even though I wasn't ready. - Some of my employee benefits were taken away without any explanation. I understood that these benefits were discretionary, but I worked hard for them and the treatment I got made me feel like my work didn’t matter. - I was asked to work on lots of internal-only projects at the behest of senior management. These projects would absorb a lot of time, but then be cancelled because they’d exceeded their deadlines (due to waiting for feedback) or were forgotten about. This was very stressful because it took time away from projects that actually generated revenue (which we were pressured to prioritise). - I spoke to someone in the senior management team in confidence about issues I was having with my boss. The senior manager then told my boss everything I had discussed with them which meant my boss was very angry at me. I couldn’t understand how anyone in a senior position could be so unprofessional. This really questioned my faith in whether I could trust managers with my problems.

Advice to Management

There are some good people and good opportunities at ASW, but there are also significant negatives that need to be addressed. It’s time that senior management started living up to the idea of being a modern company, instead of just advertising it on their HR pages. Some examples: - Toxic attitudes by certain managers need addressing. Trust is really important; staff must feel like their managers will respect and advocate for them - Flexible working needs to be introduced to account for the changes COVID has brought to the workplace, or the company will struggle to recruit new staff - Modernise processes and tools – take advantage of technology in the marketplace by moving quickly, instead of doing things 'the old way' every time - The whole company needs to ditch the Dickensian mentality that measures work simply by number of widgets produced and not by quality or impact.

Pros

Good location Friendly and good working environment

Cons

Low salary Promotion opportunity is low