Pros
With a good in store manager, it can be a great company to work for. Being small stores, you form good bonds with colleagues and it can feel like a family. And being at the heart of communities, with lots of regular customers, you form lots of friendships with them, too.
Cons
All too often, rules change without warning and without proper communication. The rota is now scheduled by a flawed automated system, giving you really weird, largely unpredictable shifts. Despite filling out an availability form, you can still get hours given to you that conflict with your agreed availability. Training has become somewhat haphazard, with new starters knowing the basics, but being clueless on how to actually achieve targets correctly. And communication, which has to be mentioned again, is lacking heavily! Being part time, I rarely know what's going on or why because no one takes accountability to ensure that I am informed. Sadly, this also includes the scheduling of hours, as I often find the rota gets changed and I don't find out until last minute, having to either cancel plans or having a surprise few spare hours, or random day off that I previously thought I was working. Being autistic, these issues affect me more than most other people as changes in my routine can severely impact my well-being.
