You are paid $8.25 (or something in that ballpark) and then your commission is what goes towards hitting minimum wage. What is the point of offering commission as an incentive if you almost never make over minimum wage? Assistant managers and managers make slightly more and only the manager gets a bonus if the store does well, despite the whole team having to try their best. We are encouraged to work harder so that the manager can keep their bonus but everyone else gets nothing.
It is difficult to get time off, especially if you have any position above part-time. The fact that there are not enough employees does not help. I found this very frustrating as a student, since the time I was busiest with school was when it was difficult for me to take even hours off, much less days off. Also, during the black-out period nobody is allowed to take any time off, but then you can only cash out your vacation pay if you take time off.
Employees are offered absolutely no space in the backroom to take a break; no table, no fridge, no kettle, no microwave, and nowhere to leave your bags except on the floor. There are limited options for what you can bring to eat from home, what with there being no fridge or microwave, otherwise you are expected to eat lunch out every shift on minimum wage. Speaking of space, the store is also not big enough and when it gets busy it is nearly impossible for customers and employees to move around on the floor.
Upper management expects too much, especially during Christmas. We have to switch displays so often that we get confused when looking for a shoe to show a customer. We have to be extremely on top of online orders or we get in trouble for it (that includes staying overtime to finish). They also expect too much of the managers and then the managers are being snippy with the employees due to stress.
We receive an insane amount of stock that we don't have the time to put away, nor do we have the space for in the back. We end up working very unsafely and are unable to open ladders all the way so that we can fit the ladder through the narrow passageway - employees that fear for their safety simply cannot get the shoes if they are very high up and they are not limber enough to scale the shelves with minimal support from the ladder. There are often so many boxes of stock in the back that we have to tell customers that we do not have a shoe because we are not able to find them due to all the boxes blocking off sections. We do not have enough staff on hand at a time to go through this stock either - often once someone starts on stock they are forced to help out front anyways.
The store has a very poor online ordering system where rather than paying qualified warehouse employees to fulfill orders, the retail staff is expected to fulfill these orders on top of all of their regular duties. Particularly during sales and during the holiday season, this is taking away the most experienced employees to fulfill orders while the newer staff is left to fend for themselves on the floor. You are also expected to stay overtime until every single order is fulfilled and often there is just one person who is left to do this.
The POS system is a joke and cannot perform basic functions such as reprinting a receipt if the printer malfunctions. We constantly have to call customer service to resolve issues due to the POS system's limited functions and we are wasting our time and the customers' time. The computers are also old and we end up having to wait so long for a screen to load that we have to switch to another one - again, wasting time. Anything to save a buck, right SoftMoc?
The worst part of my experience at SoftMoc is one employee that management refuses to get rid of just because they are marginally more experienced than everyone else and are able to work more hours. They constantly berate me and other employees over very minor issues or issues that they just made up and they are constantly reporting these things to the manager behind our backs, not only bothering the manager on their day off but also making it impossible for any of us to trust them. They were EXTREMELY rude to previous management and multiple employees have quit specifically citing this employee as the reason. They basically do whatever they want but if we do any of these things they freak out on us for not doing our job. 5 minutes late from your break? Warned. You forgot to finish something because you were busy with something else? Warned. You took a minute to have a sip of water in the back? Warned. Did I mention that this employee IS NOT EVEN A MANAGER. They are constantly experiencing mood swings and one day they are all smiles and then the next day they are storming around to the point that customers are asking me what is going on with them. The only person they seem to respect is the current manager, but to the point that I want to gag at how hard they try to kiss up to them.
I am sorry, but this is completely ridiculous and this person would have been fired a long time ago at any half-decent company. They have caused mental stress to myself and many other employees and we are told to "just deal with it." I have had shifts where I feel like I cannot breathe while working with them, and this stress stays with me after I leave my shift and even on my days off. Mainly because of this employee I do not plan on staying with SoftMoc much longer, but all of the issues of this company combined makes it totally NOT WORTH working here just for minimum wage.
