Bed Bath & Beyond Reviews

Pros

Understanding HR with personal issues, impossible to get fired

Cons

As noted in personal, their HR is TERRIBLE when it comes to discipline. Underperforming hourly associates run the show since HR does not step in.

Advice to Senior Management

Leadership is unbelievably condescending The wrong people have authority and processes are unable to be completed due to the lack of action from market leadership(s). I have/would continue to give my heart and soul into the company, I have always shown up and gave maxim effort everyday, but the inconsistent and disrespectful way I've been treated has made me leave. It's a shame, but the best thing they seem to be good at is making false promises and losing great talent with a bright future.

Pros

Salary is good. Learning about the different products.

Cons

Working 1 pm to 1 or even 2 am. No work/life balance. When you close you are there for 11 hours min. No accountability. You don't get fired here unless you steal.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more strategic in your planning and communicate. Terrible communication.

Pros

Some of the best reasons I would highly recommend any one to work at Bed Bath and Beyond would be the extensive product knowledge classes they offer. At least in our store they are really good at training us on each department and being able to actually sell the product in the store. Also the ability to be learn multiple positions is really good too. I was taught how to ring, properly zone and set to spec the merchandise using a guide, great customer service techniques and approaches (i.e instead of "hi" you would say "are you finding everything all right?"),and being a bridal consultant. All these positions can really give you the edge when applying at other retailers. I really enjoy the flexibility our store gave us, they allowed us to deal with classes and other outside issue's we had pending. Also they were not too strict on clocking in or out, within reason of course, for example being five minutes or less late in clocking in was not too big of an issue with them unlike where my sister worked (different retail place) where she had to clock in exactly at her assigned time. Something I have always appreciated working for this company was how well they took care of customers, yes sometimes they really drop the ball, but the majority of the time it surprises me what they can do for someone. Even I now look for these qualities when I go shopping and sadly at other retailers they just don't come close to the quality service we offer as a company. Now on that note about customer commitment, the cons.....

Cons

Even though we pull all the stops for customers, its just not the same for employees. Everyone is over worked and underpaid. Here is one of those be careful what you wish for moments, yes you can learn many positions here at this company but what they don't tell you is that from the point you get hired and the salary you start at any new skills you acquire will not net you more money until your review is due and even then you might not get anything. Let me explain that better, yes there are basic skills that are required of you, for example you need to learn how to ring and help with back up. You need to learn how to zone properly and set things correctly. You must comprehend and adapt to customers needs and wants in order to take care of them. All that is part of your job, but I don't believe part time people should take over managerial responsibilities like turn keys at the front end, count the money at night, and have them watch the front by themselves. That's what leads are for or managers. Most of the workers at my store have to take on all this responsibility with out any extra hours or compensation. My story follows those principles, I started with no experience as a part timer and moved up really quickly because I never said no, I kept working hard. I know how to do Bridal, front end lead responsibilities, RTV, Inventory control, Receiving (Manager position not grunt worker mind you), soft side lead, hard side lead, tech work on the outdated computers, plus all my basic duties like customer service and such. Five years later I am now a fully experienced part timer stuck in the same position. If you do get hired here please understand that sometimes saying no is a good thing because they will try to stack on a slew of responsibilities on you. Also try to get fair compensation before you get hired don't let them tell you the times are tough speech. It is really hard to find good workers at least at our store most people don't stay very long and I always hear the same thing from them, "they want me to do all for x.xx an hour? See ya!"

Advice to Senior Management

If anyone from management or higher would give me the chance to improve the day to day functions of the company I do believe the first thing I would ask for is to give us the credit we deserve. Let us be responsible for all of our work, if we do something wrong management is on us faster than lightning. Yet if we do something that is beyond our duties we rarely hear about it. Give the ones that actually want to do good for the company the chance to advance. I would have loved to hear something like "hey in the conference call I told (district manager) how you blew the lid off as-is recovery sales". I would have taken a shout out on a job well done a million times over the Snickers bar we occasionally get for going over in beyond orders. Also please be straight with your employees, if your going to give us the finger please give me the finger . If your going to praise us please just let us know. Honesty creates work ready employees because we feel as we are part of a team and not as part of two rival groups; management vs employees. Every year I get told they really appreciate what I do and how wonderful I am and how they look forward to another year of working with me. Then they show me my review and I get rated as average. Please managers if you are reading this, we all have weak spots we can improve on but if you never tell us what we do wrong all year then all of a sudden it shows up on our review, that is not our fault its yours, since we never had a chance to prove to you we can improve and make you proud of us. The last thing I really wish we had is a store review of management. Give us the opportunity to let district know what we think of our work environment. Not all reviews are going to be accurate depictions but at least you will get a workable consensus. I do believe it will keep management honest in the work they do because if they are doing their job correctly and not something wrong then they have nothing to worry about. You can't please everyone all the time and that is understandable, plus this is a business and we are here to make money. Thank you for thanking the time to read this and I hope if you do work here your experience with this company is fruitful and enjoyable.

Pros

Bed Bath & Beyond has been a really fun place to work. They have an amazing customer service and open return/exchange policy and will literally do almost anything for our customers. You have the possibility of being on call and end up picking up A LOT of extra hours. Sometimes they even ask me to stay later and I get to pick up even more. The employee incentives are great as well. All in all, I actually really love working here.

Cons

The hours are very unpredictable, which I love, but because of that, you can all of a sudden have 5 hours a week... which I'm having right now. I won't lie, when I first started, they did throw A LOT of into at me at once. On my cash register training day, I went 2 hours before the store opened. They printed a thick book of a bunch of situations that could arise while I was on the cash register (not including customer service situations), and we went through every single one. Then, when the store opened, I was just left there to deal with customers. Needless to say, I was calling for help all day. They are bad at making sure info gets to EVERYONE. I'm always the last to learn about important things. I also constantly have to make sure I'm getting the right classes and remind them I need them. They don't make sure I get them myself.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop using your phones in front of customers, more communication to employees, be more understanding towards employees when they aren't feeling well or having a bad day.

Pros

Fair pay compared to other stores
Great incentive program
Safe, Friendly work place
Time off is easily accepted
Management communicates well

Cons

Raises are unfair limited to 3% each year should be based on hard work or perhaps a certain amount of change not percentages
Regular discount is the same as a coupon
Management needs prompting to help train you.
Not promoting Sales to Department management
Not given enough hours to get the job done
Schedules aren't written well

Advice to Senior Management

Give more hours to each of your stores so that we can have clean, stocked stores. Allow using coupons on top of discount or steeper discount

Pros

Its hard to get fired, unless you steal. get to never say no to customers, growth is possible if you apply yourself.

Cons

Promotions are based on perception & not ability. the more you give the more they expect and demand without rewarding.

Advice to Senior Management

Say please & thank you, praise a good job often. make your own opinion, not the store manager, use your own eyes & ears.

Pros

*Profitable Company
*Fair Starting Salary
*Fair Employee Discount/Incentives

Cons

*Poor treatment of associates
*Raise in pay limited to 1-1.5% increase
*Low hours for all the work to be done and customer service standards demanded

Advice to Senior Management

Senior Management (RVP and Above) visited stores that required many hours and days to reset to standards, often with help from other stores. Never saw the stores in the 'daily, real world' operations they have place on us.

Pros

Great Management team. Flexible hours and great customers. They follow their liability policies and they emphasize customer service and train their employees well. They always emphasized passing the buck to a manager if the situation was above our pay grade.

Cons

Heavy lifting at times when you restock, but you never do it alone, so you aren't in any danger of something happening.

Advice to Senior Management

I had a great management team at the Orlando store at Hunters Creek.

Pros

two days off each week are a given, holidays worked are given as day off of your choice , vacation time, family time, room for advancement,

Cons

Minimal staffing hours to accomplish many tasks, management becomes labor force instead of management team and suppervisors. No bonus programs for management below store manager.

Pros

Fair pay starting out
Advancement beyond Department Manager exclusively done by Internal promotions
Employee Incentives (from vendors)
Reasonable attire & grooming standards (some Regions allow jeans for all employees)

Cons

Unrealistic work expectations vs. payroll (store wide, not just for Management) often times there is literally one person on each side of the store, and maybe two cashiers... during holiday extended hours, no payroll is added, so any overlap between openers and closers is virtually eliminated. Payroll is such a joke, that if one person anywhere in the store calls out. it becomes a chess game to figure out how all the areas will be covered so people can go to lunch.
"Support" positions do store visits and spend all their time trying to get people in trouble for doing things wrong instead of trying to help out
Entire career could be made or broken based on 'secret shoppers' monthly visits instead of reviewing entire 'body of work' of an employee
Raises for performance reviews and for promotions are insultingly low
You will NEVER receive praise from Senior Leadership, only hear negative feedback
Next to impossible to go from Associate to Manager from within the company
When hired in, you are hired for a District, NOT a specific store- relocation within the District is not your option or something that is discussed, it just happens, often within 2-3 days of being told.
Schedule is not at all conducive to family life- you MUST work one weekend day each week and your off days are never together
Nothing that breaks gets fixed: keyboards with missing keys, broken sidecap slat walls, broken plexiglass holders, busted ceiling tiles, torn carpet, etc. etc.
They sell the Department Manager position as being 'salary plus' in that you are guaranteed a base, plus whatever you work over 47.5 hours, but the formula pays you less and less the more hours you work, so you aren't actually paid your same salary for all the hours you work (only the first 47.5).

Advice to Senior Management

This company could be a wonderful place to work, but Senior Leadership seems to prefer to keep people on pins and needles with each month's mystery shoppers reviews.
The payroll situation is absolutely insane- 1 person on each side, in an A volume store?! Not to mention the amount of time spent up front as a 'backup' cashier due to their woeful hours allotment.
What is the harm in saying something nice to someone when they do well at something?
Eliminate redundancy in "Support' positions and give that savings back to the stores in payroll (Every "Support' position at the Regional level (HR, LP, OPS, etc.) has a Regional Manager and a Regional Director...?!?)