Blockbuster – “Worst. Company. Ever.”

Pros

Free movies. That's it. Oh, and free games too. But that's really it. I wish I could come up with something else but I can't.

Cons

Where do I begin? As a store manager, you don't "manage" anything. You are simply a schedule-maker and a blame-taker. Upper management is hopelessly out of touch with what real life is like in a store on a daily basis. The current promotions are constantly shifting and changing, much to the distress of the customers as well as the employees. One day you are told "You MUST do X." Three days later, you are told "Never do X. You must always do Y." Stores are held to ridiculous and unattainable sales goals. When meeting those goals appears to be in jeopardy, upper management responds not with help, coaching and encouragement, but rather with threats such as trying to force all managers to work 7 days a week until the goal is met. Constant (and useless) conference calls take up way too much time. The computers are from the stone age and constantly lock/freeze up, forcing restarts literally 10 times a day, at minimum. The POS software is also from pre-historic times and is grossly user-unfriendly. The training is a joke. You will spend more time changing things around in your store than you will actually ringing up customers and making money. Seriously, one week you will spend roughly 12 man-hours changing price stickers on retail DVDs, only to spend another 12 hours the very next week changing all of those very same prices back to where they were. Stores are having their hours of operation changed to stay open to midnight, but are not receiving any extra labor hours to support the additional time spent open. You will never, ever hear any words of praise regardless of how well you are doing. Upper management will literally crawl around on their hands and knees to try to find fault with your store, simply to satisfy their own craving to feel important. All in all, I have never worked for a more poorly-run company. Oh by the way, you're not allowed to take any vacation time, there are no bonuses, no raises, and the benefits are sparse.

Advice to Senior Management

Work in a store on a weekend night some time. Come see what real life is like at the store level. Try to finish 8 different tasks, while ringing up all the customers, with less labor than you should have, while trying to upsell 6 different plans/pre-sales/bundle packages/and other BS "bargains." Then listend to every other customer swear up and down that they returned the movies on time and don't owe any late fees. Listen to every other customer lie to your face regularly about how they are 110% sure they returned that movie and it's not at home and how it's your fault they owe for the cost of the disc and how they won't pay it. Try to hit your unreachable goals. Now do this every day. Repeat.