Macy's West – “Going The Wrong Way!”

Pros

Stable company and work environment, regular work schedule, average to decent insurance benefits, Company 401K, vacation and modest employee discount. As a long term employee I most value my 'paid time off' (4 weeks) although my compensation for this and ALL of the other forementioned benefits continue to decline.

Cons

This was once a very good and rewarding position that has turned into a very unstimulating, unproductive, unrewarding and totally frustrating position. I now feel forced to leave the Company as there is vitrually little opportunity to make a decent living. As a Furniture Sales Associate, I am compensated on the volume of sales that I produce. Unfortunately (for me), Macy's seems to be less focused on creating sales volume and has put far more emphasis and increasing the profit of each sale. The emphasis now is completely on selling warranties, opening new credit accounts and obtaining "outstanding" customer response letters. This does not benefit the Sales Associate or the customer... it becomes very time consuming and it's basically a rip-off! Also, we are completely overstaffed with Sales Associates for the volume of business that we do. We could literally cut our staff in half and still be overstaffed! Consequently, it's extremely hard to attain any sales rythym or 'mojo'. You will often actually get to a point where you don't even feel like helping a customer once you get one! I would hate to be a customer shopping in our store... customers get 'badgered' relentlessly by Sales Asscoiates who are simply trying to make a living. It's ridiculous!!! Also,SalesAssociates are CONSTANTLY arguing and fighting over customers, "ups", "be-backs" as well as stacking, stealing and cheating! What's more... management seems to foster and encourage this type of environment as they seem to believe that it makes the staff work harder and be more competitive. What a mess! Briefly, I must also mention that management basically treats their Sales Associates like children... it's like Kindergarten! I won't go int details but OMG!

Advice to Senior Management

Please take note that your sales staff needs to be PRODUCTIVE to be happy in their work. In national studies of the workplace it is found that the biggest cause for woker disatisfaction is BOREDOM. Well, unfortunately, Furniture Sales Associates are simply saturated in BOREDOM at Macy's and have very limited opportunities to be successful and productive. Also, your sales staff is the Company's direct contact to the customer base... if your staff is unhappy (which they are), it will be reflect in in your business results!