H E B Reviews

Pros

H-E-B is a great company and job provider. I can understand why it's been thriving for the majority of its 100+ years of operation. As a part-time employee and a college student, it certainly caters to my lifestyle and is very flexible with its scheduling, transferring, and LOA periods. Periodic raises are a plus as well as its reward systems (VPP, partnerpoints, tickets, etc). Find a store that has U-scan and gas stations; this opens more opportunities for cashiers. Best advice I can give a cashier: Do NOT take things too seriously. Honestly, it's not worth the stress. You're a cashier, for G-d's sake.

Cons

Greatly depends on the location. I've worked at multiple H-E-B's, and your mood at work will be affected by the unique clientele of that location as well as the management style. Regardless, you will find yourself frustrated occasionally by customers who go so far as to verbally abuse you and threaten to call management or corporate over petty, trivial issues. There may or may not be favoritism when it comes to promotions. Expectations are lofty and high. After working the same job for 4+ years, do you really expect me to be excited to come into work when I spend half the night doing assignments and all morning going to classes?

Advice to Senior Management

Please understand that this is a job for most of us in the service department, not a career. Otherwise, I believe things are managed quite well.

Pros

The pay is okay, even though pretty much no one who works at a job like this gets paid enough nowadays, including at HEB.
Most customers are nice and easy to deal with. The customers are better than the managers or the co-workers.
A few of the co-workers and supervisors are good.

Cons

HEB hires people who are incompetent to do the job that was described in a person's application. You are supposed to be able to lift 50 pounds and they hire mostly people who cannot do that and the rest of us have to compensate for them. They hire a lot of special needs kids so the rest of us end up being babysitters and compensating for that as well. They hire people who know better as well, but feel like screwing off and the managers don't do anything about it so the ones that work hard end up working that much harder. They leave you stranded without a break for up to 4 hours sometimes even though most people need to eat and go to the bathroom at least every 2 hours. They schedule people to close one night and open the next morning so that they get no sleep and feel horrible, and if not that they'll still schedule you late and then early the next day. Don't make plans for after work because you almost never get off on time. Be prepared to have your availability completely opened during the November, December holidays and not be able to make plans with your family or have any life other than HEB. Also be prepared to be stared at by management doing nothing but staring at you while you work your butt off and be prepared to be talked to like you're an idiot if you need help with anything because some of the managers are like that. Only get feedback when it is bad and a customer complains except for the bi-annual review in which you are forced into answering personal questions that are none of their business. I don't really think Charles Butt has any idea of the stuff that is going on in his stores. Managers on the front end get paid to resolves register issues that don't even need to exist if HEB just trusted their cashiers a little more, and they get paid to basically stand around and have a power play while watching everyone and standing in circle talking amongst each other and the other people who they are buddy buddy with.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop being rude to your employees in front of customers. If I saw that when I was the customer I'd want to report it to human resources and not shop somewhere that they treat their employees like crap. Be a little more trusting of your employees. Why do you believe customers who displayed obvious mental issues over your own employees?

Pros

Good benefits. Friendly employer for students, military personnel, disabled, and speakers of foreign languages. If you get a good department head they will take care of you and everything will make sense. If not, they will at another store and replaced within 2 years.

Cons

There is often too many supervisors doing little to no work or too few cashiers to handle the workload. The rewards and advancements come to the people that are liked by management instead of those who work hard. Only those who suck up get promoted. There is almost no feedback at all besides a bi-annual review.

Advice to Senior Management

You should promote based off of results instead of friendship. If there are many qualified partners and no applications within the store, ask them why. Before promoting managers to higher levels of responsibility, check to see if their success was the result of another person doing the work.

Pros

Good hours
Excelent work-life balance
Management listens to you
Great Benefits
Average pay
They have a very robust infraestructure so you be sure you will learn a lot.

Cons

You will always have something to do, since work never ends, but if you are looking for something meaningful in your life, what do you think about space planning on the shelves?

Advice to Senior Management

Keep caring about your employees, higher levels could take a closer approach sometimes, not just by mail.

Pros

Good company culture
Decent pay
Good company financial growth

Cons

Tend not to hire or promote within
Try to be everything for everyone

Pros

Great pay, opportunities for advancement, promotions based on merit, strong internal promotion, genuine respect for diversity. Fast paced, focus on providing good products at a good value.

Cons

Long hours, work most weekends and all holidays, little opportunity to have a personal life, almost impossible to have a balance between work and family. Store Operations is resistant to accommodating life changes or needs.

Pros

Great overall company with good chance of moving up. Good bonuses to the ones who work hard. has an pretty good training school

Cons

Time of if you are a salary manager and sometimes top brass has diffenret expectations that differ from tore to store and from to store management

Pros

I had really simple tasks.
HEB worked around my school schedule.

Cons

They had really cranky customers.
The shifts seemed to take forever.

Advice to Senior Management

Give us more room to grow within the company.

Pros

Pay was nice and competive
work was fast paced, but felt I was my own boss
given more freedom with taking breaks and lunches

Cons

part time employees are not paid time and half on holidays. (I know other companies do this and it is bs!)
required to work conflicting shits for example a 1-9pm then followed with a 5-1pm

Pros

Flexible schedule to the max
VVP Cards are a money saver
You learn a lot in the way retail works that is more than most stores
Company gives lots of free things to Partners and the community

Cons

Customers you wish you never had the displeasure of meeng
Close minded management that plays favorites and doesn't hear Partner grievances
Monotonous work with no real opportunity for growth or direction on how to improve/give a career outlook

Advice to Senior Management

Hear out the Partners like you say you will. I feel as if you say you will listen, but in honesty plainly disregard us even after multiple complaints on the same issue.