Macy's Reviews

Pros

The starting pay was above minimum wage.
You can work on a flex team and create your own schedule.
Co-workers and managers were friendly.
It's easy for you to get more hours.
You can view your schedule online.
Very flexible.

Cons

Training could be better.
You are expected to know how to do everything with very little training.
Managers really pressure you to sell.
Some workers complain a lot.
You can't wear tennis shoes.

Advice to Senior Management

Train your employees longer before leaving them by themselves at the register.

Pros

Can be easy work, time will fly if it's busy, scheduled breaks that you are almost always guaranteed to get and decent pay on a weekly schedule.

Cons

Customers can be awful and demanding, management will bend to their requests and make you look stupid when you try to uphold policy, management tends not to care about employee lives outside of the job, days off can be hard to come by if they're understaffed, management will call and harass you on your days off to come in and work. Expected to be aggressive with credit cards even after customers say no, erratic scheduling. Little consideration given to students or employees with other commitments.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay attention to your employees beyond harassing them to do busy work. I spent an entire shift reorganizing the cosmetic cases per my manager (having to re-do it twice because she 'had a different idea') only to come back the next shift to find somebody else doing it again. Requests off were blatantly ignored. I was told I would be scheduled 18-24 hours a week when I was given about 39 (of course, not 40 or else I'd be full time and given benefits). I worked there when Kaufmann's became Macy's and it was a great experience but when I came back a few years later, everything had changed and it was one of the worst experiences of my life. Be reasonable that in this economy, people aren't signing up for credit cards. Lay off on the aggressive sales tactics towards customers. Nobody wants to be sprayed with perfume or touched without permission and we were encouraged to do so.

Pros

Employee discounts. Macy money. Uniform is simple. Half of the employee's are nice and pleasant to work with.

Cons

Early hours. Sometime have to be at work at 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. in the morning. Unable to get schedule in advance. Sometimes won't be able to get schedule until a day before I have to work. Never get a break. Sometimes working up to six hours with out a break. Management never gives any praise for a job well done. Almost unreachable deadlines. Very stressful, dirty job. Never enough hours given in a week. Sometimes work 4 - 8 hours a week. Not a description that was listed in the job position along with the description that the position was on call.

Advice to Senior Management

To the main office managers. You can say hi when someone says hi to you. You don't have to be so mean to everyone. If you hate your job that much, at least try to hide it and be nice to the new employees so that they want to stay and work there.

Pros

Macy's has great benefits for its management team. Three weeks paid time off, plus an extra week off to comp for the holiday time.

Cons

Holidays require a six-day work week with extended hours. The staff doubles because of holiday hires, and the work load intensifies.

Pros

-Great discount
-Awesome managing staff
-Managers are sincere and understanding
-Very diverse
-GLBT friendly
-Nice rewards such as Macy's money and drawings to win a free meal
-Recognizes good work done with 'Magic' cards.
-Nice job for setting your foot in the workplace

Cons

-Information on store products is not taught to team members frequently.
-Most of the sales team are part timers, and the new scheduling system have people receiving short hours (Min. 3hrs), or not enough shifts.
-Lacks a customer service area. Every cash register (at our store) has a customer service sign above each register. We get hassled by a lot of customer complaints about things that sales associates can't do anything to fix. Often times you are yelled at by customers.
-A lot of the staff are uneducated (about workplace tasks and knowledge) and do not follow correct protocol. Such as looking up a Macy's with any form of identification. Or collecting items from a pre-sale without identification or a customer pick-up slip.
-Not enough people on the floor. Most times you're managing one area by yourself for five hours.
-The pay isn't that great. Starting wage for new hires is $8/hr. and continues to be until your manager does an annual review on your performance.
-Recovery is often a major issue in clothing departments. When you're alone, the task keeps you away from getting other things done.
-Have to open a Macy's Card to get employee discount.
-Pushed by working inflated sales goals, while also having to stay away from the register, help customers, do recovery and clean (getting a duster and dusting things, vacuuming). Apparently our cleaning company doesn't do that...
-Holidays aren't fun.

Advice to Senior Management

There should be a proper learning system for sales associates on products and behavior in the workplace. There should be an area where a customer can issue a complaint in a polite and decent manner instead of getting heated with an associate who isn't able to take note of such matters.

Pros

Some of the best people and customers to work with overall; 99.5% of customers really appreciative of great customer service and product knowledge.

Cons

Politics and the micro-management of personnel makes it a less than desirable place to spend your waking (working) hours most days.

Advice to Senior Management

Seek feedback/input from your employees, they are your biggest asset!

Pros

-Management was caring and attentive overall
-The work isn't very hard
-New scheduling programs pretty much allows you to make your own schedule to an extent
-Some good people to work with
-Pay is okay
- Lots of chance for community services (volunteering, donating)
-Fair treatment of employees
-Customers
-Very good loss prevention team

Cons

-Lots of drama and people backstabbing each other
-Almost every week asked to stay late or pick up someones shift
-HR won't help you and just instructs you to call 1-800 numbers
-Schedule changes with out notification
-No ownership of department
-Strict and flawed policies regarding how many credit applications you get a week and sales goals
-Customers
-Asking too much of customers all at once i.e. "Would you like to put this on pre sale? Can I put this on your Macy's card, you'd save money? Would you like to make a donation to reading is fundamental and save another 15%?" It overwhelms customers
-You only make commission after you reach the sales goal, which is sometimes impossibly high to even make

Advice to Senior Management

-Listen to your younger associates, if 3 out of 5 people you hire quit within a week something is not right
-Be more forward when you interview people and tell them how commission works, most take the job thinking that they will get commission on EVERYTHING that they sell, not just some departments or after they reach their sale's goal; also inform them that selling credit cards is REQUIRED and you have to make a certain quota a week
-You should give people the opportunity to move up in the company, not feel stuck in one position
- Work better with people who are going to school, not all of us want to work at Macy's for the rest of our lives, and you should respect that not hold it against them or expect them to choose work over classes
-You need a new scorecard system, comparing someone who works 40 hours a week to someone who works 16 isn't fair

Pros

The pros would be hours and flexibility. It's easy to handle, you go online if you want to pick up shifts. You can also swap and view you schedule. If you tell the program what your availability is it will work around it. If you need more hours you can also call.

Cons

Where to start... when I was hired I was told there was a rush to start me, but when it came down They dropped the ball. They were in a rush to hire me but had trouble scheduling me for orientation (too many new hires) and after I had completed orientation they barely gave me any hours. It took about a week or two before I actually received a shift. The management was completely inept at not only the hiring process, but training as well.

They didn't even really train me. They kind of just said have at it. If you've worked in retail previously you'll be fine but for those that haven't it's daunting. They expected me to go out there knowing everything; what products we carried (they don't give you a product book to study), where they went (this is particularly unhelpful if you're not familiar with that area of the store), what to do, etc. Most jobs will give you at least one day of training with someone but they didn't do that at Macy's. You were expected to know from day 1. Perhaps they thought the 5 hours of computer training would suffice, but it doesn't.

When I was first hired I was told that everyone is friendly and helpful at Macy's and this seemed to be true. During orientation everyone was nice and cheerful, but when I got to the sales floor that was not the case. Everyone's worried about their sales goal (which is insanely high and I never met one person who met or even exceeded it). Macy's policy is that you're not allowed to hang out by the register ("you must always be walking around 'assisting'") and most people are so used to the concept that an empty register means a closed register that they'll go somewhere else. This also hinders your "sales goal". Hanging around the register is not a bad thing. Most customers look there first when they need something and if you're walking around they have a harder time locating you.

The demand that you open so many credit cards (in this economy no less) is ridiculously high. It was something like 50+ a day for a weekday and close to 150 for a weekend. I hated asking people if "they wanted to open a Macy's account", I felt like I was saying 'please load up on debt'. And most people do not want to open one (and why should they it's easier and private to open online. In store the sales associate has to collect and input their info). Any way the sales associates are so preoccupied with their goals and credit accounts that they would get prison yard on you for registers. Management had scheduled too many people (numerous times) and not everyone could get on a register so it was dog eat dog. I had old ladies shoving me to get sales. It was ridiculous. Most of the time I just stepped back and let them have at each other. I'm wasn't about to shank someone just to sell $20.

"MAGIC" selling is a ridiculous concept as well. I get that Macy's is proud to be so customer oriented, but they have a false perception of most customers. There are those that really do want your help (old ladies for example who come from a different generation), but for the most part people looked like I was inconveniencing them if I asked if they needed something. A common complaint I heard was that sales associates were too "on" the customers. A lot just wanted to be left to shop in peace. Most did not want my help. For instance you're supposed to be sales associate and personal shopper but most people don't want your opinion. They're going to buy what they like, not what a sales associate tells them they should buy. And it also conflicts with Macy's motto that the customer should always be helped. You can't focus on each individual customer, while maintaining all of the other customers.

The job is not physically demanding. You need to be on your feet for up to 7 hours a day, so comfortable shoes are a must. There's not really any heavy lifting involved and clean up is reserved for those in "recovery". Your main goal is the customer and you can't do that if your folding clothes or restocking.

Don't really see the associate discount as a pro to this job. The only way to receive it is through a credit card (yes you have to open one to get your discount!). They also have a prepay card option but it's a hassle to load it. Plus you can only load them at the store, not online.

Advice to Senior Management

Better prepare your associates, and stop setting ridiculous demands on them.

Pros

Busy work day so goes by fast
Nice clean enviroment with knowledgable co-workers
Pay isnt half bad (above min)
Closed on holidays

Cons

Not getting the full time hours as was promised
Non-consistent scheduling

Pros

benefits (discounts and rewards)
customer interaction

Cons

management choose who they want to be promoted based on who they like but not by who is qualified for the positoin.

Advice to Senior Management

The store manager needs help with treating everyone fairly.