Payless ShoeSource Reviews

Pros

-The manager and district manager were fantastic, they tried so hard and actually cared about their employee's
-It was a fun job once you got the hang of it.
-Great experience working with all sorts of customers
-They put a lot of responsabilty on you and made you feel like you were really important
-Great training
-Getting paid weekly
-30% discount and 50% once a month was nice

Cons

-Since the store is mostly a single or double coverage store, even though there was 4 employees in the store the hours recieved were horrible, i was concidered a full time employee and some weeks ended up with 17 hours.
-They were to harsh on you when it came to bringing up sales, money income, etc you were expected to do so much and try so hard that half of the customers were asking if I worked of commission because of how pushy they had us act
-it felt good to feel important, but the pay sure didnt show you were.
-Changing price tags constantly, not only does the staff put them on wrong or skip them when checking tagging, customers try and be slick by putting a tag on shoes and trying to make them cheaper then they really are.

Advice to Senior Management

The management from my experience was great, they tried as hard as they could, had little contests to keep up trying to sell for a reward, they just made it a fun experence.

Pros

Paycheck every week
Family like work environment
Very easy to get time off
Training was pretty good and transferable to similar jobs.

Cons

Did not like the fact that Payless made it easier to move into management positions from the outside than it did for those who had already worked for the company.

Very inconsistent hours

Advice to Senior Management

Give your store more payroll so that our managers can give us decent hours, your stores can run more effeciently and strink levels wont be so high.

Pros

Give experience with sales and customer service

Cons

Compensation is horrible, need better leadership as well.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay more, employees will work harder for you

Pros

45 hr + workweek better than a lot of big box. Flexibility in doing your own schedule

Cons

Lack of communication and planning by corporate office

Advice to Senior Management

Work a store level position to understand the hypocrisy in leadership and stresses places on management

Pros

I enjoy working with the people i work with at my store. They are great people, we get along with each other very well.

Cons

The hours are not consistent, they pay is awful, they higher managerment uses fear management in a way that is not professional and there is no stability within the company.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat your employees with a little more respect. I've been working with your company for over a year, and I still feel like I break my back for you, but you act like you can replace me in two seconds.

Pros

good place to move up in company

Cons

too much tasking not enough staffing or payroll

Advice to Senior Management

payless needs to figure out their focus

Pros

Many options to be transfered to whatever city you need so your career stays in tact and you dont need to quit if you are moving. They are a very flexible company if you are a parent or a student and need specific hours and days. Very respectful.

Cons

High demanding job with many rules and requirements. You are constantly monitored and reviewed and daily goals are set with explanations required if you do not meet them.

Advice to Senior Management

My Manager had great respect for all those that she knew worked their hardest and went above and beyond the call of duty. Praise was always given when needed and negative feedback was always constructive and tactful. My feedback is the same for all managers to uphold the same standards my manager did and your team will thrive to be the best in the district like ours always was.

Pros

Payless has tons of opportunity for advancement for those that are willing to earn the opportunity.
The compensation is very good, (salary and benefits), when you care about your performance, and do not expect big bucks for minimal effort or contributions.

Cons

It can be challenging for people that are not geared for customer service, goal oriented, or able to enjoy a fast paced environment.

Advice to Senior Management

Update the training program. Today's learners have a hard time with sitting down for cbls in the initial stage of training. If any senior management reads these reviews, take heart. The field as a whole, truly has a much greater satisfaction than this handful of reviews (against over 4,0000 stores) would lead readers to believe! Payless is an awesome, dynamic place to work.

Pros

The only good thing was they worked around my school schedule and the 30% discount was nice. Another nice thing was getting 1 item a month at 50% off.

Cons

The only person who ever recognized that I was doing great was my district manager. My store manager always complained that I never did anything to help. I could never satisfy anyone. My csats were always good but I got paid minimum wage and got two 10 cent raises while working there for 2 and a half years. The requirements are ridiculous in what you have to do. You had to greet the customer, ask them questions to help them find a good shoe, give your opinion on shoes, show them accessories, and a bunch of other bull. Everytime I had to close the store by myself I had to stay an extra hour off the clock to get the store cleaned. If I stayed clocked in I got yelled at about staying to late and ruining the labor scheduling, but if the store wasn't perfect when I left I'd get yelled at about the store not being perfect. I remember one time I stayed in the store till 11:15 pm and had to be back at 4:30 am of course nobody gets overtime working at payless for shifts like this. Overall it is a terrible place to work at payless because you have to deal with terrible managers that you can never please and you have to deal with the public who are impossible in themselves being completely rude.

Advice to Senior Management

Recognize what your employees do for you. Do not just yell for doing everything wrong. Also when doing yearly reviews do not put down that someone doesn't meet expectations if the problem has nothing to do for that category. For example I got does not meet expectations for teem work because I had visitors at work. If I do my job and my scores show it don't cause a problem with me for talking to someone if the customer's have been taken care of.

Pros

Disscount
Cool co-workers (sometimes)
Can see merchandise before others

Cons

Worst management ever! So unprofessional and immature, she seemed incapable of keeping her personal life out of the workplace and all the co-workers were sucked into her game of "he said, she said". Pathetic. We are treated like slaves with No recognition of good work and constantly Reprimanded for low sales when there was no training to begin with! Oh the entire SMILES program is a joke, more like harass customers until they start giving you dirty look. Worse company ever.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more selective when hiring managers, they are incompetent, unprofessional, and immature.