Sears Reviews in Chicago, IL Area

Pros

Customer-centric.
Company that is trying to remain relevant in an increasingly digital world.
Great leadership programs for recent college, business and tech grads.

Cons

Weather in the Chicago/Hoffman Estates area during winter can be brutal.
Bonus is typically based on overall company/business performance not individual. With the current economy it's been a while since we've seen full bonuses.

Advice to Senior Management

More presence in your businesses and in the stores. Stop by and visit the people who make the magic happen

Pros

-You are given ample resources and tools to help you with the job
-Good salary and benefits
-Most team members are helpful and will answer any questions you have

Cons

-Long hours
-Stressful environment
-Technology and computers are out-of-date, and IT help is outsourced from another company
-Not clear on what was expected of me
-Received much more negative feedback than positive from management
-Given overload of information and training to use within my job, but it wasn't put into a helpful context

Advice to Senior Management

Management needs to make their expectations clear without having new employees figure them out on their own, especially since many assistant buyers come directly from college with little to no experience in the actual corporate workplace. Also, giving a little positive feedback once in a while never hurt anyone.

Pros

great crew of applance and ref techs

Cons

unfair rules to lower emplyes

Advice to Senior Management

become more involde with employs

Pros

Good team, Management is good. New technologies are being tested and implemented constantly. There is a lot of freedom given by management in using new technologies.

Cons

Benefits are not competitive to the present market, Need more changes. 401K plan has to be restored, bonuses should be restored.

Advice to Senior Management

Employees have lot of potential in making the company successful, if the employees morale is boosted they can do miracles. Sears can be number one in couple years

Pros

Brand recognition by the public usually brought positive feedback. Employee discount encouraged Sears purchases and I took advantage of it.

Cons

From an internal perspective, customers were not treated as well as they could be. Many promises to customers were broken. Work/Life balance was non-existant. 50+ hours was a weekly occurance. Too much change (flavor of the week) without allowing time for the change to play out to see if it would work or not.

Advice to Senior Management

Make a business plan and stick to it to see if the idea was valid or not. Floavor of the week - I would work to create reports/process and by the time I turned in the data, a change had already occurred and my work was for naught. Treat employees as they had been 5 years ago. Every year something was taken away - a personal day, profit sharing, pension plan, threshold for getting a third week of vacation, increased benefit costs...

Pros

free tech adoption, friendly working environment, great team build, well organized, nice location in chicago sub area so no traffic in normal days

Cons

retail industry not stable and benefit is not the best, midwest winter season is chilly; expensive living in the area although better than california

Advice to Senior Management

the industry can not be changed but the benefit package can be changed; for associates like me, the company must match the industry average level for benefit at least

Pros

associate discount 10 and 20 better than none
associates work to carry company and make up for management poor judgement

Cons

only a matter of time before you will be fired, even if you give you best, don't make to much money or your gone.
age use to be ok and knowledge of business, now if you hit 48 look out, only matter of time before your on pip,they will find something. Company needs back leadership and associates that can sell and give customer service, review your problems and wake up. Best people at your competition!

some upper manager make bad judgement calls or single out good people to be fired. known issue
store managers waiting for the first offer, with good reason.

Advice to Senior Management

do exit interviews, call back managers and associates and ask why released or quit. management will find the guy still there in place, is the problem and why company will not make it past 2012.
with placing brands in other stores, no reason to shop Sears and go to dead malls and poor service areas that ask 8 questions before you are rung up! sad but true!

no impact from Louis, wait and the man, will tell you what to do!
A good company being let go down!

Pros

This company does have the potential to turn around with very bright executives.

Cons

Until it does turn around, IT has been stretched very much to the bone with layoffs. Pay raises only go to the top 20%, so good luck unless you are one of the bosses favorites.

Advice to Senior Management

The company is on the right track, but as an employee, I do not get any feeling that there will be rewards if I stick around for the comeback. How am I supposed to have any feeling of loyalty for the company when people are let go all the time?

Pros

Compensation very good and great raises.

Cons

Favoritism is a part of the environment. No work life balance. Higher management is clueless.

Advice to Senior Management

Management is in denial about who are in key leadership positions.

Pros

Excellent chances to practice PowerPoint skills
Learn to excel at making up delivery dates for ESL presentations
Fun to watch SLP members run around in circles to do nothing of value

Cons

ESL, especially the team members who know nothing about the internet, ecommerce, or management but had been empowered to cause chaos in the online business
SVP/Presidents are constantly in-fighting to stay in the graces of ESL (i.e. not get fired)
No collaboration across teams, business units, or executives
Want to be Amazon, Hunch, (insert latest TechCrunch headline company) all by next week

Advice to Senior Management

I don't think there is any real advice to give. Most, if not all, of the management at Sears are doing nothing but collecting good paychecks and trying to not get fired.