Boots Employee Reviews about "poor management"

Pros

Great if you want to get into the cosmetic industry. Decent pay for retail. No other pros.

Cons

Genuinely poor management. Do not recommend. It states that they are flexible but really are not. Will give you a random shift of 3 hours or 5 hours and that way will make you come in every single day for nothing even if you are part-time and have other commitments - they don't care. Expect to get no help from management as they have no clue about No7 and will leave you helpless/clueless. No7 training is poor and pointless. Barely learn anything. Can learn more about makeup by watching YouTube videos yourself. Need to be on a weekly conference call with No7 - completely pointless and waste of time. Unless you're in a busy store, you will find yourself having nothing to do but filling up your time with cleaning shelves and watching their pointless training videos (trust me, it is the last thing you want to do). Expect there to be extreme jealousy amongst colleagues who will also provide you with no help. Do not expect any type of progression at all! Expect to always have a full face of make-up (cakey as well..). Honestly, unless you really need the job - don't go for it.

Pros

- On-site Boots shop with chilled food, drinks,etc and good canteen & services such as gym (membership required), plus discounted Starbucks coffee or Costa kiosks. - Staff discount, money off vouchers and double discount days, etc. - Freebie events from suppliers, lots of activities held and product launches/ giveaways. - Big name retailer to get on your CV.

Cons

- Poor management with outdated ways of thinking, who lack empathy and the skill-set to adapt to new ways of working. - Lack of opportunities to develop within Boots unless you're deemed good enough to be fast-tracked, otherwise it is hard to develop or move sideways. - Not enough management roles, so there is a glass ceiling salary and lack of further development once you hit assistant manager level. - Outdated, rigid quarterly staff review process. Boots are out of touch with their high expectations with salaries not reflective of the workload or responsibilities. Employees have to jump through corporate hoops and tick all the boxes, whilst having to be over-achieving in all criteria just to get an achieve. Salaries are lower than average industry standard and aren't reflective of the workload or responsibilities, tasks are often passed down from managers and staff feel undervalued and underpaid, whilst over-time is often expected but with no extra pay or appreciation. - Salaries aren't transparent during the recruitment process either, Boots only give the salaries once they make a job offer and discussing salaries in H.O is taboo as there can be a disparity across different teams or employees doing the same role, if they have been there longer and had incremental salary rises. - Job security: constant restructures and redundancies over the past few years in Boots and their Global Brands division. - Car parking is deducted from monthly salary, post 8.30am expect a long walk to D90 as most car parks across the site are a good few football fields away! - Boots don't value their staff and make it obvious staff are disposable and easily replaceable. Coupled with the lack of development opportunities, this means there is a large turnover of staff. Meanwhile incompetent management coast, Boots is in great need of an overhaul. Get rid of those who are unwilling to re-train and develop and give opportunities to those seeking development and the chance to reach manager level. It's currently a dead-man's shoes scenario...or someone has to have a breakdown and leave, before a senior role becomes available! - In some teams there is a toxic work environment. - Head office environment has sadly become stressful, with a lack of clear management, processes and accountability. There is also a blame culture within Boots and managers passing the blame and workload down regularly. Often resulting in burnt-out teams of exhausted staff who have slowly been beaten down with the poor ways of working, crippling workload and a poor salary.