Pros
Free coffee. A few ok people there.
Cons
What can I say? There are a lot of decent people working there, however there are a lot of egotistical managers, who want to make your life hell for nothing. I was contracted to photograph the cars at certain branches in Glasgow. Some branches were fine, the management were organised and friendly, however others were a shambles! One particular branch, I was asked to turn up by the manager at 9.30, however the person organising the photography didn't want me there until 11! This lead to tensions and I regularly felt "spied" on by this manager to see how many cars I was photographing per hour. The pay and conditions were fairly poor. Ok, the job is not running a multi national company, but the £14 per hour had to cover your camera equipment, flash, batteries and travel to and from branches that were within about 5 miles from home. (They'd generously pay an extra £4! For branches further afield, however this was only for one branch and if the others were in the same area, you wouldn't get the extra petrol/mileage money) You were responsible for your own equipment and damages to this, and would be expected to be out in rain and shine covering the photography. On one particular occasion my camera got soaked, my flashgun got broken, and I was left with a £150 repair! Effectively working more than 10 hours for free! When I brought up the broken flash with the Arnold Clark manager and the Auto trader representative I was given short shrift and told I was responsible for my own equipment. Being out in the rain also lead to images which were rejected. The end came when I was told to photograph cars at a new location at a particular branch, where the location was not meeting the standards required set by Auto trader and it was absolutely chucking it down with rain. The management asked why so few cars were photographed in the allotted hour, I was left thoroughly demoralised by the whole thing!
