The work is tiring, repetitive, and boring - there are unreasonably high expectations from managers as regards what you should be able to accomplish in any given space of time. Time allotted to do certain tasks was decreased sometimes without any good reason. Managers were also consistently un-supportive in the face of abusive customers. All types of shifts meant being on your feet for hours and you were *always* expected to stay later than your shift's scheduled finish at closing time, to the point where you weren't allowed to leave even if you asked to. It was unusual to leave any sooner than two hours after your shift had finished. I don't understand why TK Maxx didn't just rota people in to do this shift if they needed people to do it. On some occasions it was very difficult to get the hours you wanted, too - the store I worked at seemed to prefer having a lot of staff doing very few hours each.
The managers have their own agendas and treat sales associates and floor staff like tools to meet their goals. They often spoke to us as if we were unruly, untrustworthy children who needed constant supervision. Sick days and holidays are handled really badly. Holiday was hard to take and it was difficult to find out when it would reset, how much you had left, etc. Staff who call in sick days are treated like slackers no matter what the reason - if you phone in yourself you're guilt-tripped over the phone and often told to come in anyway.
There's little opportunity to improve - we were told there would be options for staff to move into the head office or higher management roles but this never happened.
In advance to my applying to jobs elsewhere I helped to train someone as I had learned a few specialised tasks. As soon as this was done the store stopped giving me shifts without warning. When I asked why this was they answered that I had 'known all along' I'd have to leave once my 'replacement' was fully trained when this had never been discussed, let alone put in writing. After a few months I was told to hand in my notice because head office didn't like leaving me on the payroll when I was doing 0 hours. This was after working at the store for three years, part- and then full-time. It felt like a petty end to an unpleasant 'career'.
