I felt that workplace politics were extreme and seemed to influence my success far more than actual, measured results ever could. It felt as if my store manager was negatively impacting store morale and our potential positive impact on the Ottawa market (no longer in this role). After the store opened, myself and several peers continued to experience burnout (mental and physical) as a result of the work environment we found ourselves in. I wrote to HR with several times, and came to understand that others had as well. Whether any positive change resulted was unclear, but my feeling is that it didn't help. Safety did not feel like a priority here, and there were incidents that caused me to question this company's commitment to safety. All company communications seemed to be offered in French first and English "if there's time" (or so it felt). I often went for day-long or week-long trainings or meetings that would be offered only in French (which I do not speak and was never required to have for this job). We were required to use multiple softwares/applications in our daily work, and it was rare for half of them to actually work (at least when I needed them). My experience was that IT services were slow to provide resolutions, and many issues were recurring to the point of frustration/defeat. The amount of "digital noise" I experienced working for this company was overwhelming (emails/texts/calls/WhatsApps/Facebook Messenger/Google Chats). My job title (Sport Leader) and description was identical to probably 1/3rd of the store, but there was a wide range of actual jobs performed under this umbrella term. Failing to treat these roles as being distinct created a considerable amount of job discomfort, dissatisfaction and disorganization. It was hard to understand what one could expect from another, and accountabilities/results were unclear. Despite having only a basic definition of what our jobs entailed, those of us who committed to doing extra work often found it difficult to do less without negative judgement. These decisions were often forced prioritization as a result of lack of time/resources and not due to an inability on the worker's part. Several roles tend to be concentrated around a core group of leaders (which I formerly belonged to) to what I feel is the detriment of the store and the professional development of its staff. It was likely to the detriment of those performing extra roles, who surely must have been experienced their own stressors. Throughout my time with the company, there was an overwhelming commitment to maintaining "the Decathlon way": largely seen in the company's commitment to hire international workers from established stores into key leadership positions. This was also seen by regular visits from international store leaders and other workers. There were many points where it seemed like the company expected the country to adapt to it. I observed an "Us vs. Them" dynamic between the "special" workers of Decathlon and the others, resulting largely from what I feel is the company's complacency in workforce planning or clearly defining (and holding accountability for) key performance indicators.
