Pros
Surrounded by books/beautiful products, employee discount to merchandise (30% off books, Jellycats, PWP price without minimum spend required, 40% off papershop, home/wellbeing products), benefits are average (once you hit one year of working there of course),
Cons
Toxic environment, Inconsistent hours and short hours (do not expect 8 hour shifts. At most 5 or 6). You want a vacation or holiday (especially at xmas) good luck. They can and do reject you unless it’s convenient for them. Last minute, in the same shift, will ask you to stay later and if you don’t accept it they tell you you’re being unprofessional and unreasonable or try to gaslight you. I nearly got injured at work and when I felt unsafe to continue the same job they refused which is illegal in Alberta actually. Sometimes they don’t give you a break (when they forced me to work 15 hours during an inventory shift 6pm -9 am the next day and I was refused bathroom or another break when legally you have to have another 30 min and 15 min break. The store didn’t open on time because of it too and we got blamed lol). They don’t schedule you much after that stuff occurs. Minimum wage only, so no more wage advancements or raises. So if you want more hours or pay, then be a manager if you are lucky to get a position (I got laughed in the face for inquiring about it from my store manager). Managers micromanage you and make you feel like you don’t know what you’re doing at work. They are also racist/prejudice/bullying managers (have their favourites and if you’re not theirs goodluck!). Some managers are good but over the years lately there are more horrible ones than good. All phony, fake and don’t care about your health, personal struggles, problems in life, or have empathy/compassion. All they care about is the numbers (Plum, Pay with purchase, and sales #). If you don’t sell enough of them you are also talked to, written up in reviews, and your grade score for the quarter will be affected. It’s like school but retail style lol.You will NEVER be an A student there unless you suck up to them and you are their favourite. If you think they care about the staff you’re clearly wrong lol they don’t. Not since before Covid and the Cyber attack at least. (Don’t get me started on those problems lol) The managers will follow and racially profile customers too! They did to me! (E.g. Accuse of stealing, ask the customer to leave if they feel they are “sketchy” or “high flyers”. They will watch them and harass them with “customer service” fake questions) (They also break workers rights laws in Alberta too-require doctors note when not needed anymore actually. They will not allow you to be sick, not be allowed to change your availability, write you daily reviews in Teams that are never positive or constructive feedback. It’s always negative or the same or similar write up daily. They will make you a script when on till so you MUST say the same thing they do and if you don’t they 100% ask you why. They grade you every quarter and if you’re not high performing they will tell you why you suck as an employee but in Indigo language “fake friendly” jargon and need to work harder. Eg “You aren’t agile enough”. Or “you’re not phygital enough” They take retail and store policies too seriously and the “customer joy” is so long gone. They will target you about dress code (a manager told me, not long before I left,“i’m a dresscode Naz^ and what you look like is completely inappropriate and poorly represents the brand” but its the same dress i have worn for 5 years and were a little above my knee so not too short at all! I never once been talked to about it before or my work pants that they claim were leggings and were not. And also have worn for years with no comment from other managers. They are usually overweight female managers targeting you because they wear revealing inappropriate outfits too and no one says anything to them about it. Clearly jealous and insecure managers (I have seen that same manager wear mini skirts and low cut v-neck cleavage tank tops before and another manager wear mesh/lace which is not allowed too, so they are total hypocrites with dress code lol). They ignore your opinions/insights/perspectives, make you do alot of e-learning courses that take up hours of your time and are never needed or not updated (same courses but policies changed like returns/cash handling/etc. basically strict policies now and no flexibility or customer joy anymore for both cx and employee shopping). Honestly, there is more negative points than positive. Please do not get sucked into this company like I did. Books at Amazon are honestly cheaper than Indigo’s (even when factoring in employee discounts). So if you are super passionate about books okay fine give it a go and see how you like it. But job wise its definitely declined since 2019 easily. I wish I realized this sooner but I got trapped in this retail book cult. I’m so glad I quit after nearly 10 years! Best decision of my life. There are better companies or job opportunities to work for out there that will treat you better and pay you better/better benefits, etc. Just remember, if you are a CER, you are kinda like a horse in a horse race and all the wealthy home office/VPs/CEO, etc are betting on you to do well so they make $$$ from the work you do or they watch you fail and easily remove you. Keep that in mind when you work for these corporations. They will always, ALWAYS, replace you. Because for them it is just a business and they don’t even remember your name or pronounce it properly lol so seriously think hard before you work here