Pretty much everything else. The best advice that I can give you is to stay as far away as possible from M30 and to look elsewhere. The BS is truly endless, and the work environment is toxic.
The hourly wage and KM rate do appear to be good at first but are not in reality… read below to see why.
TRAINING AND ADMIN TIME – The only training that the company provides is a 2-hour online session, which is considered an “added benefit” and therefore unpaid. No on-site training is provided either, so you must figure out on your own (before going to your first store) what needs to be done, which is also unpaid time. Plus, any admin time that you spend working on M30 business at home (such as reading/answering emails or scheduling visits, which takes a significant amount of time, especially in the beginning) is also unpaid. All that time (or at least some of it) should be paid since you are working, but it is not. While the company won’t work for free for its clients, they expect their merchandisers to work for free on a regular basis. So, the hourly wage is not very good at all considering how much time you end up working for free.
KM REIMBURSEMENT – The company does not pay you for driving from home to the first store or for driving back home from the last store. They consider that the cost of travelling “to and from the office”, even though you have no choice but to drive instead of taking the bus. It’s a little ironic since the head office apparently works remotely and does not even have to travel to and from the office. In any case, you only get paid for the kilometers driven in between the first store and the last store. Even if you’re excellent at making sure that the first and last stores are as close to home as possible, the overall rate for all the kilometers that you will end up driving in a day is only about 2/3 of the stated rate, e.g. $0.40 per km instead of $0.60 per km.
COMMUNICATIONS – The company does not provide adequate training, but still expects the merchandisers to do everything according to their standards and expectations. That rarely happens, not surprisingly, so you constantly receive very aggressive emails explaining what should be done. You feel like you are constantly being yelled at through your computer/phone screen because of the subject lines and text that are all in caps, as well as the text that is in bold, italicized, red font and then highlighted in yellow. Some of the emails also publicly shame/humiliate/call out (using full names, employee numbers, and locations) those who are not doing things properly. One email also suggested what most would consider to be an unethical way of tricking a store into ordering more of a certain product, which is pointless anyways since merchandisers are not even paid commissions for increasing sales and therefore have no incentive to do so.
TURNOVER – The turnover rate among merchandising reps is incredibly high according to the stores that I was servicing, which is not at all surprising considering how the merchandisers are treated. The company’s treatment of its merchandisers is quite honestly demeaning and devaluing in every possible way, and the company has no concern at all for their health and wellbeing. I also feel bad for the stores that continually have new merchandisers coming in to service their stores, with bacs and boxes of gift cards piling up but not being placed.
SUMMARY – M30 puts on a good face with their high hourly wage and KM rate, compared to the rest of the industry, but it is just a scam. The company is unbelievably cheap and does not know how to value its employees, and the merchandisers are the ones who end up getting screwed.
By the way, based on the responses from human resources (HR) to other reviews, I can imagine that they are probably going to comment that they have a virtual open door policy and to reach out to talk or for an exit interview. That is also total BS! If HR truly cared about all the employees who quit after a month and actually wanted to know how they could improve, they would offer exit interviews up front. All I got in response to my email when I quit was what seemed like a cold automated message with some final information. An exit interview was NEVER offered or encouraged, so trying to put on a good face by offering one here in response to bad reviews is just pathetic.
