Winners reviews

I worked at TJX for 3 years; in those 3 yrs I have worked at 2 different stores: Marshalls and Winners. At Marshalls I was hired to help at store opening (and stayed another 2yrs) then transferred to Winners when I moved. This is single handily the worst company I have ever worked for. I will detail below how horribly staff is treated, and why you should not support this company and not buy any of their products! Unequal wages: Retail should start at minimum wage unless you are hired as a supervisor. This form of logic is not the case at TJX. I have worked with the company for three years; starting at $10.25 (min.wage at the time) and earned a raise each year. When minimum wage increased to $11 (in 2014) management considered this a raise and many associates like me lost raises for previous years of service. I was constantly lied to and told in a few months they would increase my salary in increments, but management did not follow through with this promise. Meanwhile, management hired new workers well over $11, despite that most would only learn one skill (ex: fitting room) meanwhile others who knew all areas of the store including cash office were jibbed and paid minimum wage. The moral of the story: TJX has no understanding of integrity or fairness to their associates - especially if they have been there for years. Improper and ineffective training: employees hired to help at an opening store will receive better training because there is more time to divide into groups, sit down and discuss the policies. Over the years I observed managers plopping the orientation books down on desks and make the new workers teach themselves. If management labels you a strong associate like I was, they will leave you to train new people. A good portion of employees I trained at TJX were earning more than I was; I was training coordinators and one occasion a new assistant manager! I personally believe that someone earning minimum wage is NOT responsible for training new staff, it should be management and coordinators. But I guess if I and other ‘strong’ associates did not step up no one would know how to do their jobs. Inconsistencies with store operations: Over the years I have experienced changes in management and have worked at other locations for day projects; every manager runs their store differently and make up their own rules that contradict policies. For instance, one manager believed that if you’re scheduled to work until 8pm it was automatically considered a closing shift and you had to stay until 9:30pm; 10:30pm was the average time this manager would let us leave (making 8hr shifts borderline to over 10 for some workers). We associates faxed the district manager with our concerns about this manager with 20 signatures and received no response or investigation at all on this matter. Another manager made up a policy claiming that no associate could buy any final clearance items, but it was ok for associates who were not working that day or workers at other store to do so. Poor quality items: Half of TJX merchandise we receive is factory errors or quality rejects. At Marshalls I once spent three hours of my shift ripping off “Quality Issue” stickers off shoe boxes (as directed by the manager) many of those shoes were over $80. Over the years I’ve encountered merchandise arriving stained, missing pieces, wrong size tag sewn on, faulty seaming, and once yoga accessories came in a box stamped with: “Health concern do not sell;” I brought this to the attention of the managers and they decided to sell it anyway. It’s sickening that this company takes pride for selling “high quality items” for “cheap” prices yet they have no problem selling faulty items at a gross cost and then will offer customers a “discount” of $2 off! What’s even more disturbing is customers take this “discount” and think they are getting a great deal or think they are haggle masters. Difficult to obtain Full-time status: I was hired as a part-time associate, and throughout the 3yrs I worked over 40hrs a week, and lots of overtime during the holidays. All TJX store managers refuse to pay anyone overtime and will always add those hours onto the associates’ next paycheck without asking. Coordinator and full-time positions are always filled from outside sources and current employees have little or no chance to apply. Constantly understaffed: This Company is cheap. Everyone knows that Winners/Marshalls/Homesense stores are pig-sties with clothes laying on the floor. Unfortunately, this company thinks it’s a brilliant idea to have one cashier, one fitting room attendant, and two floor associates run the store. Floor associates are called for back-up on cash frequently – sometimes lines get very long and it’s not easy to keep the line going especially with the amount of returns customers do daily. While on call for cash floor associates are expected to bring out new merchandise in a timely manner, be a janitor, help customers in store and over telephone, pick-up rejected clothes in the fitting room and put them away, return refunded items/clothes from the cash to the floor, make/clean displays, cover breaks, and complete projects given by managers. It’s a long grueling day, and it’s aggravating that some associates don’t do their job (out of laziness or poor training) and put more stress on others to do the job for them. It amazes me this company is ‘voted’ as Canada’s best workplace – this company takes advantage of both its employees and its customers. It further amazes me that no law suits have been filed by employees to TJX violating Ontario’s labour laws, or customers who trip over junk on the floor or have shelves fall on their heads.