Emma Mcilroy

Ambition Killer There is no career development at all. During my interview, I made it clear of my intentions and career goals and was assured that there could be opportunities for advancement into HQ. Even though they have current HQ staff who were promoted from the retail store, they haven?t given anyone else a chance since and turned down retail staff who were willing and qualified to take on more tasks at the product/merchandising level. There?s an office vs retail hierarchy/holier than thou attitudes from some. On top of that, there?s a lack of consistency between functions. For example, one member of HQ staff would come in and rearrange merchandise then a different one would come in, move it again, then get upset with retail staff that it looked that way. This coincides with an overall lack of basic communication. I moved into a new role and was unaware there was a new ?job description? until I was called out for not doing 3 out of the 5 things that were part of the role. Special promos and sales weren?t communicated cross-functionally. We would have customers asking about a sale on the WF Instagram story and that would be the first time we?d hear of it, making retail staff look incompetent. HQ is constantly pushing staff to sell more in recent times. They previously placed a high priority on customer experience rather than sales, but that seems to be changing. WF doesn?t listen to retail staff about what customers are asking for. Stickers, patches, and Wildfang-branded t-shirts have been things that customers were recommending before I arrived and for the entire time I worked there. They feel that isn?t ?on-brand? with them, but it clearly is since there are so many customers asking about them. When I first arrived, a coworker and I wondered why there weren?t mannequins or products in the windows on display, and we were met with a ?we don?t do that here? attitude. Not surprisingly, months later HQ had a great idea: the displays were changed to include product and mannequins. The workload they place on single employees is outrageous. They?re notorious for giving one person way too much work to do, then get upset when it isn?t done in their crazy time frames or if we have to work overtime to complete it. This leads to employees working for free or just plain old not completing the task in time. The last two things are around job performance and discipline. There aren?t performance reviews. I was there for over a year and had a series of touch bases when I learned I wasn?t performing the tasks I didn?t know were a part of my role. I was given 1 raise the entire time I was there, and it wasn?t even the same as what other coworkers received at the same time. As for discipline, I was told the process is a warning, 2 write-ups, then termination. I had a written warning then an unexpected termination. My direct manager and I had both agreed my performance was improving, but it was out of her hands. I hold zero hard feelings for my former manager and supervisor. The company on the other hand??...