Pros
TJ Maxx is a good first job, and one of the better "retail" employers to work for, in my eyes. I learned a lot about how to run a business, how to know your customer, how to run departments, how to delegate tasks, how to be a supervisor, and how to run a store as a member of management. There are many different things to learn, and if you are willing and prove to be a reliable and good worker, you can learn many different departments, job roles, and tasks, which can help build your resume. If there are openings and you are a great worker, you can move up very easily. Many of the employees are very kind and patient, and love to help new people out. Major holidays of (like Christmas, Easter, etc.), time and a half on holidays the store is open, no crazy Thanksgiving hours as they are closed on Thanksgiving, no crazy Black Friday sales, managers try to work around your schedule, easy to request time off, relatively easy to take vacations when you want, and you can switch or trade shifts with others, as long as you know the same departments. Guaranteed 15 min paid break for every shift; if you work 6 or more hours, you receive two 15 min paid breaks and an unpaid 45 min lunch. They try to employ a variety of different cultural backgrounds, it makes it interesting working with people of different cultures and teaches you a lot of working with others. They also provide decent and cheap benefits for full-time workers. One of the other things I really liked was you could leave work early for sickness/family issues/personal issues, and they didn't hold it against you.
Cons
There is never any payroll, so it is frustrating to constantly be understaffed. There are no promotions for breaking into management (besides being a key carrier) unless you move hours away, while the same terrible managers who can't handle their jobs and don't do any work or contribute positively to the store in any way are rewarded with being able to stay at the same store for years! It feels frustrating knowing that you can do your manager's job better, yet you are stuck being hourly and they make salary off of you doing all their work. Managers take the credit for your hard work while they talk badly about you and all of the associates, some of the management team is verbally abusive and bullies associates, managers don't like you being friends with your co-workers yet they can be friends with certain employees, the good workers have unrealistically high expectations yet the lazy workers have zero expectations, no communication between management, not a team environment, barely any recognization for a job well done. The store is run blindly; things aren't fair, the turnover rate is too high so you are always re-training and helping new associates for them to either leave or be fired in a few weeks, and management treats their certain people special. Working there for many years and reaching a key carrier role taught me that the associates and coordinators do all of the grunt work and are expected to take on almost ALL of the management's responsibilities, while they hang out in their offices to avoid work, chat, talk badly about everyone, and earn thousands of thousands of dollars in bonuses off of your hard work, while you are barely making enough to support yourself.