Expect to be nothing more than a payroll number - Store Manager Thorntons (UK) Employee Review

Chocolate heaven since 1911. True? No! It was once but not anymore. Regardless of my opinion of this company, as an insider I will say that they will cut costs of ingredients to accommodate flash cars and nice salaries... for high level management of course. The quality is becoming poorer all the time. The last chocolatier wanted high quality ingredients so they got rid of him and didn't even tell anyone he'd left. I've worked for Thorntons now for about 11 years. In that 11 years I've seen people come and go and come and go more times than a successful prosititute. Management at head office: Persuasion is key. More times than I can remember, I heard integral management say 'we need to rely on loyalty to keep stores open as we just won't be giving pay increases' That loyalty is driven by NOTHING but expectation and those expectations are over and above the basic human right to breathe! You are expected to Pay for your own props in store Pay for your staffs incentives Pay for your stores needs in regard to photocopying, postage etc (there's no budget for petty cash) some stores are expected to clean their own Windows. Stay well beyond your contracted hours as 'an expectation of the position you're paid for' Set up stores out of hours to a level of 'unexpected visits' Visitors will pick up on the lightest mistake - this chocolate bar is showing its barcode - on the back of it, expect to be totally alienated by your regional manager I simply don't understand how a business is run by a little man whose bromance with a taller man is the solid and only foundation of a confectioner that is now owned entirely by an Italian firm. They won't refit tired stores but will happily refurbish their entire reception area at the head office to accommodate a visit from its new owners They let regional managers chose hilariously over priced company cars but totally forget to pay those who travel distances for the business and then blame the postal service They will ask your opinion and 'take it on board but you can guarantee you'll be 'managed' into another way of thinking through a process they teach the elite called coaching. Their decision is final, no fluctuation at all ever. My regional manager always tells new starters that 'there's no clicks on my region' but then she has a little circle of either extremely homosexual males or overly brown nosed girls that literally manhunt people in the most unacceptable way you can imagine. I see another post on here that details a lot of many people's thoughts. Those thoughts will never be spoken of to a face as if they were, you'd find yourself totally destroyed. So glad this is anonymous. People are leaving left right and centre and if I didn't have a family to support, I'd be right there with them!! If you have the option, then do not join this company. It'll set you back years in your career and then they'll drop you for the slightest reason Thorntons is probably as bad if not worse than sports direct and if we watch the news.... we know how awful that is