They demand too much from their Sales Associates! - Sales Associate World Market Employee Review

There are plenty of downsides as a sales associate here. 1) When you get hired at any company, you have a role description and it should outline your responsibilities. At World Market, a few years ago, they decided to merge the specialist role and the sales associate role. Before, sales associates were there only for customer service and checkout. Now, you have to do everything. I even find myself doing tasks assigned to a manager. Why should I get paid poverty wage while doing livable wage jobs? 2) They hire incompetent/incapable persons. Nothing against the people I work with, they are lovely. The management makes them unbearable. I am a competent person and I am capable of performing the tasks needed for the position. However, I am not responsible for training new people, and managers don't train new people either, even though they are supposed to. So, fellow Sales Associates are looked to when new people run into trouble. Because there is no official training, these new people never actually learn, so they always ask the same question with now growth or development, even after many months. Management also hires incapable people. In the job description, you are supposed to be able to lift 40lbs. That's a lie, at World Market. We have furniture items weighing upwards to 200 lbs. Obviously, this is a two person job. But, management hires older people who cannot lift those kinds of items, so they rely on the younger folk to do all the lifting. I usually wouldn't care, but it's unfair to have to do the same amount of work as the less capable PLUS the lifting of heavy items. 3) The workplace is unorganized and unsafe. At least in my location, our warehouse is tiny for the amount of sales we make. Conveniently, this also means that heavy furniture gets stored on the top shelf. Very safe, I know. I would know, because I've dropped heavy items from the top. You may ask, why isn't there a safe way to retrieve those items? Well, there is, but because management does not train anyone on anything, no one can use the forklift thing to safely get heavy items from the top shelf. So, us Sales Associates have to use the ancient technology of the ladder to reach the 80lbs sofa piece and somehow get it to the ground safely for the customer arriving in the smart car. :) 4) Understaffing. This is not a new issue to any store and there are a lot of factors that can go into understaffing. However, even on days when there are no call-outs, it will be very overwhelming. Without designated people to help customers with specific questions, the Sales Associates are spread thin trying to help customers and co-workers as needed. A day when there are 5 people working, a lot may get done, but you will be exhausted because it feels like only 2 other people are working with you. 5) No Security. Usually when you walk into a store with expensive items like clothes or jewelry, you'd expect there to be those magnetic sensors to sound an alarm. Not at World Market. We still have registers from the 80's. Only recently did we upgrade the pin pads to accept apple pay and such. The servers are probably ancient as well. So, no security. Can you guess whose shoulders it lands on to carry out Loss Prevention measures? That's right! The Sales Associate! In my store's case, we get stolen from, A LOT. So the managers actually put on some pants when we alert the store that there is a possible shoplifter. But even when they leave with items, they act like it's our fault that no one saw them. Remember how I mentioned understaffing? Well, on top of helping customers, we need to have a third eye keeping an eye on the door to see if there are any possible shoplifters entering the store. This is also great because it means we have to form a prejudice against mainly the homeless population. I'd rather not treat people in need as criminals, or be yelled at by them when they think I'm doing just that. It's not fun. So, I've stopped trying. If someone wants to steal a chocolate bar, go ahead. You probably need it more than the company. After all, the store generates millions per year, but only pays us enough to live in poverty. 6) Being the janitor. I get that everyone should contribute to the cleanliness of the store. I've only worked in restaurants prior to working here, and I never had to clean the restrooms. We always had a designated person to do that. My girlfriend has worked retail before, and when she found out that I had to clean the restrooms at World Market, she was baffled. She too had a specific person for the job at her workplace. I might also add here that I've had to clean up all sorts of bodily relief in World Market. From dogs going 1 and 2 in the store, to HUMANS 1-ing in the middle of the walkway and 2-ing in the RESTROOM TRASHCANS. Like, seriously? You are in the bathroom already! I can go on and on about this. But the best part about all of this, is when it's only the lazy manager working, and you ask them to clean it up, or you tell them about it and they just say "Can you clean it up?" or "I'm busy at the moment, you clean it." It doesn't grind your gears at all. 7) I forgot at this point. If you couldn't tell by now, this review was sponsored by the emotion: rage. It has been utterly infuriating to work here while I've been in college. The only reason I haven't left is because I just needed a steady income. I'm now looking to get an actual career while working here in the meantime. So, if you've read through all of this, I wanted to congratulate you first, and then tell you to look anywhere else for a job. Until management actually decides to staff accordingly, pay more, train properly, make store managers actually do their job when needed, and upgrade security measures, avoid World Market at all costs. We lie to you when you shop here and ask if we like it. We don't. I feel like a robot when I'm at the register. DO NOT WORK HERE.