Hi everyone,
First I (43f) need to apologize as English is not my first language. I am originally from eastern Europe. I don’t know if the following actually story/rant fits here and if it’s truly antiwork or if its just a rant. It is also a Throwaway as I have to be extremely careful. The company (which I name at the end of this rant) in question, is a small company and their social media team is 24/7 on a hunt like bloodhounds in order to crush anything negative as soon as possible. The company has just over 1000 employees’ world wide. It is in the fashion industry and I used to work at the Warehouse packing and shipping customer orders. It was an exhausting and not rewarding job at all. The reason why I come forward now is because, while I do not want to hurt my former colleagues as the majority of them were great to work with the company itself is truly awful.
I am still in contact with many employees and we meet up and talk regularly about the company in question. We talk about company policies, salaries, etc. Usually I would leave a reply like this on a famous company review website but once a negative review appears on this famous company review website the company asks their favorite and most obedient employees to immediately counter with 5* reviews.
This is why I thought, coming here would help a lot more. I would like to start with the fact that while the pay wasn’t that bad everyone is paid under the average of their field (except upper management and board members). While there has been a slight raise (before I left which was a few months ago) it is nowhere near a living wage nor is it near inflation since the official end of the pandemic. This goes for Warehouse Staff (like me), Store staff, Customer Service Staff or Team Leads. Everyone is on average between 2k and 2.5k under the yearly average for the field (I took my former colleagues current salary for comparison as well as mine on the day I left) . And this is after a 5 or 6 percent raise earlier this year not to mention inflation.
The company currently, as told by my colleagues goes after every employee who does not hit set targets and puts those loyal people on more than one disciplinary at the same time like its free candy, especially Warehouse and Customer Service staff. The constant pressure to exceed targets was too much for me, so I quit months ago and moved back to my home country. I rather live on less money in a poorer country than to make sure the board members and company owner can buy another multi million home. Instead of responsibility and care, the company doesn’t care whether you stay or quit. They just hire someone else who might put up with all their shenanigans.
I know for a fact that several of my former co-workers are about to quit as well, which I hope will leave the company high and dry. I can’t blame them. The constant pressure by upper management to bring in the money for the company yet paying the ones who are bringing in the money less than national average while at the same time getting snarky and rude pressuring comments that make you feel bad and constantly feel getting fired any minute was too much for me. At this point I will assume that, if the company sees this post, it will try to disregard it by saying “the former employee is surely in bad mental health”. Well maybe I am but it is because of your failed leadership. Criticism and valid arguments are never taken seriously. I once had a foresight that bad things are going to happen, when we do not change our shipping policies from the warehouse. It was ignored. Lo and behold, months later parcels disappeared and the company lost money. To this day the company keeps losing the money and the staff got 3x-4x the amount of work, than compared to what it would be like if they would fix it.
I cannot blame my co-workers for staying on the other hand. The majority have children and they want a better life for them in a different country. It was too much for me. I am back at my home county now and my mental health is slowly getting better. And now that we are close to black Friday, I want you to know a few secrets, in case you share my sentiment.
If you ever order from the company and return too many of the clothes you ordered, you will get banned. That percentage is around 60%. If you are not at home but the parcel is delivered to your door and a picture is taken, just tell them the parcel didn’t arrive and they will send out a new one. Trust me they do. They have no chance to actually verify this. If you return your order and claim all items are return but when the warehouse opens the parcels and finds products missing just tell them you returned it all. There is no way the warehouse staff or customer service can verify this. What do you think is going to happen? Company workers turn up at your door and want to look in your wardrobe? And the company has a six months return policy, meaning within six months you can return all items for a full refund. If you live in Europe or even the EU it can be done for up to two years total. If the company refuses to do so just threaten to sue in an official letter and they will have no choice other than to refund fully. If they don’t take them to court.
If they ban you after this, take them to court as you were only exercising your rights. And last but not least, do not pay full price for the clothes they make. If I remember correctly a shirt costs like 9 or 10 Dollars in the making but is being sold between 80 and 90 Dollars, British Pounds or any other currency. Just hit up customer service for an offer code. They HAVE to give one out. Don’t accept free postage only. Demand at least 10% off. The staff will gladly give it to you. After all, it is not their company.
So, the company in question is called “ C h a r l e s T y r w h i t t ”. This message goes out to Nick (founder and owner), as well as upper management (you know who you are): I AM FREE OF YOU!!! I AM GLAD I LEFT!!! I HOPE THE COMPANY GOES EXTINCT!!! And to anyone from their social media team who reads this: Go get a life and get a job at a different company.
PS: If you try to get a warrant to find out who I am by tracking down my IP address, I used a VPN. Good luck and Do widzenia.