"Some Good, Mainly Bad" - Retail Assistant
Pros
Primark is an ideal workplace for a young individual with little to no customer service or retail experience, like myself. The job throws you in the deep end and encourages you to take initiative, tackle new tasks and engage with customers kindly and confidently. The employees are some of the mst diverse workforce I've ever witnessed which I appreciated since most managers prefer to hire only white people. Also, it's very easy to advance from retail assistant to supervisor and eventually, manager if you're dedicated enough.
Cons
The managers and supervisors hardly acknowledge you after you become a "regular" i.e. you've been working there for more than 2 weeks. In my first week, I got put on the tills straight after my induction and recieved very brief training and had to learn through various mistakes with customers however, they didn't mind when I told them I was new. The employees and supervisors are clique-y and hang out in groups. They love to gossip about one another and pretend to like each other so I be sure not to let them know anything of my business. The supervisors even sometimes date and have inappropriate "flirtationships" with the people they work with which is extremely uncomfortable but no one says anything. What else? They pretty much bully you into doing overtime even if you genuinely can't and like to make you feel bad if you don't comply to extra hours. In addition, working at Primark means no discounts and somedays you come into work and are immediately told to do something you've never done before and they expect you to execute it perfectly.
