Whilst Waitrose is a great company to work for, there are some negatives that you should be aware of before you apply to work here. Some of these are specific to my Branch (some are wider-reaching) and I am unaware if this goes on elsewhere, but if any of these comments concern you then I would urge you to bring them up in interview if you get the chance.
If you're a full-time Partner, your shifts will change every week. It is up to the Branch management to ensure your rota is up for a month in advance (warning: this never happens). You will be expected to work at pretty much any time of day, with some exceptions. The earliest you will have to work from is 5am, and the latest you will finish is 2am (the latter is very uncommon however- the latest regular time you will finish is 10pm). Shifts may be 4.75 hours to 9 hours long depending on how your branch distributes its working hours. Part time Partners have fixed shifts that do not change and won't be changed without your permission.
Waitrose recently had a complete overhaul of its operational structure, called "modern Waitrose". This new method of working was intended to create a more flexible and profitable working environmen in Branches, where fewer Partners would be better trained to do more jobs. In branches where the old system never previously existed (i.e. they were opened after the implementation of modern Waitrose), this system is said to work brilliantly, with far more full time Partners being employed and trained to do many different roles. However, in branches where the old system existed beforehand, there is very little support for the new system as it is seen as a burden on Partners who cannot (either due to restricted time or lack of want) train on other areas. This leads to a rigidity that is difficult to counter, especially since wage allowances were apparently cut due to the intention of decreasing the amount of Partners in a branch. What this creates is a branch stuck in limbo between old and new, with little direction, and a few Partners (mostly full timers) having to work extraordinarily hard just to see the store scrape by on a skeleton crew of relatively untrained Partners. This is the "understaffing" you may hear people complain about at Waitrose branches, and it is not just the fault of hiring managers in branches. It is a poorly rolled out overhaul that has resulted in some pretty catastrophic failures (that have been admitted to Partners by the Board of Directors). If you work here full time, be prepared to work hard, or be viewed as useless. This is not a cushy job, but personally I wouldn't want it to be.
Whilst Waitrose is a great company to work for, some of the managers are not. It would seem every branch has at least one awful manager that makes life hell for other managers and shop floor Partners alike. This is usually due to unchallenged laziness, a bullying management style or simply apathy. My advice would be to avoid this Partner/Partners like the plague. My particular branch has several of these individuals, all possessing characteristics as listed previously. This makes for an environment where it is very difficult to focus on one thing, as every manager has different priorities but unfortunately a similarly inflated ego. I would imagine that if your branch has strong senior management then this would be less of a problem.
"The Partnership" can be a very strange organisation, in that it almost seems like a cult on occasions. I once threatened to quit, and was bombarded with praise and good stories of the Partnership and its achievements, and subsequently convinced to stay. Many management Partners have been with the Partnership for decades, and I can see why. Waitrose is a great employer with fantastic benefits- but these go so far that it is possible to argue people get "trapped" in Waitrose. For managers, there is very generous pay and ample job security, meaning that if it is even only a temporary arrangement, it can be tempting to take on responsibilities such as a mortgage etc. that you can now afford. But if you come to want to leave, good luck finding somewhere else that pays as well for such good conditions. I imagine this can be very difficult for long serving Partners who feel a need to move on but cannot match their pay or benefits elsewhere.
It's also very difficult for Partners to be removed from their position due to poor performance. This can lead to prolific laziness that must be caught up on by those with a better work ethic- "flogging the winning horse" as it is sometimes called- can be commonplace in Waitrose branches.
It may seem that on the whole, there is more bad to say than good about Waitrose, but this could not be further from the truth. Waitrose is a great company and I would wholeheartedly recommend working for them, especially if you have aspirations for a career in retail. The point of my review is to (hopefully) give you a fully rounded account of what it's like to work in a Waitrose branch as a regular shop floor Partner.
