Here we go. Walgreens, or Walgreens Boots Alliance, is hands down the worst company I've ever experienced. The lack of ethics going on behind closed doors is insane. I would not be surprised if this company goes down within the next 10 years as the signs of trouble are already there.
1. They show up at university job fairs begging college students who will be graduating soon to join their "internship" programs and trainee positions. Then they make them work all nights and weekends for an incredibly low wage, promising to promote them as soon as the program is over. No spoiler here, but it doesn't happen.
2. They claim to have an Open Door Policy. Again, no spoiler here, but this is not the case. I emailed a District Manger inquiring about my promotion only to have the private email that was supposed to stay between the two of us forwarded to the store manager I was working for at the time along with some nice commentary between old white guys.
3. They purposefully keep lower level minimum wage employees under full time so they don't have to offer them benefits. They'll deny this until their faces turn blue, but I had first had experience doing the schedule and having my store manager telling me to cut people left and right to cut their benefits.
4. If you're educated in any sense, you will be ahead of the pack. You will be smarter than 85% of the store managers in your district. They don't know what they're talking about. I don't know what they do at these meetings other than gossip and talk about target they'll never meet because they don't know how to run a business.
5. There is no connection between corporate and store positions. Corporate has no idea what happens in store. They come in, complain and expect things to change when people are running stores with 300 hours a week. The "expectations" are laughable, not just because they're not realistic, but also because you've got a bunch of uneducated people running your stores and on your leadership team.
6. District managers and store managers have an inflated sense of self. They really think they've made it or have some semblance of control over what happens with this place. They don't. Most of them do not have a business background and when push comes to shove have no idea how to actually impact any metrics. They still work nights, weekends, and holidays. This is retail life, but this place will own you.
7. Wasting your time here is not worth it. I worked in upper level management for three years, quit and am going back to school. I learned nothing here other than how to overwork myself and talk to people who are underpaid, overworked and lack job security.
8. It's all about who you know and who's behind you can kiss, for lack of a better term. I saw the son of a corporate member of leadership get shot through the ranks even though he could not run a store to save his life. He was given a nice, brand new spanking store in downtown Chicago because of who his father was, not what he could bring to the table. These kinds of politics are the reason Walgreens will not last.
