WHSmith Employee Reviews
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Everything done there is very efficient and they do what they can to manage their stores effectively, this may sound like a negative however management are very nice which makes the process 10 times easier and the job much more enjoyable
Pros
Friendly management
Underpaid, expected to work your fingers to the bone, don't care about your home life and expected to live and breath WHSmith. Underpaid and refuse to change your title so you won't get paid more even though you are doing more than others on a much larger salary.
Cons
underpaid
No support for AM, hardly no breaks. Expect you to run stores with no leaders. Worse experience I’ve had in a job, don’t bother. Am wasn’t helpful at all, offered no support or anything
Cons
Long hours, no breaks
After working for nearly 24 years I have learned lots of new skills and ways of working, as with all companies there are blips, but overall a good company to work for.
Pros
Working as a team, Discount
Cons
Can be hard work
The manager here was lovely and extremely helpful all of the time, I never felt as if I was abandoned if I didn't understand anything. All of the staff work well together and are polite and sweet characters. The salary was good for an 18-year-old wanting a part-time job.Some shady characters do enter but that is very few and far between the lovely older customers.The manager was very helpful when I needed to change shifts and offered me more when I wanted more.Not a great job if you don't want to be on your feet all day or suffer from back or leg issues.
Pros
nice environment, good staff.
Cons
long time standing
Management more concerned with presenting profits to shareholders than employee wellbeing. Yearly cuts which lead to little staff hours and huge workload. Employees are very friendly and collaborative as is needed which is a silver lining. No regard for safety of staff. Lone working in stores.
Pros
The staff
Cons
Out of touch management
It's an ok first job. My manager was great, I got trained properly and everyone I worked with was really friendly.However the pay is really bad for under 18s and definitely doesn't reflect the amount of work you actually end up doing. It's actually kind of funny how out of touch head office are with the shop floor, because often they make ridiculous decisions, and constantly remind you of how their staff is their number one priority (Even though it isn't).Staff benefits are pathetic, they just bring WH smith's absurdly high prices down to a normal level.In summary, its alright to start with but there's better jobs out there once you've got some experience
Pros
Management, Decently flexible hours as a weekend worker.
Cons
Trash pay, Bad staff benefits, Head office are out of touch.
Too many management with their own agenda. Some were ‘looking’ for ways to get rid of people. Long hours, heavy workload and no thanks or appreciation. Salary was diabolically low, for what was expected, whilst senior management were coining it.
Pros
None
Cons
Too stressful
After covid, the company got rid of my manager and supervisor. Leaving 5 staff to run the whole store. We were required to work alone and they ignored risks assessments of individuals who suffered with anxiety and still required them to lock up alone in the dark. The staff were getting paid minimum wage to run the store and do all the manager tasks. It’s so sad to see my amazing store turn into a mess, the staff have no respect for the company now and moral is low. I left after 5 years because I could not stand working on my own and expected to do a massive range of tasks in little time. It became a very stressful environment.
Pros
Great team
Cons
Working alone, minimum wage to act like a manager, stressful
Couldn't care less about staff well-being, gave almost 16 years of my working life to this company and got made redundant, was offered 18 hours per week on a trial basis for 4 weeks and my performance would be reviewed. Total insult so took redundancy.
Pros
None
Cons
Constant abuse from customers
I did enjoy my time working at whsmiths, i met and worked with some lovely people and are still friends now. I feel that staff are very under paid and very overworked and management is really poor :(
Always understaffed, no training given, health and safety totally ignored. Minimal breaks. No cleaners employed so toilets and kitchen dirty. No heating in staff areas, very dirty and scruffy, sometimes no toilet roll, no lights and no soap. Very stressful work as always running on half the staff you should have. Management clueless. Minimum wage for all staff Inc Post Office. Expected to work extra hours and have hours changed and added all the time.
Pros
None
Cons
No help or support, no training, awful conditions .
Have no consideration for the staff working there!!! 🤨Becoming lone manning which is bad for business as they close the store when you need to go to the toilet or on your lunch and therefore customers complain to you when its the companies fault. Bad management can hardly get hold of cluster managers. Unsafe for workers as they could have an accident out in the stockroom and there’s nobody to help them. Pay is rubbish for the amount of work they get you to do... Made redundant all decent managers and staff (which have years of experience) and used covid as the excuse for this...
Pros
some customers are nice
Cons
Lack of management and safety for staff
They were ok to work for and I always worked on my own and I enjoy it and helped serving customers and making sure the shop was tidy and clean for the next day
Pros
Meeting people
Cons
No social life
Was there for 2 yrs and was the most fun I had in any place of work. Yes a lot of workload but made the days go nice and quick. Always got an hours lunch most of the time, unless lost track of time.
Pros
Good staff discounts, staff all friendly
Cons
Sometimes too much workload
Management non existent, before all the managers were removed they did nothing anyway, they would sit in the office and not lift a finger all day, then pretend it was a hard day's work when you both knew it was you who did everything that day. No training what so ever and now that the company is lone working I never have a clue what I should or shouldn't be doing. Other staff are also not trained so lone working safety devices are often dead because the battery wasn't put on charge overnight. Meaning you're lone working with no safety if your life is at risk.I was made redundant at the start of lockdown (told on the day it was my last day) as they couldn't afford to keep staff on meaning I couldn't get any other work because no one was hiring. When I returned to work there (no one was taking me up on my applications) they have now removed the managers and we have a 'cluster leader' who is supposed to manage 5 different stores in the area. Rotas are never done, we're never told what days we're doing or what's going on, we have no idea what's happening about shops shutting on Thursday. The only training I was given to open up the shop was a piece of paper inside the shop with the instructions written down on them. I then had to teach myself how to open up, put the newspapers and magazines out all while trying to serve the public as they came through the door as there wasn't enough time to do it all before they opened. The company is in demise, they've been going under for years and each year they try to find new ways to save any money they can, meaning they've gotten rid of - more...
Pros
Shorter working hours means less time in this horrible work environment.
Cons
Poor management, Underpaid, No communication, No training, do more than paid to, constantly ask you to fill shifts even when specifically stated can't, Staff discount isn't worth having.
My store i worked in had wonderful staff but the company as a whole is awful! Minimum wage working isn’t worth your time when your shifts are 3.5 hours long and my pay had been messed up many times. There is not many benefits of working for such a huge company, just a normal discount that costumers get sometimes too (only 20% or so). There is a lack of communication between anyone higher up than the manager of your store too which isn’t helpful.
Pros
none
Cons
No change to progress into a better job
I worked for the company for 4 years and it was horrific. The company does not value its staff. When i first started i was on a 16 hour contract, but working close to 50 hours a week, without my consent. I was given about 2 hours of till training and then left on my own for the rest of time. Managment would get annoyed if I asked for help. I transfered store and it didnt make any difference. Over time more and more was dumped on me. By the time I left i was a Duty Manger, which i hadnt agreed too, i was still on minimum wage. I was working 40 plus hours a week, running the store alone with just 1 other staff member. The store manager was one of the worst people i have ever met. I left because of them and so did 6 other members off staff, across several store. and that is just what i know off. Complaints where filed against him and HO ignored. Avoid this company. Trust me, there is a reason they are always voted the worst cmpany to work for!
If you work here I seriously recommend writing down every hour that you work as well as joining a powerful union. They may well try and underpay you. The scrimping of the company management means it's barely possible to complete tasks as the right equipment is not there. You may well get zero hours of training even if you work in the post office. They will try and keep the heating/air con off even in extreme temperatures in a shocking display of tight fistedness. So please join a union and DO NOT LET THEM MESS YOU ABOUT . Might be worth recording all the bad stuff you face so you can inform head office if they ever try and get you in trouble for something that's not your fault. Also there's no disabled access to most buildings and the break rooms are slummy and ours has rats
Pros
Not too physically demanding
Cons
Rodents, third world working conditions, lack of training, aggressive customers, tightfistedness, poor management, minimum wage
Worked there for less than a year and couldn’t stand it any longer. One of the managers bullied a coworker into quitting (filmed them working, showed them the video on her phone and pointed out all the things they did “wrong”). Minimum pay for so much work like serving customers, lottery, stocking and reorganising the shelves, sweeping the floor and taking the bins out. Didn’t realise that I’d also be printing lottery tickets for customers and was giving very little training on it with no staff on tills with me which caused lots of mix ups and time wasted. Also wasn’t fully trained on till and had to learn on the job after being “pulled into the office” for a chat!! There’s also no chance for advancement. The hassle isn’t worth the pay at all.
Pros
nice uniform I suppose
Cons
Bias management, random shifts, supervisor doesn’t seem to care