Just don't take the job. In my experience, Card Factory is exploitative to it's workers. Have you ever watched a show called 'Super Store'? Card Factory is incredibly similar to Cloud 9.
I was on the management team at one of the stores and I can honestly say the only good thing about C.F. is the sales associates. The benefits suck, management are rude and unapproachable, the micromanaging especially from district employees and head office is ridiculous, pay is below average, bullying is common, it is not an lgbt safe space, not disability friendly, and honestly the list could go on.
One of my staff members went by they/them pronouns and had a neutral name they preferred to go by. C.F. and store management constantly referred to this employee by their dead name and by pronouns they don't identify with. They also have their dead name registered on the system and was refused a change to their preferred name yet I was allowed to have my nickname on the system.
I have disabilities and not once did I get help with it. I got belittled and threatened with contract termination for autistic behaviours and other physical disabilities that I cannot help, like struggling with communicating on the phone as I read lips or heavy lifting, which they were aware of prior to my job offer. This also seems to be a running theme for Card Factory as a quick Google search brings up current and previous lawsuits with disabled employees that got wrongfully fired.
I had to use the store system to ask to start an hour later for one shift 2 months in advance as I had a doctors appointment. My manager was incredibly annoyed by this and seemingly out of spite put me in to work an hour below my contract for that week stating an unavailable day is unpaid leave. It is not. I didn't work anywhere near full time so it should not lessen my pay for that week. It was only 1 hour that I asked for.
I needed to book 1 day off months in advance for a family occasion. As per my contract I went through the correct pathways on the app 'Metro Time' yet got denied. I got denied as, according to my manager and the official document that Card Factory have for all employees, unavailable days are reserved only for hospital appointments (that are not antenatal appointments), school meetings, parents evenings, school plays etc. Otherwise you need to book it as holiday, even if you only work 8 hours. This implies that only parents can use the unavailable days which is discrimination.
Something else Card Factory likes to do is send the loss prevention team to search employees in the most traumatising way they could think of.
If they have suspicions of an employee, other companies would send a loss prevention rep to the store while it's open to conduct audits and so on... Not Card Factory.
The Loss Prevention team will come at any time. If they are suspicious of you they can and have waited outside the store for you to leave, will approach you when you're OUTSIDE the store and off the clock to take your bag and search it... outside.
According to staff that this has happened to it is always two men that will approach you outside of your store to demand a bag search.
Now as a female that is disabled that is horrifying and is illegal. Apparently they won't approach you when it's night time and they will try and approach you when you're not alone but I don't know how true that is. I cannot fathom how C.F. think this is ok to do. It is incredibly scary to have two men approach you and demand your belongings. It's also incredibly triggering for anyone that has been assaulted.
By the way a "suspicious employee" is somebody that has done refunds, exchanges, voided transactions or items, stock take, inventory write offs or "wastage" and so on. In other words a suspicious employee is somebody that does their contracted jobs.
I had my shift clock in times changed on the system without my approval as sometimes I had to stay a little after the 15 minutes that they give you to count the safe, prepare the banking, count the tills, mop the store etc. Management altered my times with statements like "Clocked out late but finished at their scheduled time" and "clocked in but didn't work."
Shifts get changed without your approval. I had my shifts changed the night before and even the day of. If you can't do the shift change then you can have disciplinary action taken against you.
The training Card Factory gives you is dire. Not only is it filled with grammatical errors and incorrect information.. it doesn't teach you anything especially since they frequently change how they want things to be done without prior warning.
It's also, once again, not disability friendly.
This is tiny compared to the issues I see and have dealt with as an employee of Card Factory. I have worked for incredibly bad companies in the past and Card Factory is one of the worst.
If you do have your heart set on working there, please know your rights and join a union.
