drains you - Floor Staff Crossroads Trading Employee Review

management micro manages everything. they put you through the ringer to see if you're able to multi task, and believe me you will be asked complete several tasks in one of the busiest stores i've ever worked in (and i worked in some major retail dept stores before) 90% of their inventory comes from the public, so the floor staff has to process clothes from the bin in addition to dealing with customers in fitting rooms. the store was very busy so while you're dealing with a pile of go backs from the fitting room, you're also dealing with a full bin of clothes that have to get processed fast. and you have to run these items out on the floor. fast. and you're doing this alone, by the way. because it's a small chain there's nowhere to hide in the store. management watches you like a hawk and has severe trust issues. even with long term employees. if they see you're not smiling for a few minutes they'll find a way to bring it up with you in one of their famed "check ins" in which they'll deem you unproductive and negative and really tear you down for the smallest of things. all because you showed you were tired or needed support. no matter how hard you work there will always be something they're critical of. when i was hired on it was so busy and our staff was short. on a saturday night we'd have 3 closing people, one being a manager (and they're never helpful in straightening the racks) so it was more like two people cleaning a store that looked like a bomb went off. they seem to reward people who do mediocre work so if you're actually going above and beyond and pushing yourself to the limit and actually efficient with finishing your tasks they'll take advantage and keep pushing until you've lost all sanity and wonder why you're doing all this for a measly min wage. if you're not a buyer you're not moving up. they threw a random title at me to do the mannequin displays at their store and process new merchandise, but really all it was is just extra work with no time to carry it out. i'd have to ring at register, while simultaneously checking in bags, showing people higher priced items, answering the phone while i'm doing a transaction, dress mannequins in between, and run to the fitting rooms because no one was scheduled to be there because all the employees available were buying. you're not allowed to just stand by the register so often times they'd have you do clothing markdowns even though the moment you step away from the register literally 5 seconds later a customer appears. it was hard to get anything done. you just tried to do it and hope you succeeded. every weekend in the summer felt like a black friday. non stop customers who demanded nordstrom like service and talked down to you. it was very hard to carry out your job with a smile because of how overwhelmed and overworked you are. i was hired part time but i was working close to 40 hours for over 6 months until i finally had to have a talk with my manager because i burned down. i left because the culture really turned vapid. because of our high turnover rate the great team we had when i first got hired on began to slowly wind down. one by one new employees came on who's idea of team work was mediocrity and gossip. people threw each other under the bus for no reason. you had to be careful who you talked to about anything. a simple casual statement of "i'm tired, last night was hard" resulted in your co-workers running to the back to tell management you're being negative. in which case they write you up and brand you as that for the rest of the time. you couldn't trust anyone and couldn't show your humanity. people snitched for no reason, just to make themselves look good. it was ridiculous and elementary and made the work environment toxic and threatening to work in. the store in the university district is more laid back and has a nicer culture so work there if you must.