Very poorly run - Store Manager Goodwill Employee Review

1.0
17 Sept 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Your customers leave happy. Especially if they are a low income family shopping for their children. It's a good feeling. Time off benefit was good.

Cons

Everything else. I was a store manager of Goodwill of the finger lakes in upstate New York. They really romance you to get you in and sell the organization to you more than the other way around. Very little support from the home office. Your people do insane amounts of work under a lot pressure for minimum wage while the CEO makes over $300k a year at a so called non profit organization. The retail staff at the main office is strictly amateur hour. District manager will not listen to anything you say and always talks over you. There is never any communication between people at the office and nobody ever had any idea what anyone else is doing. They plead poverty all the time yet spend tons of money on ridiculous things like donation centers that get 20 donations a week. It's next to impossible to get anything at your store fixed if there is a maintenance issue.

Explore other reviews about Goodwill

5.0
4 Mar 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Tuition reimbursement Fairly flexible schedule

Cons

Inequity Low pay Lots of miscommunication

3.0
28 Apr 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I enjoyed my customer service work - helping people as a part of a larger mission to help the community. I found it rewarding to advance to supervisor and pick up new skills and responsibilities such as safety auditing and supply management. And of course it was always interesting to sort all the interesting and unique donated goods.

Cons

A change in management over the past year+ has been very difficult for me. I found my work more heavily scrutinized and criticized in ways that felt unclear and unfair. The new manager had a clear bias towards certain employees, gossiped openly and loudly and often with explicit HIPAA violations, and made it literally impossible for me to keep track of inventory supplies as a part of my responsibilities. Communication between management and associates - and even between management and supervisors is very poor. Workplace culture has seemed to shift from being very flexible and people-oriented to more stringent on policy and focused on revenue. Trust in upper management is strained. Day to day if you stick to your task and focus on production, you'll probably do well. But for me it isn't what it used to be.

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