A train wreck. That is it. That is this company. - Store Manager Jump Plus Employee Review

Oh god, This is going to be a long one. Bare with me. You'll want to read this. This company does not behave professionally or appropriately.. AT ALL. Experiences over the last 5-6 months, coupled with leadership’s glaring unwillingness to address key issues and individuals forced me to resign. Poor wages, uncompensated overtime, lack of sick days, fundamental inconsideration when it comes to employee work-life balance, unprofessional coaching and manipulation have led me to believe otherwise. I could no longer work for a company that clearly undervalues the worth of its employees and perpetuates a hostile work environment solely for their own gain. This company shows no trust in their employees. I have worked for multiple organizations of various sizes, and it has always been my experience that adversity and undesirable circumstances are handled in a cohesive, team-like manner where responsibility and blame are shared throughout the ranks. At Jump Plus, this is far from the case. Anything undesirable is made to be entirely your fault as an employee and this notion is brutally reinforced by everyone you report to. As someone who was taken on as the Store Manager after the company and store location endured a very devastating time, I worked my hardest to help keep the leaky ship that I inherited afloat. Instead of positive reinforcement and support, I routinely received negativity and passive aggression. Somehow when the dust settled, the circumstances were always made to be my fault. I was punished for situations out of my control. I endured emotional and physical stress. I worked through defamation online. I dealt with disgruntled past employees in store and online. I battled through the harassment. I was told on numerous occasions by my superiors, that it was taking me too long to hire, as if conjuring a suitable candidate was something that I could control. I worked tirelessly to staff these positions, however potential candidates routinely abandoned interviews, or interviewed poorly. They told me that the owners were unhappy with this and that I should just hire someone who seems okay and if they don’t work out, we can let them go as soon as we need too. Not only does this effect the livelihood of the new hires, the store’s culture and structure, it is unprofessional, expensive and ineffective overall. Point to note, this company WILL fire you without reason as “unfit culturally” if you not match their ridiculous values even once. Moving on, I was not given any autonomy to do what was best for my store. There was consistent interference stemming from a lack of trust and insistence to micromanage. Even letting someone go who is toxic to your store’s culture and productivity is opposed by individuals who have little exposure to the patterns of behaviour that manifest day in day out. Upper Management does not spend enough time in store for them to demand type of influence over these decisions. Also, they do not spend enough time, if at all, in store to score you for a bonus. Evaluate the bonus on RESULTS like every other tech retail chain, not if an email was responded to quick enough or if used your webcam WHILE on call. Moreover, I have dealt with manipulation, lies and overall indecency from upper management. I consistently felt bullied. Specifically one individual was consistently talking about how to act and behave around the owners, pressuring me to manufacture interactions that ensure his reputation is not damaged. He was manipulating my relationships to work in his favour. He very quickly casted me out of his ‘good graces’ when I began to demonstrate autonomy in my judgement and interactions, and began routinely punishing me financially by weighing in, entirely negatively, on a disproportionately subjective Monthly Bonus Score Card. It’s alarming that this is allowed and given the obvious lack of objectivity in the scorecard’s design, one can only suspect that these negative score card reviews are encouraged by upper management in an effort to preserve payroll dollars. I have been employed at multiple commissioned sales institutions, and Jump Plus has by far the most subjective basis for bonus evaluation. Why else would my superior, who hasn’t had a single real interaction with me in months, be entrusted to do the majority of my Scorecard evaluation? Unfortunately, these tactics directly oppose my personal philosophy, which advocates for a more realistic, developmental and sensitive approach. Not only is it unconscionable for me to work in such a hostile and passive aggressive environment, it is also physically and mentally debilitating to work under such stressful circumstances. An example of the hostile environment is a threat I received from my superior when I resisted writing up an employee for a situation that was clearly out of his control. I explained that this is a coaching opportunity for an otherwise stellar employee, to which I was told immediately that I will be written up if I fail to abide by his directive. This is an abusive display of power and a demonstration of the dynamic that was desired on his end. Upper Management, usually my superior (but this is a theme across upper management) also consistently watched cameras for ALL stores ALL day and took photos of employees, citing issues without context, trying to sabotage them. When upper management was made aware of this pattern of hostile and bully-like behaviours, they reduced it to a mere ‘coaching opportunity’, with no direct repercussions whatsoever. Given that there have been countless similar complaints about him in the past, including his own admission that managers have left because of his treatment of them, this is an unacceptable response by upper management. These issues, along with many others, were brought to the attention to of the HR department who proceeded to speak to the the owners regarding the concerns. They was explicitly shown the instances, and thoroughly debriefed on the unfair financial penalties that had taken place. Instead of regarding this as a serious concern, considering similar complaints were brought forth from another employees as well, they said it was just a good coaching opportunity and made no effort to try to make things right. Till this day, I have not heard from upper management to try and make things right. Why was I threatened with a warning documentation when I exercised my professional judgement to not write up one of my employees but my superior was not reprimanded at all for the laundry list of malicious actions? Speaking of productivity, they also fail to understand the workload of a front-line Store Manager and expect your presence on all video calls without fail, yet at the same time insist that the best place on the floor for a manager is the front of the store. And you’ll be penalized financially if you are on a call but your camera is turned off. At the same time, they expect results, they expect you to coach on the floor, expect you to be in full command of store operations and interactions while also consistently emailing head office and team members arbitrary updates to show you are engaged. This company demonstrates a sparsity in objectivity, professionalism and regard for employee engagement. The monthly bonus is based off metrics that are not at all quantitative. They are qualitative, based off the perspective of an absent and uninformed head office. They refuse to act on any important feedback given but act like they champion the opinions of their team. The consistent deflection and lack of ownership is baffling. The company works to manipulate employees to work in their favour for a couple of months, promising paradise and then instead, grossly underpays them and creates an uncomfortable, unhealthy work environment. They will suck you dry of anything they can. They’ll take your sanity. This low paying retail job is so not worth it. Please, do yourself a favour and do not waste your time. Work life balance is non existent for this company. Thank god I left sooner than later. I honestly gave Jump Plus it's fair shot and they did nothing to try and make things right.