Best Buy

In 2016, and until before COVID, the environment was great.

I also worked at a different store from 2018 to 2021. The first location had a great environment.

• The people were cool.
• We received great accommodations.
• The benefits were nice.
• The PTO was, you know, decent and all.

In 2018, I transferred to a new store, and it was a different environment.

Still had a nice crowd, but there, and all, but different.

The full-time benefits were nice, and the salary was pretty good for retail management.

Good holiday pay practices and mental health resources.

I got to start therapy working here.

Tuition reimbursement is pretty good too.

Training is done in eLearnings, so you can learn a lot fast.

They handled COVID stuff alright, I guess?

When COVID hit, they started changing the way the company ran.

They furloughed lots of employees. When COVID hit, I was full-time and worked through it. Many of the part-time associates didn't come back.

Then they got rid of positions and fired and demoted a lot of full-time employees to hire a bunch of part-time positions instead. The amount of labor we were allowed to schedule was minimal, but the responsibilities increased.

The bonus structure changed, and people lost a lot of money. I understand that the new one made sense, but it wasn't properly communicated. We didn't know when or how much.

The communication from the top down was just horrible. It also became: sell total tech and credit cards, or you're fired.

At my specific location, treat your employees like people and don't take advantage of them. After I left my store, four managers followed and a ton of full-time employees. There's only the GM and ASM, some supervisors that are the same, everyone else is new. They can't keep locations staffed because the conditions are just poor and the environment was toxic. Hold people accountable and don't throw everything on a few responsible folks. Actually hold your supervisors accountable. There's no reason that managers who were there longer than me should have to have me show them so many things. All your supervisors should be trained, and the store managers and ASMs should know how to do those things as well.