delivery driver

sales associate

delivery helper

chauffeur livreur

equipment operator

Brick

The Brick was honestly one of the worst employers I have ever worked for, and this is a tragedy as it had some of the best staff I've ever encountered.
There are three major flaws for how the company is run that makes it difficult for staff.

1. How they handle management
2. Bleak work life and growth potential
3. the company's priorities in general.

How They Handle Management
The company doesn't train it's management.Their training program teaches managers how to avoid HR issues and which metrics are most important for a store. But their MIT (manager-in-training) Program doesn't teach managers how to manage staff, how to make good schedules, how to leverage the skills and aptitudes of their staff, how to handle conflict and descalate scenarios.This lack of training combined with the company's insistence on hiring new management from outside sources leads to very motivated and well-intentioned professionals coming in with no knowledge of how to do their job, no network to lean on as they learn, and no proper training to help them develop the skills and knowledge required to effectively manage staff and their stores. I've seen this in more than half a dozen of the stores I worked in and the employees I worked with during those times. It leads to incredibly stressed management which leads to stressed staff and fostered a very unhealthy work environment for everyone.

Bleak Work Life and Growth Potential
Relating to the previous paragraph, the stressful work environment caused by management is only compounded by very poor compensation for the work employees do, from customer service to delivery drivers to sales staff. Overtime is encouraged but rarely paid out as stores are put on very strict budgets for staff, so rather than hire more staff they overwork the current staff. You won't be rewarded for your hard work either as the store managers themselves usually have little say over who their own management teams will be and corporate will send someone else down rather than give you a raise. Or you will be given more responsibilities and a new title, but no change in pay, or a change so small it hardly warrants the term "Raise". To top all of this off, the company itself realised that there's a threshold where they can continue to make profit despite low customer satisfaction. This leads to customers being distrustful and lots of very negative interactions with people you were trying to help. There is little to no framework for satisfyingly compensating customers for problems the company and staff are all aware of. The amount of times I told myself that even if I had known every single thing that was going to go wrong with a customer's order from the start. There is literally nothing I could have done to prevent any of it. This takes a serious mental toll on an individual as it's hard to take pride in work you do when you know the majority of interactions you're going to have will be overwhelmingly negative.


The Company's Priorities
Which leads to the final point, the company's priority is simply profit. They won't improve QA on shipping which leads to damaged products, they won't pay for better training for management, they won't pay for repair companies anymore and just throw cash at the customers instead when there is an issue. They won't give their employees anything beyond the most basic benefits. They won't pay for better quality products, or buy from better manufacturers. 

They will give sales people sales incentives with dozens of conditions
they will overwork their staff
high turnover is fine because quality of service isn't a priority
they won't give store managers the resources they need to succeed
they just need to operate
the only time corporate takes action is when sales of warranty and financing drop
sales of actual product dropping is acceptable
waves of negative reviews are fine
but if our warranty % on appliances drops below 25%. Time to seriously clamp down on a bunch of tired and stressed employees that've been with the company for decades.

I will never recommend the Brick to anyone as a workplace or as an employer. 

Incredible staff, constantly fighting against their own company to provide good customer service and a comfortable workplace is one of the most painful things to see and it's not worth the meager paycheque from a company that will never allow it's staff to feel like people and not stats on a worksheet. We had to pay for our own christmas parties. We held our own potlucks to celebrate good months. We tried to make work a home but that's not conducive to the quarterly profits.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The best part about working at The Brick was the leadership. I was genuinely given every opportunity and all the guidance I needed to become the best version of myself. The potential for growth and success in sales was limitless. By equipping myself with the knowledge and support offered by the incredible local owners—who weren’t just great leaders, but truly good, hardworking, community-driven people—I was able to earn some of the highest commissions and paychecks of my entire career. It was an amazing experience, and I miss it dearly.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Stressful? Honestly, not much. The environment at The Brick was supportive and well-managed. Occasionally, I'd encounter an unhappy customer, but in those instances, our management team was always ready to step in and provide exceptional customer service, ensuring the issue was resolved promptly.

There were also times when sales would slow down, which could be a bit stressful for someone like me who thrives on customer interaction and achieving sales goals. However, our proactive management team would offer insights into customer spending trends and assign us tasks to stay engaged. This approach not only kept us productive but also provided opportunities for learning and growth.

Overall, The Brick fostered a low-stress, high-support atmosphere that made it a truly enjoyable place to work.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment and culture at The Brick were truly exceptional. The leadership team fostered a supportive atmosphere where personal and professional growth were encouraged. I was provided with ample opportunities and guidance to excel in my role. The local owners were not only deeply involved but also genuinely good-hearted, hardworking, and community-driven individuals.

The Brick actively embraced diversity, hiring individuals from various backgrounds and ensuring everyone's beliefs and cultures were respected.
Even during challenging times, such as handling the occasional dissatisfied customer or experiencing slower sales days, the management team was proactive and supportive. They would step in to assist with customer issues and provide insights into sales trends, keeping us engaged and focused on continuous improvement.

Overall, The Brick cultivated a low-stress, high-support environment that made coming to work each day a pleasure. It was a place where I felt valued, motivated, and part of a community striving for excellence.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
A typical workday would start by arriving about 15 minutes before my shift. I’d head in, say hello to whoever was already there, and then we'd have a brief meeting with the boss to go over the day's expectations. This usually included updates like emails from head office, new promotions, and tips or tricks on new products. More often than not, these meetings would segue into some good laughs with the team before we got to work.

We’d get everything powered on and ready for the day, then unlock the doors for customers. There was a fair system in place for who would greet customers first, second, and so on throughout the day. We had adequate breaks, including lunch and bathroom breaks when needed.

Some days were busy, others slower. On slower days, we’d stay productive by putting out or removing sales tags, and rearranging furniture and appliances on the showroom floor to keep it looking fresh and engaging as new stock arrived.

At closing time, we’d power things down and lock up. The management team would handle the cash-outs.

Every single day working for this company in Brooks, Alberta was an absolute blast.

Working at the Brick is kind of surreal. If you're passable as an employee, don't messing things up too badly too often, and show up for your scheduled shifts, you're basically employed for life (at least in Ontario's Bricks anyways). But at the same time, so many employees are simply "passable" that if you show even a hint of intelligence or aptitude you get shoved into the management training programme and promises about your future get shoveled onto your lap. It feels pretty good for a while, but it rubs off quickly when you realize that management has no intention of doing better than yearly twenty cent raises and slashing hours when they screw the budget.

The people are usually nice enough, or at least fun enough that work isn't so bad. Nothing is exceptionally difficult, except some customers who either were promised something impossible or randomly decided the Brick would move heaven and earth to make their wildest fantasies come true. You'll never be punished for not being able to literally change the fabric of reality to make some of their wishes materialize, but neither will you get a pat on the back or a raise for making minor miracles happen. You'll get good stories to laugh about at least.

Management ranges from well-trained and thoughtful to bumbling and impossibly irrational. You'll get requests from one manager like "go help put that couch by that door," then three hours later when they leave another manager will come up and say "put that couch back, manager A had you construct a fire hazard." With customers, sometimes you'll answer the phone and be given fixable, approachable issues you can knock out in five—other times you'll be saddled with multi-week (or month) problems because some doorknob high up the food chain refuses to do their job, but also refuses to deal with the fallout (ie. getting screamed at by customers) so you get to be their fall guy. You'll also see some pretty astoundingly shady stuff happen. Usually those managers involved will get fired or put under a microscope for long enough to be fired later.

But it's fun when it's not stressful. You have to get used to being yelled at, or figure out coping mechanisms, because you will be yelled at eventually. Some dumb butt will eventually get you blamed or take some heat for their mistake even if you don't make any big/noticeable ones. Smaller stores have a good sense of community and supervisors or departmental managers generally are pretty easy going.

I worked here for almost 3 months never had a complaint from a customer on me was never brought into the office regarding poor performance had a meeting with management to see where we were at at about the two and a half months mark and at that time all that was mentioned to me was that I needed to take initiative to find out more of what hasn't been done in the office that day when I come in because I didn't start at the beginning of the day and that I needed to make sure that my notes were up to date after that meeting I did exactly what was asked of me then  two weeks after that I was fired when I asked for a reason I was told that I just wasn't a good fit the supervisor directly involved in my training was terrible she didn't train me for more than 2 days and the rest of the time she relied on the other staff working in customer service to train me and that was difficult because these other people have their own job to do it wasn't their responsibility to train it was the supervisors and in my opinion how well an employee is trained is directly a reflection of the quality of the supervisors ability to train they require you to take notes on all the different processes which I can understand it's a lot to remember make sense unfortunately they don't provide you with any notes or help you very much in creating these notes so how am I supposed to make notes on processes if I don't know what processes we do working at this location you weren't allowed to take a sick day unless somebody else in the office was willing to cover your shift otherwise you were told you had to come in sick I experienced four occasions where my supervisor got into an argument and started yelling with a customer and as an employee I saw a way to rectify the situation without fighting but was unable to say anything because this is supposed to be the supervisor dealing with this an example but not so much and definitely not in an appropriate manner I think that the store manager is not aware of poorly the training program is here because I think he's being fed what he wants to hear and he's not around or able to watch enough as he has his own work to do I actually feel sorry for him because he's a really nice person I do not recommend working here

If you're looking for a structured, fair and professional work environment, The Brick is NOT the place for you. Coming from a proper corporate setting, I was shocked at how disorganized, inefficient, and relaxed this company is—to the point where people waste time just to "be chill" while the few competent employees pick up all the slack with zero recognition.

Managers: The manager and director from my department Extended Warranty Benefit expect way too much from a few individuals while letting others do the bare minimum. Instead of holding everyone accountable, they dump extra responsibilities on whoever happens to be capable, effectively turning them into an unpaid supervisor. Worse, management doesn’t care about errors until they escalate into bigger issues. Since the change in manager in January 2024, things have only gotten worse, and it's just so frustrating. And guess who gets stuck fixing the mess? Not the people who caused the problem, not even the manager, but the one person who actually knows what they’re doing.

Co-workers: Since there's zero accountability, most employees take advantage of the relaxed environment. People are on their phones or frequently inactive during their work, often leaving the work to pile up. Mistakes are frequent, yet nobody takes ownership or even catches them, meaning the rare competent employee is left to clean up other people’s messes—again, without recognition or support.

Benefits: For the amount of work I had to take on, the pay was laughably low. Even their "benefits" are cheap and barely worth mentioning. If you're looking for fair compensation and proper rewards for your effort, look elsewhere.

If you're the one who takes work seriously, unless you enjoy being overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated, The Brick is not worth your time. If you're unlucky enough to be competent, you’ll be expected to handle everything while those around you coast by. This is a job for those who want to get paid minimum for doing the bare minimum—not for those who actually take pride in their work. Bring your education and your effort elsewhere.

A typical day at the job is fun and competitive. You get to learn a lot from the experience as you talk to many people everyday and constantly improve your communication skills. You get to learn a lot about the products which can be helpful when you want to get something for yourself. The benefits and pay are also decent if you work hard and know how to sell. Work can be very fast paced and stressful on busy days especially during big sale periods but switches to very slow and boring during other times when only a few customers show up the whole day. A good thing is that you can sit on sofas or beds when you take a break.
The pros however end there as everything else about the place is toxic. The management is not supportive and pushes you to meet crazy sales targets which provide no benefit to you as the work is commission based. They expect you to do many tasks around the store everyday such as cleaning the store which would at times include picking up dozens of vases and cleaning under them, moving furniture, changing dozens of price tags which can be tedious and repetitive. What makes it worse is that you do this for hours everyday but you aren't getting paid for any of it since the only way you get paid is by making sales to customers. 
The workplace culture is fun but the managers try to control everything you do. You need to depend a lot on the merchandisers and Customer service so if you don't have a good relationship with them or they are having a bad day it can make your job difficult. Overall a good learning experience but wouldn't recommend anyone to work there since management does not appreciate your work or time.

Typical day: customer complaints, ordering furniture for store and ensuring floor was decorated according to CORE, inventory management, training of staff, reviewing daily, weekly and monthly operations reports, budget management and P&L variance accountability, payroll, recruiting/job posting/interviews/training, disciplinary action and performance management.

Learned:  I learned a lot about furniture (fabrics, materials, quality), store decoration, P&L variance explanations, inventory management.

Management:  High turnover of management and staff.   Succession planning almost non existent, not always the best people for the job were promoted (sometimes seniority was the key factor, not necessarily the skill set, several bad fits for the stores that resulted in higher turnover).

Co-workers:  A mix of teenagers to middle age in various positions and several ethnic backgrounds. Communication was sometimes difficult due to language barriers, age and culture differences.  I had to step in often to resolve conflicts with employees and customers.

Hardest part of job:  high turnover due for the most part to low wages and hard physical work and customer complaints.  It was sometimes difficult to keep my cool with screaming customers who were abusive and completely unreasonable in their demands.

Most enjoyable:  Variety of responsibilities, from HR to inventory to store decoration, customer service, payroll, budget management.  Every day was different.  Also worked at all 4 Brick locations in Calgary.  Opened brand new store in Beacon Hill.

Customer service job was a mixed bag. I worked at a very small store downtown so there was no structure within the store nor any concrete "job descriptions" for my or my coworkers. No one -including management- drew a clear line which duties belonged to which person.
A typical day for me was to first open the store, then do the opening cash paperwork, confirm the deposit paperwork from the previous night etc.
What was next was to do inventory of all furniture and accessory items in the store and then usually answer customers' questions in the meantime.
Afterwards it was my responsibility to answer voicemails, phones, schedule deliveries, file all paperwork, and answer any customer inquiries at the front counter in person as well. I also sold furniture for the salespersons when we were too busy (without commision) and unboxed and built all accesories and furniture. I also wrapped furniture that was sold. So although there was a routine for what I was responsible for there was no structure for me in my position on any given day, and the salespersons also required my help for a lot of things day to day.
Busy location overall. One of the positive aspects I can mention is that because our store lacked structure I was able to run to get coffee or take my break when I would like -but most times still get called back to work from my break-
I wouldn't advise to work in a smaller location. But that's because I like a clear definition of what I'm responsible for. That way I can delegate what is not my job to the appropriate person and we can share the responsibility as a team.
The bigger stores with more staff may provide a more consistent work environment where equal work is shared.

Worked for a total of just over half-a-yea before my call-center (1 of 2 in the country) SHUT DOWN; absolutely no surprise..

Customers are likely to feel they've been cheated out of service, price and/or general product-quality. Constant reviews, business-reports, media-stories and even anti-Brick Facebook groups bring out the apparent opinion many share.

It took me 2-3 months in to realize it wasn't that well managed.. I would have left, but felt I could attempt to serve my customers fair and treat them with respect, and also contacted head-office/higher authorities on multiple occasions, skipping over my immediate supervisors as to avoid a run-around. Even while being praised for my perspective and striving to save both the business and customers, nothing ever happened (in terms of advancements, recognition, or even thank yous). As somebody who studies EQ of business and branding, I at least had a strong contrast to compare AGAINST what one should do to become successful.

Many complaints and experiences led me eventually advise NOT to buy from The BRICK, which again, highlights the incapability of standing behind a product/company you believe in. A terrible job-experience thankfully gave insight to a company as a whole that lacks essential leadership in today's growing age.

The BRICK runs a sprint, and not a marathon when it comes to their brand and how they treat their customers (as a company across Canada).

I worked for the Brick for a while, the people I worked with were mostly all really friendly, and talented. I witnessed extremely skilled sales people, and had the opportunity to learn from various different selling styles throughout the time I worked for the company. This job requires a lot of mental time dedicated towards ensuring all your customers needs are met, and teaches you to problem solve to achieve stats, and ignore moral ramifications. 

The managers at the location I worked at were all extremely passionate about their jobs, and worked hard to ensure their employees were mentally ready to address the tasks presented to their team. My coworkers all had independent reasons to succeed in their day to day work, and it motivated us all to work hard. However, various company changes subjected the salespeople to different types of work that may or may not have benefited them, or changed the day to day environment we were required to sell in. 

Top Job Titles	Average salary
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Chauffeur livreur 2 salaries reported	$21.00 per hour
Equipment operator 23 salaries reported	$17.63 per hour

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