cashier

cook

pastry cook

superviseur

cash manager

The Sweet Potato

TSP has some great things going for it. Lots of freedom to be yourself, some great people to work with, discount on products for employees, some health insurance for full timers, and free samples. 

The bad stuff is really the toxic environment and it comes from top down. Management comes off as super apathetic.  Some terrible and mean managers that do not know how to communicate with people; they berate their employees over nothing. Supervisors that constantly complain but never take their complaints higher up, never do anything about it and instead continuously create a negative atmosphere. It's a horrible cycle. Upper management does not do enough to protect their workers (from horrible customers as well).  As long as the managers do the admin and money stuff right, they can get away with being horribly unprofessional. Really makes you feel disposable.

In general, managers do not do anything to mitigate conflict or encourage your hard work. You can work hard or barely work; it's not like it's going to affect your hourly wage or how you are treated. Supervisors are also highly unprofessional, never talk to the employee face to face or bring it to management, but constantly gossip. Serious lack of morale here. Constant cut backs because the store is constantly trying to expand and failing. Cutting breaks, cutting health insurance (and lying about it to boot), cutting staff once a year it seems. Huge turn over rate. 

There is no protocol for raises, annual check-ins/evaluations. You have to hunt your manager down and keep asking. If you are lucky you may get a raise, and depending on how the business is doing, you may walk away with a good raise. The wage used to be higher than other stores, but stagnates when the business isn't doing well, which has been for a while now. 

Oh and the washroom area constantly stinks. They can't even afford a cleaner.

I thoroughly enjoyed working at the sweet potato for the first few months. The coworkers, the customers, and the overall environment was nothing like I had experienced before. The Sweet Potato, in the beginning, was a very inclusive, community oriented environment in which employees could grown within the company. My critique is that the politics and blatant favouritism overshadowed employees work ethic and dedication to the company. I think that management can benefit from offering more positive reinforcements to hard working employees instead of constantly criticizing them. In addition, upper management needs to pay more attention to the other departments in the store not just the front end. The owners needs to address what happens within the kitchen department especially, as they seem to have more lenient rules then the rest of the store. There is one supervisor that I had witnessed bullying and spreading rumours about  his employees while disengaging from his work duties frequently which has never been addressed by anyone. I believe that the owners need to set a standard for ALL employees, staff, and management to follow and to avoid picking and choosing who is allowed to engage in certain rules based off of politics. The sweet potato’s treatment of the customers does not reflect their treatment of staff. Lastly, I believe that the current store manager is changing the environment from community oriented to ‘corporate’ which takes away the stores authenticity.

I worked at the potato for about a year. I started March of 2022 and did part time. I met some great people who made me feel welcome. MOST of the people in the grocery department were so funny and kind. I will miss them but the upper management was okay but kind of nonchalant. It took them months to help me get my employee insurance and I couldn't even use it because they were switching to another company. One of the older team leaders in my department was just idk kinda off. He said I did good work but would barely talk to me and whenever there was an "issue with our facing from last night" he'd just complain to other workers and then I'd end up hearing it later from my coworker. Like there's very choppy communication and that upsets me. Some other people in departments just had weird energy so I'd just keep to myself and do my job as best as I can. Most customers were sweet and I had some good conversations with them while helping them fine what they needed. Especially the instacart workers. I had a good time there until I was let go. They opened a new location in Bayview and invested a lot of money into the building but I heard now driving enough sales to pay their employees so idk much but yeah I was let go even though I was one of the better workers. 

The management team at this store is really dedicated to it's people. It invests in them and in my 2-year tenure I watched several colleagues who were committed grow in the company. They work hard to provide their employees with benefits (cycling incentive, discounts, free snacks, lunches) and they pay junior employees and management employees above starting wages at both competing stores and much larger stores.

They do have high expectations for you to run a department with full ownership over it. You're responsible for all the people, the sales, the margins, the waste. All of which is a tall order, and can be difficult if you are new to management and/or are in a new job. There is a hierarchy, which can strain relationships between junior staff and senior staff, and I know they try hard to bridge that gap, but would benefit from putting more effort into this area. 

I wouldn't have left this organization had it not been for a family decision to leave the city. I'm holding out for them one day expanding to the KW area as I would love to help them grow.

The Sweet Potato is a terrible place to work. What initially seemed like a positive place to work at, quickly revealed its negativity. Management is unappreciative, unhelpful and disrespectful. There are few staff members and a lot of work to do. Almost every day that I worked, 1-2 people called in sick in my department. I was frequently left alone to close and clean the front-end. Unfortunately, staff in other departments suffered the same fate. There is blatant favoritism and despite certain employees continuously bullying and belittling other team members, nothing is done. The only benefit for most staff is 10% off items that are not on sale; as The Sweet Potato is an organic grocery store with inflated prices, it doesn't help much. I would not recommend this employer to anybody.

My time at The Sweet Potato was a lot of fun. I worked as a grocery clerk for about 6 months and then the produce manager for over a year. 
It's a fast paced,  environment with a community feel, I always felt like I was a part of a team. 
As a side note... I worked here at the old location where  the store room was downstairs.  I've never been fitter in my life than when I was lugging  boxes up and down stairs!

Not what I had been promised in the beginning . Not supportive , not trained accordingly , not appreciated and not given the platform to be heard . I have tons of experience in this industry and the blatant lack of respect and dignity upper management has towards employees is the hardest pill to swallow . Lies will be spread about you.  You will be bullied .they will try and take advantage of your time as a salaried employee and not even honour time In leu . Most unprofessional environment I've had to work in 

I worked as a cashier (and demonstrator sometimes) for 12 months at the Sweet Potato and it was the best work adventure I ever had!
Everybody was so kind & caring; I had such a good time working at the Sweet Potato. I learned SO much… For the first time in my life I felt really safe at work. The respect and the care they diffuse gave me the smile I had everyday. For once, I feel that it was possible to be surrounded by good humans in a working environment. This is an amazing family and I am so so glad I had the opportunity to be part of it…

My experience at sweet potato has mostly been negative. Lots of broken promises. Communication with management is non existent and highly unapproachable. Opinions do not matter. Hours are irregular. A lot of back stabbing. Constantly under stress. Not a great place to work!!!

What is the best part of working at the company?
The coworkers were all very nice

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Dealing with customers for the most part

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Very good, everyone is very friendly

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Exhausting, but mostly because I’m out of shape

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Cashier 9 salaries reported	$17.60 per hour
Cook 5 salaries reported	$19.20 per hour
Pastry cook 2 salaries reported	$19.00 per hour
Superviseur 2 salaries reported	$22.00 per hour
Cash manager 2 salaries reported	$18.60 per hour

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