associate

retail assistant manager

assistant store manager

reservation center associate

store manager

Penningtons

Depending on which location you were working at your first five minutes were spent going over what the deals/sales were in the store- sometimes this meant ignoring customers that were waiting in line but we'll get to that. This was such a helpful tool since sometimes you wouldn't be scheduled for a couple days at a time. Next the SFL (Sales Floor Leader) usually a manager, would tell you what you'd be doing or have to do during your shift. This could range from unboxing new stock, restocking the floor, cleaning, or sometimes all of the above. Depending on the week's hours you would usually be working with 1-2 other employees. 
When it came to breaks, it was so unorganized and made working the long 8-hour shifts even more dreadful. Half-hour breaks were given in order of who started first and sometimes they were given two hours into your shift. Fifteen-minute breaks were a luxury and you had to ask and give a reason why you "needed another break." But you could always catch the manager hanging out in the back after her thirty or just randomly throughout the day. 
Going back to the way customers were treated; it wasn't good. Now as the minimum wage employee, I tried to treat our customers with every ounce of respect in my body, along with most of the staff. But there were a few employees that tended to make them feel like less than, which in turn made them not want to come back or even worse return with a bone to pick. Diffusing the situations that were caused by other employees or the manager quickly became part of the job, and you tended to find yourself taking over when they first walked into the door. Fortunately, this led to close relationships with certain customers who could always count on you to help them with whatever they wanted from bra fits, to simply grabbing them the next size. 
I was happy to learn the ins and out of retail through this position and would've stayed if it wasn't for the way the manager ran the store- oh and the 50% of the clothing wasn't bad either... Penningtons is a great place to work if you're fashion-forward, with a big heart for women who sometimes don't know their worth.

I went out of my way to try harder all the time as they make you feel inferior, after a while I lost respect for the whole company. During “training” managers are friendly and cheerful. Once that time passed (training is slim to none, condescending or different based on manager/dsm) that’s when the real atmosphere sets in.

You get 15 min breaks but based on “company need”. You will get none while mgt sits in the back on their phone. 30 min lunch to yourself? No, managers constantly needing to have a “quick chat”. The company also expects you to constantly be logged into their teams chat to respond. What did and didn’t get done? Post about it etc. Even after you clock out.

Helping customers/coworkers feel confident was the absolute best part of the job. Met some lovely ladies in the body positive community also. Pennington’s being body inclusive and positive environment? Absolutely not. They like you to be covered and preferably with their clothes(mgrs and key holders persistently tell you to buy so they hit a quota per segment for a bonus only they may receive)

The company will rarely hire staff that are on the bigger scale of plus size as they said “usually they arent able to move as quickly for put aways or stock.” 
Thats awful, it should be reported right? 
Saying anything to the HR hotline that’s supposedly “confidential” will result in them relaying it to the dsm, who relays to the manager, who tells other workers. 

Penningtons in heartland mississauga is the worst place you could ever imagine working for. Management is the worst aspect, starting with the manager. She is not efficient, never wants to help associates in the store, always going out on smoke breaks in her car... for extended periods of time. Assistant manager is following the managers footsteps, they are often seen together chatting away in their cars and in the back room. Team lead loves to delegate and never do anything. Despite being late, always on her phone, not attending to her customers she is no good. She was promoted countless times for her behaviour which is surprising since management was never exactly happy with her. Instructing associates to do her work might just be her favorite thing to do. Doesn't do put backs or anything for that matter. Just hanging out the desk may be her favorite thing to do. The district manager is a nightmare, and the team is too afraid of her to get proper instructions or leadership. Reitman's is a company that uses their p/t associates on the front line to deal with their mess. Overall if you want your life to be a living **** work for them. You will enjoy their strange hours and countless on call shifts that people deliberately call in sick for.

Company gives less hours for the amount of tasks that have to be done. There is lots of expectations and all stores are at the same point for the performance evaluation, but every store has different traffic and its own issues. Even though that amount of tasks is not adequately matched to amount of hours, head managment team really agrees to give extra hours to stores to make sure team caches up. So there is lots of pressure on managment team , for people who cares it leads to choosing working overtime constantly to make sure store performes. Overall company pays attention on keeping a positive attitude, overcoming obstacles, helping managment team to manage ther team and time better, but because in retail customer is the most valuable asset, team has to prioritize customers at all times. That is why it is hard to balance tasking and customer service. So it is never ending battle. Value of the product can not cover customer service level that company expects from it's employees or amount of tasks to be done at the stated amount of hours. Overall workplace culture is very positive. The most enjoyable part of the job is that you are empovered by a higher managment and really appriciated when you perform. 

The lead and the manager helped me a lot to get on top of my tasks when I first started BUT they cut my hours drastically. I was only working 3 hours for the whole PAY PERIOD and I was in my second month of employment. Sometimes even an hour before my shift starts they would call me and tell me that they cut all of my hours for the day and possibly for the whole week. I was on top of my work each shift and finishing whatever task I had. The manager's excuse was that this location is in such a small town and little to no customers would show up, which is a little bit untrue as I have witnessed lots of busy days at this location during a busy season but still the maximum hours that I was getting was 9 per week and each shift would be 3 hours whereas my other coworkers would be getting lots of hours. Don't apply to this company if you don't want to go to work and two hours into your shift the manager lets you know that they cut your hours for the day and that you get to go home early, they would possibly also tell you that they cut your hours for the next two days.

Absolutely the worst company I've ever worked for. Upper management treats you like garbage HR could care less about their employees. The pay sucks for amount of work your required to do. In the course of my two year employment I went threw three managers because if you don't do everything they expect of you they write you up for it degrade you talk down to you not to mention the constant talking behind your back as well as talking about other employees. Upper management does not follow their own policies and procedures. HR is supposed to be there to support you and listen and enforce rules but they dont. They will push you out. The only good thing about it was my team. If your part time there will be times you won't have hours for 2 weeks too 2 months. They make hours and schedules and will cut your shift with very little notice. I was the team lead for a year and a half and made $1 more than a part time associate but was required to do a ton of stuff sometimes working 8/9 days straight. Would not recommend this company to anyone.

Working at Penningtons was a great first job experience. The staff were all very friendly and welcoming and the work was difficult but fair. A typical work day consisted of helping customers find the right outfits for them and then accessorizing what they had. Our policy was to dress our customers from the inside out, top to bottom. I quickly learned what I had to do and how to complete each task efficiently. The management was very friendly and she was not only the boss but also a friend to all of the staff members. The hardest part of the job was on our busiest days when there was no time to just stop and relax for even a second. It was especially difficult when an evening rush was unexpected and there were only two staff members present to help 30 customers. However, those days were always the most rewarding, especially seeing the smiles on customers faces when they found something that fit them perfectly and that they felt comfortable wearing.

There really isn’t a typical day in merchandising . Most days I was only ever allowed to unpack and set out stock . Reorganize stock rooms or storage , reset planograms, or work the desk . 
I learned that it is easier to listen to direct management , even if it is not allowing me to do my correct job description. Makes for a hostile work environment if your job goes against their wants . 
Management is given impossible goals with zero staff hours to actually fulfill them . So they are very stressed and in virtual meetings non stop . So not accessible or easily approached. 
Too many store managers with not enough workers. Making the culture difficult in the fact who does the dirty work ? Heirchy is heavily relied on. 
Hardest part of the job is the amount of theft and the situations it all leads to . 
Best part is the AMAZING  product Penn’s carries with good staff discounts . 

This is the most greedy company I have ever worked for. Head Office is so unrealistic with what they think the stores can achieve, especially with how little hours they allow. If you bring people in to get caught up on tasks you get in trouble for spending, but if things fall behind then you also get in trouble. You literally can never win. At store level it can be fun especially if you have a good team but upper management and head office make it almost unbearable. The communications that get sent to customers are confusing and we spend a lot of time explaining promotions and coupons to annoyed customers. Management pretty well never gets bonuses because they make the targets so high it's almost impossible to make it. They always want you to hire more people but you can't hire someone if all you can offer is 5 hours a week. 

If you enjoy being stressed, frustrated and overworked then this is the job for you!

I was in my first year of college when I started this job and worked here for about a year. The location I worked at went through 5 managers for the duration of my employment. The managers would all go through a period of extreme stress, then within the next weeks the district manager would come in and fire them.

One should not have been fired she was the best of all the managers we went through. She was charming, bubbly, always dressed up with hair and make-up done, sales were okay. It disgusted me how the company would just fire managers for poor sales. The store was obviously in a bad location. If you want to be a manager for Reitmans make sure you have good numbers its all they care about. 

The staff including upper management were very catty and immature, many of the girls would complain about one another. Stay out of it and you'll survive!

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Associate 37 salaries reported	$16.90 per hour
Retail assistant manager 11 salaries reported	$16.86 per hour
Assistant store manager 21 salaries reported	$46,488 per year
Reservation center associate 22 salaries reported	$17.17 per hour
Store manager 17 salaries reported	$57,100 per year

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