Too Many Temporary Contracts
Pros
Easy to get a job with M&S as long as you pass through their online interview process. Interview slots are provided on a first-come-first-serve basis which is very fair. You get a discount card for yourself and vouchers for friends/family which is handy.
Cons
M&S has a good rep as a company, but from what I have seen they treat their employees very unfairly as they prefer to keep them on rolling temp contracts so that they are able to be used at M&S's leisure. This makes it difficult to book any time off whatsoever, as you are unable to book holidays in advance on a temporary contract and also do not even know if you will have a job after the contract period has finished. I had a 3-month, rolling, temporary contract which was very frustrating as I was unable to book any holidays in advance and had to work every single weekend. I was not the only one at my store in this situation either - most of the people I worked with were on temp contracts and there were very few permanent staff members outside of management. One coworker had been on a temp contract for >2 years with promise of a permanent contract coming up (I met up with the same person recently and they still have not been given a permanent job with M&S). I asked for 1 weekend off 5 months in advance and was told this would be fine (with the date noted down in a diary). 2 weeks beforehand I was told my holiday had not been noted anywhere and that I would have to take it unpaid. This was also brought up during my leaving interview, as they considered it 'unacceptable' that I had taken one weekend unpaid, even though I had given them plenty of notice and been OKed by management. They also gave no warning that my contract was not going to be extended - on my last shift I was simply called into an office for my leaving interview and that was that. Overall, I did not mind working for M&S as the job itself was not difficult, but they really need to get their priorities sorted out with how they treat their employees.
