Pros
There is nothing positive about this place.
Cons
From the surface as a customer, you don’t really realise the very real issues the retail assistants go through every single day. As I worked full time, it was more clear to me how much of a power dynamic there is at primark. The managers really do get a trip over telling you what to do even though they could easily do something themselves. They order you around like slaves and the moment they spot you talking to anyone they’re on you! They’d threaten you with disciplinary meetings when you just want the slightest bit of human contact because for the last four hours you’ve been losing your mind folding up shirts that get messed up the moment you turn your back. But the kick is when the managers would then have the nerve to stand on the shop floor, having conversations for at least half an hour at a time whilst watching you suffer. I wish I was joking. This happened every single day I worked there. It may sound like an overdramatic take, however when you’re actually there as an employee, your mind picks up on these things and it really does grind your gears how they’d treat their staff as children. You can’t do anything unless you ask the managers first. The managers do very little to show they even care about the well-being of their staff. When my colleague had covid, the managers kept harassing her to come in. How absurd is that? When I was feeling very unwell for a long period of time, they harassed me when I came back, stating that I took way too many days off and I explained I can’t help being unwell. Do you know what a few managers who I had back to work meetings with said to me? They turned around and stated how long they worked at primark for, and they have never take as many sick days off as I have. That absolutely boiled my blood because what has your medical history have to do with me? We aren’t the same. My body wasn’t susceptible to the torture it’s suddenly enduring. The managers don’t do half as much work as the retail assistant so it’s real rich hearing them gloat over there health; it’s completely unwarranted. Primark have zero sympathy for you if you’re unwell. They just expect you to come in every single shift, and if you have the nerve as to miss a single shift, they’d threaten you with more meetings if you don’t “get it together” even though illness is something you cannot control. Some people have lower immune systems, or are susceptible to becoming I’ll easily. Why harass your staff members about that? There are so many more things that honestly caused me to be depressed coming in every single day but I don’t think I can do my experience justice, and a lot of things I frankly don’t remember. The management really do take advantage of the fact that majority of the staff are young, they’re either in college or uni and they don’t really want to speak up or don’t bother because they just need the money. As someone who is neither of those, it makes me really upset that others are going to go through this system without anyone speaking against the management which is the number one problem in all of this.
