Avoid Customer Services - Customer Service IKEA Employee Review

Customer Services: • No communication between mangers • Constant management changes - worked there for over 3 years and I experienced a new manager each year • Will feel like school or a prison - constantly being watched if you go to the toilet without telling the manager or team leader even if you told the co-worker beside you, it doesn’t matter you will be taken aside and yelled at • Main entrance is hated by everyone and causes arguments as nobody wants to do it as it numbs your mind standing down there for an hour it is very boring, often co-workers will take you off 5-10 minutes late. However, if you work there long enough and you see the department for what it really is, you will end up liking main entrance and will want to go down there • Returns policy changes constantly this showed the issues between the management team as they would all disagree with each other and give different answers on how to deal with customers regarding the policy leaving you confused on what to advise the customer • Unhappy work environment, Co-workers hate their job, I have known co-workers cry (myself included) before their shift as the department does not feel like a nice place to work - very toxic environment mainly caused by the team leaders • If you decide to report the issues you have with the department nothing will get done as they do not care, they will pretend to care but they will do nothing about the issues you have - I made complaints numerous times with other coworkers who are also frustrated and it changed nothing even if you go above the manager to the Functional Manager or the HR department they do not care they will pretend everything is fine and will turn a blind eye to the problems even though they admit they know about them but they can’t do anything about it. The answer you will get from them is always the same, you will be told that “something is being done” but nothing will change • The support to deal with customers from your management team is non existent as they are hard to get ahold of as they seem to just disappear, one of the team leaders hates being on shop floor and will hide in the office all shift as she cannot be bothered to do her job, a coworker went in to the office to ask her to come out and help but she refused and asked the coworker to come to me instead even though I was busy trying to get the queue down and deal with my own customers • Linking to the above point you are expected to manage the department on your own (if you have been there a while) for example you will deal with the new starters and will have to pretend to be the manager for other co-workers when a customer wants a to speak to a higher up • The support staff role is a joke as there is no extra pay and you will get a lot of responsibilities put on you that should be done by the team leaders but because they are lazy, it becomes your job • Favouritism is definitely a thing, if you are not liked by the leaders you will know about it and you will get treated differently. If you are liked you will get benefits e.g. they will let you take longer breaks instead of the normal 20 minutes you can push it to 30 almost 45 (if you’re up there with them) Phone time is suddenly fine and they will not mind, shift changes will be done for you if you request it, you will not get file notes for being late for your shift, they will let you skip your main entrance hour and will put someone else on there and make an excuse as to why you aren’t on there and lastly they will offer you overtime first • If you are not liked they will openly bad mouth you in front of the team • You will be expected to do overtime and if you reject it they will treat you differently - act disappointed and they will not bother to offer you it again or will threaten you with removing it from you. • Overtime is very often taken away especially in September which makes it difficult for people and it will be blamed on the store being “over budget“ • Part time work only, it is very rare to get above 30 hours even then a 30 hour contract is rare most common is a 20 or a 16 • Quantity of staff over quality • Hires too many high school leavers who do not care about their work ethic and come to work to mess around and are disrespectful and selfish • False promises from leaders are given so often regarding your contract you can get an amazing review however, it will make no difference they will find some excuse to not bump your hours up for example we do not have the budget yet the company will brag that it has made the most money ever •Team leaders and some co-workers will time your breaks, toilet breaks and amount of returns done or time spent at the recovery window (place to hand in returned goods to the bargain corner/recovery team) • Hideous bright yellow outfit, must wear name badge even if you feel uncomfortable with wearing it as you don’t like customers addressing you by your name as it’s weird • Work 3/4 weekends, one weekend off a month • You have to book all your holiday a year in advance • Limited opportunity to advance in the customer services department, dead end job I hope my experience is of help to you, not all IKEA stores will be like this however, Ikea Birmingham is somewhere to avoid as it has been a bad experience for everyone, a lot of my friends and family who have worked there have had a bad experience and hated every second of it (some even worked on different departments and hated it) a lot of my friends who have left who were there for like 10 years feel like they waste all of their time working there so long and are upset that they didn’t leave sooner as it wasn’t worth it. I still have a few friends who work there and they are looking for jobs as their experience has just continued to get worse.