The strangest and worst managed running store on the planet - Anonymous employee The Running Room Employee Review

Advice to new employees: do not work here in a full-time capacity. I spent a long time ruminating on what exactly I wanted to say about Running Room, and didn't come to any specific conclusions because there are more problems with this company than there are unsold copies of John Stanton's Family Fitness (in case you don't work at Running Room, there are approximately as many unsold copies of this book as there are stars in the known universe). The more deeply you involve yourself with running room, the more apparent these problems become. Here are a few gigantic concerns that nearly every full-time employee I've spoken with has brought up: a) upper management doesn't care about you, and they don't care about your opinion, no matter how easily solvable the issue or how helpful the suggestion. b) the pay is really bad. Most managers make around $30k/year, and that's typically as high as people make it in the biz, regardless of their experience and/or years in the company. Bonuses (at least as long as I was working there) were given out only if a store made more than the previous year, which only happened in a fluke situation such as a nearby running store closing; and, if a store bonused at all, managers and assistant managers were the only ones who received the (small) bonuses, despite the contribution of many other employees. As for raises..."how about some free running room apparel instead?"(upper management literally provided this alternative to one of my friends who, shockingly, no longer works for running room) c) often, the flow of products abruptly dries up, and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. A lot of full-time employees come into their position thinking, "hey, here's something I can change: our store is never properly stocked on basic running store stuff, such as socks! I'll let them know!" Maybe you'll get that much needed sock shipment from time to time, but chances are very good that it had nothing to do with your frequent pestering and email spamming, and instead had more to do with the alignment of celestial bodies, and/or Jormungandr poisoning the land and sea thus signaling the end times and the buyers figured "why not?". The budget for purchasing items that is allocated for every store is razor thin. Upper management will tell you to, "just sell what you have!" and you'll say, "but wait, we had it, and then we sold it, so can we buy more?" and they'll reply, "just sell what you have!" and after a few more go-rounds you'll realize that, no, they're not going to get you more size large socks, even though it's easily fixable and people want them. (see a) for details). d) clinics provide outdated information to consumers and are a constant frustration for managers. e) no, you will not get a budget for run club. And yet, yes, you must build run club from the ground up. With no budget. NO MORE QUESTIONS. f) there's a fair amount of misogyny coming from upper management, and as far as I am aware, they effectively have no HR and no means to confront issues between employees. Let me repeat that. They've been in business since 1984 and have no means of dealing with the basic workplace issue of one employee harassing another employee (in the US, at least. I'm hoping this is different in Canada?). g) you, to upper management: "what are my job responsibilities?" UM: *shrug* "a little of this, a little of that." you, as a manager to UM: "what are my job responsibilities?" UM: "EVERYTHING." h) profits are down? It's YOUR fault! Why didn't you sell all of that product you didn't have and make all the necessary changes you weren't allowed to make? (but please don't leave!)