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American Furniture Warehouse

This is a new location for this company and you would think that with a company that has been in business for several decades would have a pretty smooth roll-out when opening. For some reason it felt like a brand new company struggling to figure out who they are. They knew what they were supposed to do but not how to do it. They didn't even have critical supplies for the employees to use and were upset when things weren't getting done. They had plenty of other locations to model from but decided to try and figure it out on their own. It's as if the warehouse manager just threw away the manual and make it up as they went along. I was excited to get this job because I figured that this is an established company and things would be organized and we would have all that we needed to do a good job. The job listing had us believe that we would start at $18 per hour and a nice boost in pay after 90 days and some training. They tried a training program with no time to train and no real trainers and when most of us were finished they decided that they didn't want to raise our wages because they wanted to start over with a different training program that they hadn't even come up with and still hadn't by the time I left. They also operate like a union shop without the benefits of being in a union. They will change your schedule anytime they want and had the strictest safety rules that you can get. ( because they have self insured workers comp). There is a lot more that I could say about what this company got wrong but I'd probably run out of writing space. This could be a good place to work but this place needs a lot of work. That being said, there were a couple of managers who hadn't been ruined yet. The two different shop managers that I had, weren't bad but had to contend with the warehouse manager which wouldn't let them be great leaders. They both really tried helping me when I tried advocating for myself and my coworkers for better conditions (how naive of me) and were allowed to placate me (not others) a little so management didn't have to hear me whine anymore. Hopefully the one that is left doesn't fall to the dark side. 

My experience with management at this company was extremely disappointing. There is a significant disconnect between leadership and employees, and a noticeable lack of empathy or concern for employees’ personal well-being. If an issue does not directly impact management, it often feels as though you’re not treated with basic human consideration.

Management appeared to act without accountability while heavily micromanaging staff. I experienced what I believe was targeted disciplinary action, with write-ups based on exaggerated or inaccurately framed situations. When I attempted to express disagreement with the contents of a write-up, I was told my signature only confirmed I had read it—not that I agreed with its accuracy—leaving no room for my perspective.

There were instances of inconsistent enforcement of policies. For example, inappropriate behavior by management, such as a manager engaging in a personal relationship with a subordinate during work hours, went unaddressed, while others were scrutinized for far less.

Additionally, the use of surveillance footage seemed selective. Camera footage was readily pulled to justify write-ups, but when it could potentially support an employee’s side, access was conveniently unavailable.

Overall, the workplace culture was toxic and hostile, with little regard for employee morale or mental health. I would not recommend this job to others, as it left me feeling mentally exhausted and constantly on edge, fearing reprimand for even the smallest misstep.


A typical day as a Furniture Sales Consultant with AFW starts with a mandatory sales meeting which in my opinion could have been relegated to once a week on the weekends when the entire sales force was able to attend rather than repeating the same information four or five days in a row. The "management" team is pretty hands off. You do your job they pretty much leave you alone. With 70+ sales associates on the floor, you deal with many types of personalities who come from different backgrounds. Sometimes ethics is an issue. There isn't really any clear cut indication of what's wrong and what's right, so there is friction between coworkers and the management team seldom gets involved, sometimes making it uncomfortable. I've learned a lot about people, their buying habits. I've learned not only to what people are saying, but also what they're not saying. I've learned read body language and gestures. Hardest part of the job is trying to work with so many different personalities, both with clients as well as coworkers. My most favorite part of the job is being able to help people make their houses into homes. It was my duty as a Furniture Sales Consultant to inform and educate customers on the products based on their needs. I felt fulfilled helping families realize their plans for their homes.

I was a sales associate at AFW and didn't enjoy my job. When I woke up to go to work I would just dread the idea of my whole day. There is new management at AFW in Colorado Springs, and the new store manager is great and cares about all the employees. Your job is not worth anything to this company their idea is they can get anyone to do what you do. My stress level was always high trying to balance family and work was impossible. You can not get vacation time during any holiday season, so I was never able to visit my family outside of Colorado. I made good money at this job but, you do not get commission raises and the sales have been paid the same 4% for the last 25 years. Many employees feel that percentage should be raised to 5 or 6%. You are expected to be taken off of the sales floor to clean, answer phones, and do sales meetings. You do not get paid hourly for these duties. I expect that I have lost quite a bit of money because of these policies. Meetings were put in place to put people down and remind us of all the things we were doing wrong. All in all I feel like this job made me lose my mind and I was done with how AFW was run, and how repetative my day to day was. One thing I did like about my job was the company will back you up with the customers. Policies are placed everywhere on the sales floor and when customers try to argue those policies and ask for a manager they dont give in.

Overall, AFW is a decent place to work but the management does not do their jobs. They play favorites more often than should be allowed, and the favorite people are the only ones that ever get what they need/want and get away with way more than should ever be allowed. Most of the management that I came into contact with was pretty nice, but they are never really on the same page and it makes the store kind of inefficient when you have four managers all telling you different things. All the sales people want to do is sit around and gossip about each other, whine how they don't make enough money, and steal other people's sales. Out of about 50 sales associates, there's maybe five honest ones that have actual integrity. All they care about at the end of the day is their own paycheck, not how they just screwed somebody else out of their own money. This is a 100% commission sales job, so if somebody steals your sale, you don't get paid no matter how much work you put into it. And when it's brought up to management, there is usually nothing that gets done about it.

The days I spent here were great, but micromanager's really make it hard to be here at times, not to mention expect them to get stricter over time.
 Though favoritism does run rampant and you are expected to just sit silent about it. If you don't or point it out things will slowly become worse for you. 
Most of the time the days can go one of two ways fast paced and busy enough they go by fast or extremely slow and the hours just slowly pass by. The benefits were definitely great. 
I will say in no way are you to ever go past 40 hrs of work not even one second over 40 hrs they will get mad at you over that and then eventually write you up or fire you over any overtime (not joking) no matter what you have to make sure you are either 40 hours on the dot or under 40 hours they prefer under 40 hours.
Getting time off was a bit on the rougher side you have to make sure you are not trying to get time off as someone else cause if you are most likely you will be denied. That means even if someone can cover you or the way they treat you as replaceable they still can't give you the same day off as someone else that cause reasons. 
Overall though it is a good place to work but that depends on the position

I enjoyed working for the Company, when there was ethics, morals, and honesty, unfortunately it went away less the a year of opening, then the Company opens another  showroom, hires  a lot of  the younger generation, whom really does not care about ethic just a small paycheck. ( still living at home) gas money, but the people really trying to support their family can not. 
The Showrooms are a open floor concept not  a up system, so use your imagination! No common sense or respect for your Co-worker.
Management is terrible, if their not dating their Employees, their hiring their friends. 
72 - 75  sales representatives on the open sales floor every week-end, week-days  25-30 , when there is a down time you were required to clean , sometimes on hands and knees, they don't care as long as they look good! Usually 2 -4 managers on duty, by the end of the typical day, if your area of cleaning is not done to that managers liking (white glove) you could spend up to 1 1/2 hours later, please keep in mind you are commissioned not hourly! That would be the hardest part. 
The most enjoyable part of this job was the Customers, and if you got a good paycheck that would be nice.

AFW is a company that has successfully developed a niche market in the furniture industry, and has grown vastly over a short period of time to become a strong contender in the market. The company is lacking for new-aged management and business development, which will not hurt the company in terms of long term standing, but serve to limit its continued growth.
Many entry level employees are treated as disposable, incompetent, or irrelevant to company development. The company offers slightly higher wages than many of its competitors, but the training is lacking at best, and the advancement of employees is based primarily on personal preference and appeal from upper management, not on skills for the position.
Turn over rates in almost every department are steady, and many skilled leaders and knowledgeable employees have been denied advancement opportunities, so that other candidates with a personal appeal to the hiring manager could fill the position.

I worked 7am-3:30, Sunday through Thursday. As soon as I got into work, I had an assigned task to get furniture off of the show floor that were going out for deliveries that day. After that, I was to open up new merchandise that came down to our department that was to go out to the show floor. Our department worked as a team to get the merchandise out and built (if necessary) and placed on the floor. There was always joking around between the workers but it never held us up from doing the tasks needed to get done. The best part of the day was actually doing some of the floor moves that were needed to get done requested by the store manager and/or owner. It really made us work as a team and listen to each others ideas on what the best way to approach our task at hand and to understand how each other thought about solving problems. The hardest part of the job was doing some of the tasks knowing it was not going to work and having to do it anyway because at times, we had to put things back the way it was after doing the job. All in all, our manager worked well with the workers and made it fun and enjoyable to work for the company.

There is no typical day of work, your always having management on your case, because someone returned an item because it did not match their color in their room, or it was the wrong size, yes we the sales person forgot to read the customers mind, come on grow up, the customer still gets charged  for returning it(15%) . It is a up systems> customers go to who ever they would like to have them help them,  if they choose you , if you have to answer the phone or even turn around, your so called Co-Workers will approach your customer and when you return, the Co-Worker will tell you they worked with your guest a week ago, but when the customer approached you in the beginning they never asked for that Co-Worker, so there really is not a Typical day.
Management walks around taking picture of you and your area to make sure your not just standing around talking to your so called Co-Workers ,your suppose to be cleaning at all times when your not with a guest. The hardest part of a sales job is keeping Management away from you, if you can do that, you can actually make money. The most enjoyable time there is Friday's when you get paid.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Truck driver 6 salaries reported	$1,830 per week
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Local driver 10 salaries reported	$22.57 per hour
Warehouse associate 2 salaries reported	$19.50 per hour

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