operations manager

zone leader

store director

assistant store manager

retail assistant manager

At Home The Home Decor Superstore

When I was first hired at At Home it really was a great place to work. I was in school, they were very flexible with working with my hours, and while the work was physically demanding, it was rewarding. The whole time I was working there, I was consistently towards the top in hours. I was averaging around 25 hours a week, which was perfect given my school schedule.

However, Management has always been a mixed bag. In the beginning, our Store Director and the Store Manager (who is still working there) we’re lazy and weren’t great leaders as well, which hurt the overall morale in the store. The ICM and the SOS (whom I reported directly to) while weren’t trained properly by the company (the SM and SD deemed it unnecessary), were great leaders and the morale in the back was always high. 

Around June/July of 2019, the SD had left for a higher paying job, the ICM had went on leave(she left because of a racially charged email that was sent by the old DM and had the SD and SM CC’d in the email, and neither of them did nothing about it) and would eventually resign from her post, and the SOS left because they wouldn’t give him the raise he deserved. Throughout the whole summer the store was in turmoil because there wasn’t a quality leader that was in there consistently to right the ship and start pushing the store in the right direction. 

At the end of September, the company brought in a new Store Director in hopes that she would be the change necessary for the store. When she came in, I was certainly looking forward to the hopeful change, as she gave me the responsibility of Assistant Supervisor for the warehouse, and gave me a raise. (as I was one of the lowest paid warehouse employees, and the new hires walking in the door we’re making $1.00 more an hour than I was) I was certainly behind her, as I wanted to do my part in getting the store going in the right direction. 

That soon changed though. A lot of employees let her know how we were unhappy with how we were being treated by management (which included the SM and some of the key holders) as they would constantly blame us for the poor conditions of the store. We tried telling her that we could only do so much regarding the store conditions, because our team wasn’t getting enough hours to condition the store, as well as unload and process multiple 56 foot trucks a week, with no room for the product on the sales floor. We would tell her how we needed the night crew to help us out a little by taking an available associate or manager and conditioning and recovering sections that needed the TLC. The problem was the SD was telling new hires for the front end that they didn’t have to condition, and when they were eventually told to condition, most would find places to hide for their shift so they wouldn’t have to do anything. (a makeshift employee bed was found in one of the rug pods)

An employee only meeting was held (which was about our surveys, which the Cherry Hill store had some of the lowest employee ratings in the company) and the back end expressed their concerns about how we didn’t appreciate how we were being treated. The SM the whole time was shaking his head, rolling his eyes, and showed such a lack of empathy towards us as a staff, and the SD thought the solution would be to have a rewards system of some sort (still hasn’t been installed, the meeting happened in November) and that would help morale in the store. As you can see though, we don’t want rewards, we want respect. Morale was down because there was zero respect from upper management towards the ops team. 

I started to see that the new management was the same as the old management then. At the beginning of December, they hired a new ICM (who is a personal friend of the SD of the Brick location) to be in charge of the back room and to be in charge of conditioning and creating space on the sales floor for us to put the product out. He made it clear to us how he was only going to stay in the stock room and run the truck, and said that he didn’t want to learn the sales floor. He said how he was very approachable and that he was always willing to work problems out. One day he yelled at me to stop talking while I was working and to focus solely on work, and I told him how that was fine, I just wanted him to let the other employees know the same message, because I knew that some of the team members that weren’t there were big talkers. The next day I got pulled into the office for a meeting and he was coming at me how I should never challenge his authority and that I need to be better.

Around January I was out on the sales floor with the ICM, the SOS, and another warehouse associate in the patio area setting the profile for the section. Throughout the day, the ICM was screaming and singing at the top of his lungs for a solid 2 hours to get under the SOS skin because they didn’t get along at all. Now while it wasn’t a smart retaliation, the SOS decided that he was going to sing at the top of his lungs to get under the ICM’s skin. The SOS then sang the words “two can play this game, I can sing right back to you” which then followed by the ICM saying on the sales floor while the store was open “You can meet me anywhere, anytime. I’ll be ready for you.” Now while there was unprofessional behavior by both parties, an open threat like that should never be tolerated and I refused to have any further interaction with him because I know longer felt safe or comfortable being in his presence. 

 Around the beginning of December, our new district manager came in, and said that it would be best to implement a rug department head. They would get guaranteed 30 hours a week, get paid like a key holder, and their sole task would be to maintain the rug department which is their best selling area. I volunteered myself for the position because I knew almost everything about the department, guaranteed 30 hours was great for school/work balance, and I would’ve received another raise. 

When I was finally placed in this position in the middle of January, the department was a complete mess. Rugs hadn’t been properly recovered since August. Most of the rugs in the pods were either sticking in the aisle, in the wrong aisle, or on the floor. The rugs on the wall were a complete mess, and most of the displays had to be changed so they could be up to date. 

My first project was to redo all of the rugs in the pods. I told her that this project was going to take me a while, because the conditions were that bad. Each pod (there are around 30 or so pods in the department) would take me about 3 hours each to properly complete, which would equate to 3 weeks to finish. My first week, I was given 18 hours in rugs, and I only worked 3 of them in rugs, the other 15 I spent my time putting out patio cushions. Week 2 came along, I got 20 hours, all spent in rugs. I was told by both the SD and the temporary SM (who will become the new Store Director in Princeton) that while it looked great, I was moving too slow and wasn’t meeting their minimum expectations. So I found out that the minimum expectations by them were to complete 3 pods per day (12 hours worth of work) in a 5 hour shift. So I told them that I’ll try my best but it’s going to be impossible to meet these expectations due to the conditions of each pod and how much I had to do to properly condition them. Towards the end of the week, one of the other back room employees, whom was eventually going to assist me in rugs, told me that he was told by management that once as I got through finishing the rugs, that they already told him that he was going to be put in charge of the department and that I was no longer going to be in charge. Obviously I was extremely upset and mad by these comments, because I was told I was doing a good job and that you could really see the difference.

When the schedule eventually came out on Friday, while I was told that I was doing a good job, I got 12 hours the next week. So the temporary SM asked me what was wrong, and I told him how I was extremely upset and felt disrespected for only getting 12 hours after being told I was doing a great job, and the person who was supposed to be helping me in the department got 30. He said and I quote “we can go the office and talk about it, I can tell you exactly why you only got 12 hours”. Now I’ve been with the company for 1 1/2 years, and the temporary SM who’s been at our store for 2 weeks said that in such a rude and disrespectful manner. I responded that I didn’t feel comfortable speaking to him, and that I wasn’t going to waste my time expressing my concerns, when their actions showed that they didn’t care about me. (I went in later that day with my 2 weeks notice)

As long as the current SD and SM (T.G. And B.C.) are the top 2 in that store with the ICM, that store will continue to be run poorly and the morale will stay bad, (18 people have quit under this regime because of them) because they do not respect associates and would rather lead from behind instead of leading from the front. 

I hope by explaining my experience at At Home, this would encourage you to look elsewhere for employment if I was you, because everyone deserves better than this place.

Management and the director is rude, they accuse, they antagonize, they threaten your job on a daily basis, they degrade and they belittle you every chance they get. They are never satisfied. I have two personal experiences that were just ultimately terrible experiences: one experience: a girl decided to talk badly about her friend who was our co-worker then came to me about it I ignored it she then went to her co-worker/friend and told her that I was the one talking bad about her (this I understand is an all workplaces is unnecessary drama) however, I feel like it was very poorly handled by management. Instead of handling it correctly and causing us to stay distance from each other my manager kept putting the girl in charge of me knowing she didn't like me causing animosity to say the least. I would always constantly get yelled at for not using not emptying the carts within 30 minutes, however, the reason why it took more than 15 minutes was because other people were not taking their carts out and putting things where they belonged they weren't conditioning so therefore it took longer for me to do my job professionally and appropriately and correctly to be able to move what they had done to put my stuff where it was supposed to go. I walked out yesterday after the director decided to pull me in her office over me contacting her after hearing that she was literally talking bad about me by another coworker over me accidentally taking a walkie-talkie home. I informed her that if she if it was really a big deal she could have called me and I could have brought it back immediately but I didn't think it was a big deal and I was coming back at 8:00 in the next morning anyways so I didn't think anything of it and I don't know closing routine because I've never closed somehow she managed to try and flip it all around on me and  that I was a reason for poor management, poor communication with management, and the reason why the managers have poor communication with each other. I was told that I bring animosity on myself when confronted about the situation because I go to another manager about something that one manager already asked me to do something I go to the other manager to confirm that I'm doing it correctly considering I was never trained just thrown out there and told to unload the carts. Wanted to ask for more training I was told that I had to learn on my own and to stop asking 50 questions a day. However, let me make this clear I did not ask the closest manager simply because I was being rude and trying to cause animosity I asked them because that manager is next to me she's closer while the other manager is all the way back in receiving unloading a truck now to me I think that all the managers should be on the same page regardless why else have walkie talkies needless to say I walked out after being implied that I was stupid "cause it just wasn't sinking in", as quoted by the director herself.  when it just wasn't sinking in to her that her management skills were seriously lacking for anybody that wants to work here I would suggest you to suggest that management reads one of two books that way they get a heads up when exactly what they're supposed to be doing it includes a job title "the yes, attitude", "leadership and motivation", both of these books explain the importance of your attitude how it reflects on other people as well as how you're supposed to act as a upper hand as management and or a director please read those books and educate yourselves because while you're telling people that they're stupid and you're implying that they're stupid. Oh and another thing management is not supposed to yell at you for communicating with them about your health related issues due to you calling out. And if you don't want to hear about those health-related issues don't state, "I'm nosy what's going on?".

Okay so for anyone else who looks at the reviews of a work place before working there, I suggest taking the ones with this store seriously unlike I did. I did not believe the reviews of the general work environment of this company, They are very accurate. As I said in the summary I have worked here for over six months and I know practically nothing and not because I was not trying to learn. You are only allowed one day of "actual training" and that is your orientation day, I myself did not get much of an orientation and I was stuck on register the entire day, mind you they knew that this was my first job. The online "training program" does not really explain anything that would be important during your first few weeks, for example I have been stuck on register several times now and I am only now finding out how the store card works. There are many things that I should have been told my first week that I am only finding out about now, for example I was not supposed to clock-out on my fifteen minute breaks. You are never given a monthly review about what you are doing good with and what you a lacking in, They never tell you if someone has complained about you for any reason, who complained about you or what they were complaining about (even though from my experience it is usually small stuff like asking for the time to many times) until you are basically scraping the bottom of the barrel. Also for some reason you are not allowed to ask other employees what they are being paid which I myself find odd. They are very passive-aggressive when it comes to your schedule and what they have you doing if they decide that you are not doing as well as they want you too. They are very finicky about their sort of unspoken in building rules regarding walkie-talkies which everyone is supposed to have on them at all times and scanners which most people are supposed to have on them at all times despite there being no where near enough of either one to go around. Talking to my fellow employees during my break is the most enjoyable part of my work day. Speaking of breaks you only get one a day no matter how many hours you are working and they go from 45 minutes to 15 minutes with the occasional five minute break if you need to use the restroom. To end this review the general environment is negative, managers can and will talk negatively about you behind your back without you really being allowed to say anything back to defend yourself, you are not given any oppertunities to learn how to do anything better or more efficiently or be a better employee and you receive very little relevant training. 

The only good thing about this job was some of the amazing customers that came in. Though every other aspect was horrible, you never had support from management or were ever even given good directions; they just expected you to figure out everything on your own with no explanation. Then, if you wanted to receive any small amount of praise for the job that you did, you would have to drag said manager over to even get a small fake “good job.” There are so many call-offs and even no-call no-shows that make the employees get screwed over because then no one wants to come in and either pick up the shift, which results in you staying late even when you were due to get off for your shift. But don’t think that the employees that continuously will call off or just not show up without warning will get disciplined in any way because these are the people that will get praised for the good job that they are doing, even when you are the person that when called says yes to coming in and does above and beyond on the task that you are given. Not only do you have your team members leaving early, being insanely late for their shift, or just not showing up at all, but you also have managers that leave hours before their scheduled time off or just leave with no warning to the other employees so when you are searching for them and calling for them, you have to find the one person that knows they left, figure out with others that they are gone, or go outside to the parking lot to see that their vehicle is no longer there. Another thing to expect from the management and employees is sheer laziness; you may be working like a crazy person, but just know when you see others, they will be barely giving the bare minimum or no effort at all, and you will just catch a group of them sitting around doing nothing. Even with all of that being said, the one enjoyable part of this job, especially because I had been there quite some time, is the few employees that are also like you, which, thank you to those two employees, made every day feel even the tiniest bit worth it and actually having your work recognized, making you feel like you’re doing a good job and making the work environment just a little bit more enjoyable. Everyone besides those two people, though, will just make you feel put down and like you are dirt on the bottom of their shoe, not making you feel appreciated and definitely not showing any praise for the hard work that you put in to making the store look organized and put together. There is so much more I could say about the work environment and the lack of support or appreciation. Good luck to any future employees and I hope you have a much better experience. 

The work environment is more of a warehouse retailer that specializes in home/outdoor decor, as our main duties is to stock and display most of the merchandise for the ease of customer shopping experience. We generally have little interaction with customers, meaning most of the crew will be moving bulk merchandise onto the sales floor, which could be anything from light weight to an large and heavy object. We will occasionally help find prices for customers, carry out a large merchandise to their car, and try to help find what they are looking for.

Management there is tight, as there is at least two to three managers on duty. There is a front end manger who usually cashiers and deals with customer complaints, a floor manager who usually attends to corporate orders and stock, and the general manager who has to deal with paper work. Other than that, corporate deals with all of the rules, hiring process, and punishment cases.

The hardest part about this job is their new employee probation policy that they place on all new hires for their first sixty days working there, and that is the clocking into work. This is how they lose lots of good and bad workers. They only allow a four minute window in which you can clock into work from the moment you are to be scheduled and returning from breaks and lunches. For example if you are scheduled to work at 2PM, you can clock in up to five minutes earlier, however they don't encourage this, meaning 1:55PM until 2:04PM giving you a nine minute window clock into work. Even one minute more will put you into work termination unless management tries to fight for your job. The only way to avoid termination from being late is prior notice, but they need notices two hours before your shift begins. They encourage you to arrive to work early for this reason, but due to their location, their is current road construction nearby as well many other business around that will affect traffic there. I was late four minutes due to traffic despite leaving earlier, and was notified later that week of my termination.

The work there is quite easy, but I wouldn't recommend this job to any person(s) with back problems, joint pains, or people who can't stand on their feet for too long, as there are lots of heavy lifting depending on corporate orders or what is to be stocked that day. Other than that, the easiest and part is probably cashiering as you mainly stay upfront ringing customers up and just doing very light weight work. Other than that everything else is quite easy with decent pay.

I started as a cashier when the store opened but changed to Freight.  I did not like cashiering-the register to me was not real user friendly.  I was there 5 months.  I'm glad we had boys to help lift couches, chairs, Christmas trees and other heavy things up high. It was hard work stocking merchandise.  We took pallets out onto the floor to unbox, putting together chairs, stocking everything that was unboxed.  We had a quota to meet every day-we had to get so many pallets out. Some days we couldn't meet that.  Our freight manager was really nice-she would bring donuts to show her appreciation. Over time it was clear the store manager favored the boys giving them more hours. He did not show employee appreciation often. We always got the 'work faster' speech with him. I hear he was fired. Asst manager was really nice and always helpful.  We each were given a designated area of the store to sweep because the company does not hire a cleaning company. If cashiers were short, we were called to come cashier.  Cashiers also have to clean the bathrooms, take out trash, given pallets to unbox and walk the store straightening shelves etc at the end of the day.  I was used to straightening up from previous jobs, some people slacked and just walked around not touching anything. There was usually only 3 people closing. The store was an old Target store attached to the mall. The mall closed at 9, but we closed at 10:00. It was usually pretty dead after 9:00 pm.

The majority of the people working there were very nice. Cashiers would call in often. I was looking for full time when I applied. Disappointed when that was not an option. Being part time, there were no benefits. The only full time employees are management and department heads.  I left when I found a full time job with benefits. 

As far as merchandise-I think corporate buyers need to concentrate more on what will sell for this area.  We had a lot of home decor that just sat on the shelves for months. It never went on sale to get rid of it.  The company didn't seem real organized to me. We were having trouble changing deductions on the company website and we couldn't print out the form to fax or mail in. Store manager could not figure out how to fix that problem. Hopefully it's been fixed by now.

0 job satisfaction.  Way too much product that does not sell sent by corporate to cram into spaces with 0 negative space, and no matter how great a job you do making it fit, corporate sends complaints constantly for daily meeting announcements and ignore the positive. I have never once heard that anyone from corporate complimented anything about the store even though it is a very successful location due to the extremely hard work of the mid-management and team members . There are daily audits that must be sent to corporate and I personally have never seen any recognition by the company for a job well done given to ANYONE, even though at the end of the day every single worker goes home completely exhausted and overworked. The verbiage on the personal schedule is cold and unfeeling because if you are one minute late, you have a big! And perfect attendance ruined even though you might clock in every single day at least 15 minutes early to go to meetings before shift. You might stay on days 15 minutes later to make sure customers are taken care of but that is not reflected as a good job or an exclamation point when you look at your attendance sheet. It makes a person feel discouraged. The job duties for each position are outrageously over extended daily, and most people feel stretched way too thin. People quit left and right because it is a very unfulfilling, exhausting,  ever changing and thankless job . I've personally never worked anywhere that feels less appreciative for daily tasks done very well everyday..The upper mid management are very appreciative, but corporate seems to always find a reason to complain, audit, and push harder. They lose so many great employees because they just don't recognize what they have. 

I love working here.  You stay going . There is always I mean always something to do.  Only place I ever worked where all the employees get along. And there is no thefts.   First place I have ever worked where u can leave ur purse open and out on the table all day and no one will touch it.    Could be the pay be better yes.  And it does get better.  Do your job help raise sales and credit cards keep the store clean . Inventory time long as u got your I's dotted and your T's crossed make sure you have a good inventory.  Money goes up.   People can't complain to much that just started and only been there a few months.  They knew what the pay was when they got hired.    But it's a good store.  I love all our managers.    A+ to them especially the two store managers. People don't realize how much weight they carry.  How many people is breathing down there backs with stuff to do and customers complaining and people over head saying u did this wrong or that. 
I want these changed by Friday and its already Wednesday.    So people just need to stop and think about all that.   As big as our store is and we are understaffed and all the demands and the holidays coming with all that our managers still hold it down.   Always try there best to work with you .  You just gotta open your mouth and speak .   They can't read ur mind.   They don't yell at you or down grade ur work.  They give u directions. Check on you but let u do ur job always asking if your ok .  And with everything on there shoulders they still smile and treat you look Like  family .     Great place to work.   But if you DONT LIKE FAST PACE ALWAYS GOING WHERE YOU ACTUALLY HAVE TO WORK   this is not the place for you.   YOU SHOULD AT NO TIME BE JUST STANDING AROUND NO MATTER WHAT DEPARTMENT YOUR IN  even cashiers you don't have any customers clean the check lane.  Work on the go backs that is right there at the front like in decor.  Put all the go backs away for check lane. Don't put them in a buggy for someone else to put away. There ridiculous.   The registers don't need to be held down so you don't need to stand there .   A whole lot can be done in that 5 mins you have before the next customer.     OVER ALL 100%. I LOVE THIS STORE.  Are we perfect??? Heck no but what place is

Welp, what can I say. Working at this job has been the most excruciating, brain aching job of my life. For the interview everything felt too good to be true, that should have been my first tell-tale sign of bad management. I signed on with the promise of quarterly bonuses and a yearly bonus. (Which turned out to be $10.00 BEFORE taxes. Yeah, some bonus that was cut out to be.) 

I was told so many wonderful and amazing things. 

Things started off great, but then down spiraled right after that. For one, there are WAY too many managers. I think currently there are 11. You don't need that many managers, none of them even effectively do their job. 

They all sit and gossip in the back office about everyone else and customers, all while adding nothing valuable to the company. Seriously, this particular At Home needs an entire restructure and demotion. I have left knowing far too much about managers businesses, friendly small talk is fine, but when they get into the schematics of the company and the SD's problems, ICM's problems. Too much drama trickles down to the subordinates. 
Nothing should be trickling down to us, I don't want to hear about another manager's problems from a different manager. Nor do I want to hear about a manager complaining about me and trying to start drama behind my own back. 
This company is a mess. They underpay longtime loyal employees who have been with the company in forever and overpay new hires, all while refusing to even give a $1 raise while a new hire fresh out of high school makes $3.50 more. This company is the very definition of toxic relationship, constantly promising they will buy drinks, lunch, dessert if we do so and so. Never once has a manager followed up with their promise. 

The work conditions to which I was placed under was far from ethic. This store needs therapy. Whatever you do, do not work for this company until they have an entirely new management team. I can promise you it won't and will not ever get any better. 



Good for someone starting out of high school or in college if you work in the back room or as a cashier. The jobs pretty cut and dry you either help unload trucks and put merchandise out or you help ring a register or clean the store. Scheduling isn’t too bad for non management but the more set you want your schedule the less hours they will give you. Dayshift is way better than nights. Night shift it’s a manager or supervisor and like 2 or 3 other people besides yourself and they expect you to clean the whole store (which is the size of a warehouse) to hand off to the day shift. I honestly wouldn’t recommend being a supervisor, you do more work for $2 more, but no benefits unless you fight for them. Your hours are varied, sometimes you’ll work almost 40 hours a week sometimes you’ll work 20, but they expect open availability there used to be a work life balance, but now I don’t see it at all in the company. You also are responsible for doing a lot of things that are store managements job like pushing your associates to sell credit cards on the floor and completing deadlines. This company’s model is freight, merchandising, credit and loyalty, sales, then customer service in that order of priority. They also try to keep a small labor model as much as possible to cut costs, but since covid have tried to get more people in so they can receive government aide to keep stores afloat. This leads to so much turnover and barely any employee retention. I went thru 5 managers and 4 assistant managers in the course of 3 years there and more in lower management positions. If you want to use the experience as a supervisor to get your foot in the door in other retail management opportunities by all means, but I wouldn’t waste more than a year here in that position, you’ll just become overwhelmed and raises are non existent besides cost of living increases every year or so. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Operations manager 61 salaries reported	$53,480 per year
Zone leader 136 salaries reported	$18.05 per hour
Store director 32 salaries reported	$73,947 per year
Assistant store manager 14 salaries reported	$57,042 per year
Retail assistant manager 10 salaries reported	$16.50 per hour

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