retail sales associate

cashier

production associate

sales associate

donation attendant

Goodwill Industries

This company and particular location doesn’t see employees as people , just bodies to keep the store running . Working at Goodwill was one of the most stressful and unappreciated jobs I’ve ever had. The higher-ups create problems, but store employees are the ones forced to deal with the consequences. They refuse to properly staff the stores, yet expect employees to handle the workload of multiple people with little to no appreciation or support.

Management prioritizes quotas and profits over employee well-being. Instead of addressing core issues like overwork, understaffing, and burnout, they intimidate employees into compliance. Speaking up about unfair conditions is met with guilt-tripping, dismissiveness, or outright hostility. I personally experienced managers who tried to manipulate, gaslight, and pressure employees into accepting poor treatment.

The toxic culture trickles down, with some managers enabling and participating in the guilt tactics. Employees are made to feel bad for taking breaks, calling out when genuinely sick or injured, or simply wanting to set boundaries. They push the idea that being overworked is normal, but in reality, it’s just exploitation disguised as dedication.

If you’re looking for a job that values you as a person, supports work-life balance, and treats employees with basic human respect, this is NOT the place. Unless Goodwill makes serious changes to how they treat their store employees, this cycle of high turnover and employee dissatisfaction will continue.
Would I recommend this job? Absolutely not. IN FACT RUN !!!! I Absolutely hated working here and every day of my life  was so miserable. Employees are constantly pushed to flood the sales floor with clothes, even when there’s nowhere to put them. We were expected to roll out 20+ racks a day, with 100+ pieces on each rack, even though the floor was already overcrowded. This made it difficult for customers to shop, led to clothes being constantly knocked onto the floor, and created an overwhelming mess.

And instead of management addressing this problem? They blame employees for not keeping up with store recovery, despite the fact that customers trash the store daily with no consequences. Clothes pile up on the floor because customers know they won’t be asked to pick up after themselves. When I suggested signs or announcements encouraging customers to respect the store, management flat-out refused, saying we weren’t allowed to say anything.

So instead, employees are expected to spend their entire shift cleaning up after grown adults while also meeting ridiculous production quotas. No matter how much effort we put into keeping the store tidy, it never mattered—because management refused to hold customers accountable.  shift leads is always responsible for doing everybody’s job NO MATTER WHAT .

Another huge problem with working at Goodwill is how the higher-ups treat store managers and shift leads. Every time my manager had a meeting with them, they would cuss at her, yell, and completely disregard her concerns—especially when she explained that we were understaffed and couldn’t meet the impossible quotas they were setting. Their response? “We don’t care.”

Instead of fixing the staffing issue, they pushed all the responsibility onto shift leads, forcing them to pick up the slack for missing employees—all without additional pay. Our store manager enabled this treatment, constantly telling us that her boss “wasn’t happy” with the store’s performance, no matter how hard we worked. The goalposts were always moving, and nothing was ever good enough. Every day, there were new rules, new expectations, and last-minute changes that we were just expected to keep up with, despite never being properly trained in the first place.

Exploitation Disguised as “Rewards”

One of the most insulting things they did was try to control how employees used their PTO. If another manager or shift lead had already requested time off, they would deny others the ability to take their earned PTO, using the excuse of being short-staffed. But the reality? They weren’t short on applicants—they just refused to hire people because they didn’t want to pay more employees.

And instead of offering raises, proper incentives, or fair treatment, they used food as a “reward” for meeting unrealistic quotas. But let’s be honest—pizza isn’t a reward when you’re overworked and underpaid. It’s shameful that they thought this was a fair trade for all the physical and mental stress we endured.

The Fitting Room Disaster & Endless Returns

Goodwill took away fitting rooms, making employees’ jobs even harder. Customers couldn’t try on clothes before purchasing, which led to tons of returns every single day. Shift leads were constantly being called to handle returns while also juggling production quotas. We had a “Code 11” system, which meant a cashier needed assistance with a return. I would get Code 11s every five minutes.

This constant back-and-forth made it impossible to focus on getting racks out on the floor—yet we still got yelled at, threatened with write-ups, and blamed for not meeting quotas. The truth is, the chaos was created by the higher-ups, yet they blamed store employees for their bad decisions.
Goodwill refuses to hire enough employees because they don’t want to pay fair wages, yet they expect their current workers to do the job of three people. They treat employees as disposable, unimportant, and easily replaceable. They create toxic, high-pressure environments, then wonder why turnover is so high.

The reality? They don’t want to fix the problems—they just want new people to exploit. Let’s talk about what Goodwill used to be and what it has become.

Goodwill once had a mission of giving back to the community, helping people in need, and providing affordable secondhand items to those who couldn’t afford retail prices. But now? It’s all about money.

Instead of staying true to their roots, they’ve shifted their focus entirely to quotas, sales goals, and profit margins. Employees are constantly pressured to push out more product, even when there’s no room on the sales floor, creating a cramped, chaotic shopping experience.

And the worst part? They continue to raise prices on donated goods. These are items given to them for free, yet they have the audacity to mark them up as if they were a high-end retailer. What used to be an affordable thrift store for low-income families has turned into a money-hungry business that prioritizes profit over people.

Goodwill no longer cares about the community, the employees, or the people they claim to serve. They only care about making more money while paying their workers as little as possible.

If you’re considering working here, don’t waste your time. If you’re considering shopping here, think twice about where your money is going. This is not the Goodwill it used to be.

Final Verdict: Not worth it.


Mix of both Goodwill of the Chesapeake and Goodwill of Greater Washington. First is mainly about the Chesapeake (Baltimore)

Goodwill disguises who they really are. Money is what drives them. They are so far in the negatives it’s not even funny. But who do they blame? The workers, including store management. One-day, upper management came/CEO, were supposed to help us, to see what it was like to work in their stores. Even They just stood around different spots in the warehouse/store to talk down about our store. Upper management was so disrespectful, an The CEO just exists. I remember one day this guy who comes to collect the e-commerce merchandise saying they fire them because they weren’t doing their job. I saw my store manager from last year cry because the sales director wrote her up for a poor reason; just like many other managers. You replaced these mangers with bad ones. Look at your stores, they are still failing. Obviously, it’s YOU. 

You will work very hard by doing multiple jobs with 0 recognition. I was a merchandising processor who was suppose to go through 8 gaylords a day. However, I was suppose to have someone run my items to the sales floor. Well, what upset me was having to do both and still make my goals. I would bust my butt everyday. For what? When people started getting fired and quitting, I was stuck doing donations and cashiering on top of that. Upper management does not care. Its also disgraceful how they fired one of my managers who worked hard for something that had happened 4 month prior. The reason was oblivious too. This manager gave poor customer service months before, so we fire you 4 months later. WOW.

HR is unhelpful. You’re on your own. The newest manager I had was the worst. She was ignorant and had a lack of knowledge for a store manager which was strange but that’s what they wanted in our store. She wanted us to schedule our lives around Goodwill, while she worked whenever because she was in school.  She talked a lot about following procedures and doing more when she lacked in both. I have never had a store manager that talked down to her mangers and associates. Never have I have a manager that would be on their personal phone for hours. A manager who leave the office door wide open when elsewhere, lets customers shop from the back and has a come and go schedule. (I really could not stand hearing her personal phone conversation, like seeing your boyfriend; you’re at work. Unprofessional.) I was in school at Goodwill for years and never had I been able to have my own schedule. HR wouldn’t even let me work under 40 hours even though it was still considered full-time. Oh, and one of my last check was short $100. 

My schedule was inconsistent. As soon as she came to our store she made assumptions and hastily changed our schedule. The new manager said she was trying to help the store and bring us closer together, but she pushed everyone away. She also lacked basic knowledge of the value of items. A customer complained an antique chair; priced at $20, was way to low. She even priced an item I said would sell at $50, she said it was too high and did $25. I changed it when she walked away, and it sold in 2 days. Yet a cheap cup or plate etc, she over priced and they would sit. You do not up price basic items and price high end low. Huh?  

She lied that she wasn’t clearing our store. I knew she was. When you know your manger could care less about you, that’s when you tell yourself is it worth it? It’s unfortunate the word “good” is in your company; very misleading. You have favorites and promote those favorites. Apparently, everything is the associates fault. Upper management can do no wrong. The dumping issue was crazy, but again, it’s our fault. The bathrooms are messy even though 20 customers may use it a day; again, our fault. Sales are down in the entire company; again, our fault. Get rid of the $600 pallet of Target and New goods. All those donations we get, why use people to price new stuff? People go to thrift store for used cheap/reasonably priced items. 

Its tough having almost 200+ car donations a day. The dumping issue was terrible to. Sometimes you tell a customer they can’t dump and they will say they do not care, or when you are not looking, they dump anyway. There is only one dumpster which most stores need. It’s says dumpers will be fined on the sign, but I do not think they do anything about it or it would not be so frequent. Oh, and those who donate and cut in front of people or park because they do not want to wait. It would annoy other customers because they waited in line but then someone goes right in front handing their stuff as they are of more importance; terrible. Customers have argued amongst each other. 

At the time, our backroom was unbearable but apparently it was our fault for the huge donation pile, even though TONS of stores were having the same issue. Goodwill was too cheap in supplying there stores with the boxes they need. Even with a pile outside; it was our fault. I even had stuff fall on me. Some customers refused to use our bathroom because it was way to cluttered. 

At the last meeting, the manager talked about getting more to the floor. All I could think about was if you were off your  phone, maybe you can put some stuff away? They increased customer discounts, then employees, but then took ours away. Wow, we sure felt valued. They even made it harder to move up in the company. 

At the DC Goodwill, some of the above happened, but not as bad. There was a lot of employee theft, untrusting employees, as well as very lazy ones. Both Goodwills hire poor employees. I was fortunate in Ellicott city at first because most of the other stores had lazy and unprofessional employees and management. 


What I liked:

It was diverse when I worked there. Different ages, shades and previous professions. It made it enjoyable. I also liked displaying items and pricing items at a good price so customers actually buy them.

Did not like:
Low pay, overworked, undervalued, lack in work life balance, uncaring and poor management 

I would pick Goodwill of Greater Washington over Goodwill Industries of the Chesapeake. If I had to. I would rather not work for either ever again.

Be ready to earn every little penny you get and dedicate your life to this job! Do not believe the job description because it is not even close to what you are going to be expected to do.(The weight restrictions are way off!) If you are not young and fit and cannot lift heavy bags, boxes, and furniture I do not recommend applying for this job. You will be lifting more than 40 pounds on a very regular basis. The job description does not mention unloading and unloading a truck but you are required to do so. You are required to help the truck driver load crates full of merchandise onto the truck.  In addition to this you are required to slide stacks of totes stacked at least 4 high from inside the donation center to the truck without a tote hook or wheels. The totes are supposed to weight 40 pounds are less but there are not enough totes and so the employees overfill them and exceed the weight limit on a daily basis. The donors do not care about your gender or age and expect you to unload their car or truck no matter how heavy they pack their boxes and bags of donations. If you refused to lift a box that weighs 80 pounds or more they will submit a complaint against you and say that you were lazy and refused to assist them. They go by what they see on the camera and there is no way for you to prove the weight of the heavy donation. You are required to wear very heavy and uncomfortable steal toe shoes. They will tell you that you are hired for only 20 hours a week and will only occasionally work 28 hours during busy season but this is not true.You will mostly work 30 hours a week and are subject to call in on your days off. You will have no life outside of this job because the Team Lead will call you in on your days off and constantly change your schedule so you have no idea when you are going to actually have a day off to yourself. Most days you will not get a break because you are required to keep the laundry carts empty and ready for a donor and it is entirely too busy to keep them empty ready so no break time at all. Most days I could not even go to the bathroom until I clocked out. If you take this job be prepared to work like a young male athlete because you will be lifting heavy boxes full of books, legos, heavy bags stuff full of shoes and clothes, and heavy furniture out of donors vehicles. Your age, gender, or disability status does not matter because you will be expected to lift, push, and pull heavy things all throughout your shift. Some donors are very nice while others will sit in their car on the cell phone and expect you to quickly lift heavy boxes out of vehicle and are not at all patient. If you are working someone you are considered to be lazy and unfit if you request help lifting heavy items. The Male attendants are quick to tell a female they do not belong there. However, if the job the description was accurate female applicants would know it is a job for a young athletic male. Trust me, you will earn your hourly pay working here. It is very hard work for very little pay and appreciation. The Team Lead will tell you that she is open to suggestions but do not believe her because I tried and was shut down very quickly. She will tell you to learn your job first before trying to tell her how to do hers. It could be a much nicer place to work if the lead and manager would actually listen to the attendants instead of being stubborn and close minded. I also think that the lead and management needs to supervise the donation center more because the attendants that have been working there for years are very hard on the new people. The place is run in a very stressful and chaotic manner. I think this is done intentionally by the older attendants to keep new people out and make themselves much more valuable and relevant. So this is not just a physically stressful job but also very mentally stressful.

Minimum Wage employer that will make you do the job of 5 people.
I left because they failed to disclose a COVID-19 outbreak at my location.

GoodWill of the Columbia Willamette like all other Goodwill's loves to advertise how they are non-profit and how they help and serve the community.  The truth is that while have have few services that do honestly provide some help they have become all about profit at the cost of their employee's labor.

If you are hired for what they call "Production" you are working in the back where donations are taken sifting through the donated items that come in huge bins. Several stations for clothing, 1 station for shoes, multiple stations for all household goods. Each subsection the company uses for what they sell has a "quota" for each day and a weekly "quota" of a  dollar amount you must reach. And the corporate office has set how much you should price items. Right down to the label/company name of product. 

Don't you dare over price things to meet your goal. You will be fired for it. But wait that's not all. As a bonus for working in Production you may at any time be told to stop what your doing and go work the "Donations Door" where you have to accept, sort by department, the donations coming in through the donations. While this may sound easy keep in mind how the average person loves to cram as much as possible into a box or plastic bag. Now imagine trying to lift that heavy box out of the donation cart that is below waist level.  And to top it all off this now means you are behind in meeting your quota for the day and get "coached" that you have to do better.

So you been hired to work as a Cashier. Congratulations you now run the entire public facing side of a store. You ring up customers, stock the merchandise coming out to the floor, clean the store, clean the bathrooms, clean the fitting rooms, check customers into and out of fitting rooms. Be sure to count the garments they are taking in to make sure they are not sneaking in a belt or shoes or a extra shirt to "steal". Yep Goodwill assumes that everyone is a criminal. Make sure you count those garments when they come out of the fitting room to make sure they brought out everything and didn't steal something. 

Oh and did I mention that even as a cashier you can and may well be asked to work at the donation door? In reality if your hired at Goodwill just expect you will have to work everywhere in the store at anytime. 

The success of each store depends on your Management team. And Goodwill does not let go of bad management. They don't get rid of bad employees. But HR loves to show up at your store to "coach" your store if it is not meeting goals. I worked at a location for nearly 4 yrs. And we were a family at that location. Even as Managers were shuffled in and out. (yes Goodwill is constantly shifting management to other stores to keep everyone on their toes) We had the good fortune that the managers they sent to our store cared and were great to work for. And then HR decided to close our store shortly after reopening from the pandemic. 

Cooperate will change the the rules on how to do things weekly only to change it back to the old way months later. There is no stability with this company. Things can change on your days off and you will not be told and then you will be reprimanded for it. And if you are a progressive modern person/personality DO NOT WORK HERE! Until July 2021 they did not allow colored hair (nature hairtones only), their employee handbook still states (nature hairtones only). They do not all piercings. Not even 1 face piercing. They technically don't allow tattoos, (cover them up) They do not allow cursing PERIOD not even the break room. And even though Mary Jane is now legal in our region they still drug test for it and now even are going to start random drug tests. During a time when they are hemorrhaging employees 

So you have decided to explore Goodwill Keystone Area (GWKA) as a possible career path and employer.  Congratulations on taking that first step to realizing the employer you once considered the worst place on Earth to work is actually a pretty ok place!  Let’s consider you have completed all of the “show pony” hoops of the interview process and an offer has been extended for you to become the next store manager!  With a confident answer of yes and the tsunami of a 2-week training process begins, I would like to offer you a few “do not ever” words of advice that may extend your time.  Of course this is not a complete list, but rather an introduction to the unique work culture that you have entered.  Regardless of the completion of the check list supplied, at the end of 2 weeks on the calendar you are expected to be fully trained and ready to transform your store into that beacon of saving grace that will offer a lifeboatlife boat an organization that once stood for integrity and stewardship to its community.
     You are going to hear the phrase “the first 90 days” a million times as it will be stressed how important this probationary period is because after that date “it becomes very difficult to get rid of an employee due to a lengthy disciplinary process!”  DO NOT EVER believe this statement.  Should the time come that your broken manager chair needs to be vacant, the offense you supposedly committed is a violation that warrants immediate termination.  Based upon their windows of transparency clause, this can be verified with the inauguration of a new C.E.O. November 2017, and the house cleaning that was performed in Dec. 2017, and January, February 2018.  With over 30 years combined service, in a matter of months 3 store managers are now without jobs.  I encourage you to walk-in  to that store as though every day is your day 89 because in essence, it is! 
     DO NOT EVER trust a regional district director who will not text and only converses with you on the phone.  This eliminates a paper trail of promises made.  It also offers an atmosphere for that person to plead ignorance and does not recollect that ever being said.  For example, an unemployment hearing, that person who made all those wonderful promises and words of encouragement on the phone is the same person you may be staring at during an unemployment hearing denying that he spoke those words and stating “I talki talk to so many employees a day, I don't recollect saying that.”
     DO NOT EVER think that a question about your time off or what you did during that time is a genuine concern with how you spent time away.  This tactic of “fact checking” is actually their way of making notes of activities you engage during your free time.  This information will surface should a time of investigation against you be performed.
     Which leads to the next point, DO NOT EVER think that a suspension for them to perform an investigation is in anyway the potential for you to return to work and resume your duties.  This is their last step in securing your termination as you are the last to know.  Regardless of the fact you can negate everythingevery thing contained in the supposed investigation, that opportunity never surfaces because you will not be a part of the investigation against you!  Your next phone call is that you have been terminated and although the person relaying the information cannot give you specifics as to why, just know that you are terminated.
     This list could go on for pages and pages, but hopefully will offer as a resource to anyone considering a job with this company.  Do you want to apply your efforts and energy to a company that will respect and value your time as an employee?  Or do you want to walk in every day wondering if you should stretch out your neck and take your place on the guillotine as one of the DO NOT EVER wasEVER’s was disregarded?

What I liked:
I loved working here as far as the people I worked directly with.  The store manager has the best personality (hilarious, fun).  
There are MANY regular customers (sometimes stopping in 3+ times/day) so it is ESSENTIAL to have a winning personality.
It is fun to see the odd and often interesting things that come through donations.  It is fun to negotiate prices with customers as well.
You cannot dress up at this job without risking ruining your clothes as you will often be bending and stooping into metal bins that can rip or poke holes into your clothing.
Although you make a low wage in this position, I stayed longer than I would have because of the interesting, fun work environment.
You get a 25% discount.


What I didn't like:
Incredibly unprofessional upper management.

I got a promotion after being there for only a few months (a couple weeks before minimum wage went up 75 cents).  This promotion was supposed to come with a 75 cent raise.  I got the raise immediately, but after minimum wage went up they seemed to forget about me.  I was helping give employee evaluations so other employees could get their cost of living raises, but never got my own.  Despite bringing up the issue often, it took 8 months for me to finally get the raise I deserved.  That means I was making the exact same amount of money as the employees I was managing for 8 months.  I never received any back pay.  Of course, during the Christmas party, upper level Goodwill management attended to brag about all the new land they had acquired and were building a brand new building on.  Apparently it took them 8 months to file the necessary paperwork for me to get a 75 cent raise, though.  Hmmmmm...

During my management position, I found out that many practices were not outlined well and were not able to be determined on logic alone.  Upper management didn't have a clue about how to run the store and always had me call the Indianapolis store with any questions.  This was frustrating as it was awful trying to get ahold of them much of the time.  While bookkeeping, I learned of accounting practices that are commonplace there that are illegal and, despite me pointing this out (to the accountant in Indy among others), no one cared.  I'm sure they still incorporate these unethical practices today.  I don't know if this was a nationwide practice or practiced regionally but the ethicality and professionality of that organization was appalling.

Even on a more rudimentary level to describe how ridiculous they were...
My first week there, I heard rumors (and later proof) that a manager was stealing from the company.  After training, my first day running a register alone I closed with this manager.  She brought me a drawer (without having me count it down first), ran it while I was on break (without using her own ID number), and then planned on counting it down for me at the end of the night.  I insisted I count down my own drawer.  After much discussion, I made it clear to her that I would NOT take ANY responsibility for ANY discrepency in the drawer.  (I take great pride in ALWAYS having accurate drawers.)  She ended up letting me and I found out this really was the regular practice in the store.  The very next week it was made policy for cashiers to count their own drawers before and after shifts and initial their recognition of drawer amounts.  It SHOULD NOT have taken me (some random person coming to serve as clerk) coming along for that to happen.  Crazy.

A typical day at work would be to walk in, be bombarded with changes handed down by a corporate culture who is disconnected with their employees, customer base, and business.  Goodwill is donated goods retail, not regular retail. You  need to process through massive amounts of donated garbage to find the items that are decent enough to put on your sales floor. You are hounded by management to hit these unrealistic quotas assigned down from people who have never performed the jobs that regular employees have to do. This leads to bad morale among managers and employees because they do not have a static inventory. The inventory on any certain day could be 100% trash, while the next day it can be 100% perfectly priceable items.  The employees are documented and disciplined on the days where they can't meet there quota because of lack of quality product. And this is only the tip of the iceberg.

What I learned at goodwill is that their mission to improve the quality of life for people does not extend to their employees.  They do have some decent managers in the company that actually take care of the employees, but these managers are quickly identified and labeled as bad managers. I was part of a management team at a location in Delaware county Pennsylvania in 2014 and 2015, and we had the store running perfectly. Employees loved it. We loved it. Our customers loved it. And Corporate loved it. Our store was hitting new highs in sales at the end of 2014 and for the entirety of 2015. Corporate's solution was to break the team up and send them to different stores. I understand that this is a common tactic in retail, but it failed in this case.  The managers were given unrealistic workloads because of their reputation as "money makers" at the original store, the workload fell to the staff and many from the once thriving family oriented Goodwill staff began to quit, leave, or abandon their job. Except me. I stayed.

The workplace culture is simple. When those employees and managers quit, they weren't replaced.  Goodwill decided to cut costs by instituting a hiring freeze.  The effects were obvious.  The donations were overflowing with no one to process them (separate garbage from priceable) and the few remaining good employees and managers were responsible for processing them.  This meant that managers had to take their time from "managing" to do the jobs of production associates, which led to the downfall of many of the Goodwill's sales floor appearances.  As a manager, you HAD to be in the backroom to process because if you weren't the store would fall apart.  Money would not be made.  Customers would leave and go to other stores because fresh product was not constantly flowing out onto the floor. Corporate, specifically the Vice President of Retail and his district managers, thought that we were Macy's. They are utterly clueless.

The hardest part of the job was watching all of the employees and co-workers that you trained, taught, and managed, quit because of the low pay combined with ridiculous amounts of work they had to do. Low pay was tolerable when we were fully staffed and everyone had their job to do. But became intolerable when corporate spit in our faces. I started at 12.50 as an Assistant Manager and capped out at $13.71 after 5 years because they removed pay raises, employee reviews, and merit raises.

The most enjoyable part of the job is the people. Your co-workers. Everyone has their stories of how they arrived at that miserable company.

This was the first job I was able to say that I loved it. The processor position was pretty hard on my back (existing medical problems), so I wasn't sure if I was gonna be able to stay. Once they switched me to barcoding, I was happy. Barcoding was an easy job I was able to do really fast and reach numbers they didn't even expect me to do so fast. Even if I had to work by myself, I'd speed through 14 racks and I only worked there for how many months. I loved my partner and my coworkers, we were like family. The only problem I had with this job was that management was being a hypocrite. The company advertises that they put the disabled to work, but I have ADHD and everything related to it I got written up for constantly: talking a lot, not staying in one place, distracted, etc. But yet again, I was clearly exceeding at my job, and what else are you gonna do when you're standing in one spot for 8 hours? I would even work overtime sometimes. I was barely allowed to talk, but everyone else was able to talk a lot. I've also been written up for looking at my phone for a few seconds when it would be just to pause and play my music and lost my music privileges, but everyone else was allowed to. Even one of the managers was allowed to blast their music, but we're told we had to keep our music to ourselves. I've even been written up for having stomach aches in the bathroom because I took too long getting back to my station when I have hormone and period medical issues and from the warehouse in the back of the store all the way to the bathroom in the front takes at least 5 minutes to get there and 5 minutes back. No matter how many times I'd mention all of this in my write ups and to them, it'd still be the same thing. My partner and I would get in trouble for things that weren't even our job. I've also gotten in trouble for leaving my station because I went into a panic attack, especially knowing why I went into it. We also weren't allowed to wear shorts, but the manager would get away with it. Barcoding was the one warehouse position that didn't get a bonus, but they finally promised us one...and it still never happened. They also expected impossible results. Near the end of when I was working there, they switched the minimum for barcoders of 8 racks a person to 15 or 16 racks a person...which doesn't make sense because that amount can only be achieved if there's only one barcoder because you can only do the amount of racks given by the processors (there were two of them) which was usually 10 max for each. The processors weren't told they had to change the amount of racks to do. Then, to split my partner and I up, they threw me back on processing so there were three processors. They said I only would need to be in that position for a few hours each day just so there were a few more racks and then I could go back to barcoding after. A few hours switched to after lunch and that switched to the whole shift. Then they told me they were permanently keeping me in processing even after I told them my back pulled 4 times that day and I've cried because of the pain. They also promised they would rearrange the station during the day so I wasn't causing my back to pull and they never did it. My station was also extremely dusty because no one worked at that one for months which affected my asthma (which they also knew about). Honestly, if the management wasn't so toxic, I would've stayed at this job.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The customers at any business are always great and Goodwill is no exception. I really enjoyed my Team they were definitely a family. Also I must say I really loved the other Store Managers that were there for me and helped me along the way they are all amazing people and deserve so much more than the executive/corporate part of this company have to offer. As a side note I will say though surprisingly the CEO is great! I really hope he can turn the executive level of management back to a standard consistent with Goodwills values and mission. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
I've worked a lot of different jobs in my life everything from fast food management to airline management and a lot in between and I can say working at Goodwill is unlike ANY job you'll ever have it's not a typical retail business as you can't order inventory you rely on donations and there's no standard set of guidelines or pricing guides for housewares which is everything except clothes and furniture so it's a huge learning curve and I was given 5 days of training and wished good luck..I also was hired  at the same time as the New VP of operations and his first order of business was to restructure the entire business model of the retail operation so MAJOR changes in every aspect of the job every 3-4 weeks or so... I never had a chance to feel confident at anything before something else was  being changed. It was overwhelming and to make it all much worse it was also the VP of operations mission to hand pick his own store managers he is almost there 5 down 3 left--2 are ready to walk any day . It's sad cuz these store managers have been in place for 5 years or more most are over 10 years. I was under so much duress my insomnia and stress related eczema and hives came back. He purposely and with intention created a toxic work environment he harassed me on a continual basis and I was tasked to do things that no other store manager had to do.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
I kind of answered this on the last  question. The work environment was toxic and stressful. The VP of operations is a narcissist and enjoys the power his position allows him too much! This man will bankrupt the company before it's all said and done unless someone puts a stop to it. I feel sorry for the store managers that are left. I know one has been so upset she considered relapsing and another is on antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication due to this mans antics. The worst part about all of it is the woman who's head of HR (VP of organizational development---whatever that means) basically head of HR is new only been there about a year and  just as bad as the new VP they are both snakes--she is retaliatory. It's messed up cuz who can you put your complaint in to when your complaint is about HR--the short answer--you can't! 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Go in check a million emails do all the required actions per each endless email. Set up shift figure breaks etc...in my case take at least  one call out call as that was the norm at my store to have someone call out come in late or leave early or pretty much every day and there was only 7 of us mind you that includes Me! And then assist my team all day to meet production goals and process donations. Sounds easy--  It is not 🚫 not at all easy.

Worked for this company in the same position (zero advancement opportunity as its the only position in its tier) for many years. Supervisor(s) continually increased the hours and days required and demanded overtime at short notice whenever it was asked regardless of availability. Supervisor routinely planned routes and deliveries with time frames the could not be met (e.g. demanding a delivery be made 2 hours away in the next 1.5 hours), or adding half a day of work in the last hour of the work day. Had little regard for safety of drivers: drove on icy roads, deep snow, through two tornado warnings, high wind, etc. Very run down, and often unsafe vehicles and equipment that broke down frequently leaving you stranded for 3-8 hours at a time while waiting for the contracted towing company to be available. Store Management was always under high stress from Upper Management and was usually hateful and rude to deal with, especially when they were promised deliveries and times that couldn't be realistically met making it YOUR problem to deal with them. Wage is well below what other employers pay in the area for the same job. Discussion of wages or raises with other employees is strictly prohibited and grounds for firing. Attendance portion of the new pay raise system based on how closely you clock in and out to your scheduled shift time - overtime results in having your pay raise docked to 1% maximum yearly due to not matching your clock out time. Accidental OT when not pre-approved is grounds for firing - especially stressful when under unrealistic delivery times near end of the week. Pay raise system for retail management also unfair as its based on numbers like "number of donations received" or "number of customers" that are out of the control of the employee. Workplace is very cliquey - you'll know if you aren't part of the 'in-crowd' because you won't be there very long. Company tends to treat its employees like they are desperate for work and will work under any conditions asked. The company puts its main emphasis on company growth/expansion and sales and profit increases with lofty sales goals with harsh repercussions for failing to meet goals on the retail side which makes a very stressful environment for all involved.

The actual work itself was enjoyable if you are in great physical shape. Be aware that the minimum lift requirement is much higher than the 50 lbs stated, you will regularly lift 75+ lbs unassisted and pull and push far beyond that to load heavy stacks up ramps and inclined truck docks. You will also be exposed to whatever chemical, biological, natural (spiders, snakes, other wildlife) etc hazard that can come in with raw donations. You will likely have to supply your own safety equipment - work gloves (last about 2-3 months a pair), hard hat recommended for metal yards, boots, safety glasses, etc. The warehouses are not usually air conditioned or heated so dress ready for whatever temperature it is outside. I actually enjoyed the type of work - just not the way management treated everyone (including the treatment of management by upper management) and the resulting work environment.

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