shift manager

processor

cashier

retail sales associate

lead retail sales associate

MERS Missouri Goodwill Industries

Overall the staffing or lack there of puts undue stress on employees.  Sometimes you’re the only one in your area and you depend on the other areas in the back to be able to continue to make your area flow smoothly. But when there is not enough staff you can only do so much and then you’re backed up and people continue to come donating and you have no carts and can’t empty the carts fast enough. Management will come every once in a while maybe to help. Or relieve yuu or for a break. But when you return, you are loaded down with full carts because all they do is take donations for you. They don’t try to sort the carts and empty any. If you get a write up, sometimes they stack erroneous write ups on you. And when you ask if you can get a copy of YOUR write up they say you aren’t allowed to have a copy of YOUR write up. If you ask if you can make a response on the write up, you get told that you aren’t allowed to make a response. If you want to know something about policy and procedures they act like they don’t know or just don’t want you to know. Can I see the actual policies of the company. NO. The new employee booklet is all you need to know. Btw, that’s just a summary of some of the policies. And , I wasn’t even trained during new hire orientation. They were having computer problems so new hire orientation and training didn’t happen. I was just thrown on the schedule and started working. After three months I still don’t know how to use the paycom or know what to do if I have an issue or se the functions for the time clock besides clock in and out. Or even know what the policies actually are on anything. They act like you aren’t allowed to know know anything beside what your current position is. I’m sure there is a employee grievance procedure but I wouldn’t know.

Overall the staffing or lack there of puts undue stress on employees. Sometimes you’re the only one in your area and you depend on the other areas in the back to be able to continue to make your area flow smoothly. But when there is not enough staff you can only do so much and then you’re backed up and people continue to come donating and you have no carts and can’t empty the carts fast enough. Management will come every once in a while maybe to help. Or relieve you for a break. But when you return, you are loaded down with full carts because all they do is take donations for you. They don’t try to sort the carts and empty any. If you get a write up, sometimes they stack erroneous write ups on you. And when you ask if you can get a copy of YOUR write up they say you aren’t allowed to have a copy of YOUR write up. If you ask if you can make a response on the write up, you get told that you aren’t allowed to make a response. If you want to know something about policy and procedures they act like they don’t know or just don’t want you to know. Can I see the actual policies of the company. NO. The new employee booklet is all you need to know. Btw, that’s just a summary of some of the policies. And, I wasn’t even trained during new hire orientation. They were having computer problems so new hire orientation and training didn’t happen. I was just thrown on the schedule and started working. After three months I still don’t know how to use the paycom or know what to do if I have an issue or use the functions for the time clock besides clock in and out. Or even know what the policies actually are on anything. They act like you aren’t allowed to know know anything beside what your current position is. I’m sure there is a employee grievance procedure but I wouldn’t know. 

High stress environment with a bad culture. You can also learn a lot about the organization with the volume of unhappy employees due to the work environment. At the lower level employees are overworked and VERY well underpaid, at the higher level management is terrible at communicating, working with employees and pocketing off over compensated bonuses. Retail stores make a lot of money if you consider that everything is run by donations, but still manage to underperform because employees are minimum wage. Think about it you’ve had one store make Million dollars last year during COVID. Most of the profit goes to executive salaries bonuses, some of it goes to community programs that have relationships with senior leadership. There is no unified goal in how to run the entire company. Each department is heavily compartmentalized, and none of the department leaders have any interest in understanding how the other departments work. If anybody does have an interest in improving things, that gets noticed very quickly, then they'll be overloaded with busywork to keep the status quo. 

Look no further than the Human Resources department they have the Highest Turnover Rate in the entire organization. Matter fact they just lost three essential employees due to toxic leadership and a hostile work environment. HR is supposed to be the glue to the organization. However, in this organization the leader is in the pants of the head so go figure why the HR department is the worse department. It’s a reflection of the organization with not an ounce of care for the employees.

To add to the dysfunction there are no options for remote work, no procedures in place for COVID. You also see your taxpayer dollars go to questionable programs...

Working for this company overall is not THAT bad. They pay their employees pretty fairly, there’s almost always an opportunity to advance, and the benefits are great. Had the environment been better I would have happily stayed longer but that was not the case. Employees are constantly disrespected and belittled by customers and are just expected to put up with it, and when you do stand up for yourself you’re at risk for write-ups or termination. At the same time, many employees go against company policy repeatedly and the higher ups just turn a blind eye. When you’re working here, it feels pointless to go above and beyond when employees that do the bare minimum are given too many chances and praised for it. The workload can also be insane due to the amount of donations received. Donors don’t realize how crazy it gets in the back room when they’re understaffed, all the donation containers are full, and employees are getting berated all the while. Locations are provided with overload trucks for times like that when they’re overwhelmed, but then when they make use of the truck the higher ups yell at the employees for not keeping up with donations. Overall if you’re looking for a job this is not a bad place to be, but it does take a major toll on your mental health. 

High stress environment with a bad culture. There are a few positive aspect of working there, like a relatively decent benefits package. You can also learn a lot about business if you spend time looking. Use it as a place to get experience and move on. At the lower level employees are overworked and underpaid, at the higher level management is terrible at communicating and working with employees. Retail stores make a lot of money if you consider that everything is run by donations, but still manage to underperform because employees are minimum wage. Most of the profit goes to executive salaries bonuses, some of it goes to community programs. There is no unified goal in how to run the entire company. Each department is heavily compartmentalized, and none of the department leaders have any interest in understanding how the other departments work. If anybody does have an interest in improving things, that gets noticed very quickly, then they'll be overloaded with busywork to keep the status quo. Very little room up the ladder, as all levels of the place are understaffed and can't keep decent people for long. No options for remote work, no good procedures in place for COVID. You also see your tax money go to questionable programs...

To start, the work at goodwill is extremely easy when you have proper coverage, which depending how much the manager likes you, you may or may not get.

If you have a family emergency and need to answer a text with no one to cover your department. They will hit you with a 30 day phone ban. 

Or well that's not the complete truth, bans like that usually follow you bringing up a safety complaint. Like telling the manager that you couldn't have your deaf and mute coworker cover the dock for you while you answere a family emergency, not because they're disabled but because the visual indicatoror (the REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION) does not and has never worked. Creating a safety issue. The manager will then retaliate and when brought to her they will attempt to pull you in to an off the clock meeting to handle it without documentation. When you refuse, you will get a vague promise of meeting that will never take place and your manager will continue to retaliate against you.

The worst part of this company is it's culture. They say that they support the disadvantaged and disabled. I have never witnessed both being abused so much in any other workplace. 

I believe I learned, that when things seem off then you need to start writing things down or they'll get you.

The employees are severely underpaid for the amount of work being required of them. Management more of a controlling force with a group between themselves, rather than a team environment between everyone in the workplace. Focused more on making money than helping people that are in need. Example: A homeless man came into the store asking for a pair of pants to wear. He was told no and sent on his way, the kicker is goodwill throws hundreds of pairs of pants away daily if you truly want to help people why not give him a pair that they weren't going to sale anyway? My store is understaffed with a terrible turnover rate due to poor management. Though because they are understaffed they expect every minimum wage employee to work twice as hard to overcompensate while the management stay at their regular work requirements which is unreasonable to say the least. I've witnessed them walk past items on the sales floor, and go up to an employee as them why is it there and tell them to go pick it up when they could've gotten it themselves. Management also points blame on everyone in the store other than themselves when at times they are the sole deciding factor in the situation.

Your day is gonna be very busy I learn a lot by paying attention to my manager and getting knowledge on things like the cost of a item what to look for and where said item should end up my manager is a very to the point person and is very understanding and caring she expects you to do your job correctly but also knows that life happens and and that it can effected your work.  I feel the hardest part of working at Goodwill is the donation area and I feel that management is very trying because they have to deal with all their employees and make sure everything gets done plus they have to do all the jobs sometimes especially if they are short the employees. The most enjoyable part of my job is finding item that are going to improve are store and making sure our donors know they are appreciated and making them smile.

A typical day at Mers Goodwill is very hard working and can where u out. I was a dock worker which is the hardset departmant to work in at the company. Working on the dock for 8 long hours pulling trucks, "as they called it", and carrying all kinds of heavy and large item's that people have donated to Mers Goodwill. 

      The Management to me were very rude, disrespectful and had know idea how to manage there departments. I don't want to sound bitter but working under the people I was working under felt like I was a slave or a puppet all they really cared about was making a profit at the end of the day.

      The co-workers on the other hand were more of a joy to be around and dill with. Most of all my co-workers seen and felt the sameway I did so it was pretty easy to bond and connect with people. We all were very helpful and some of us even kept relationships outside of the Goodwill.

      The Hardest part about working there was waking up each and everyday going to a job not a career that you not happy at and you know the company you work for really don't care about you at all. 

     Well there really wasn't much to enjoy about the place besides making co-workers laugh and working as a team just to get the job done.



I had a really good experience working with Goodwill. Management was good and responsive (after some staffing changes). I felt that work culture evolved in a positive direction, and it was a legitimate team. 

As far as minimum-wagey kind of jobs go - this one was far superior in terms of wage and benefits to other fast-food and retail joints. A basic worker caps out at $11/hr (as of when I left which you would hit after 3-4 years) - which is wayyy better than working a middle management position in fast food at less pay (and wayyy less stressful).

The work is what you make it, repetitive, rote, kinda boring; but you find a lot of interesting doo-dads amidst the junk if you're working the back room. Customers are always hit or miss, working with the public is always like that.

This would be a nice first job or college job. They had a policy of only working you 8 hour days - which is a great way to get solid part time hours and still have a personal life. If you can get buy on 24-32 hours a week that's 3 or 4 days off!

My advice, as with any job, is lead by example and you get what you give.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Shift manager 486 salaries reported	$19.35 per hour
Processor 395 salaries reported	$15.42 per hour
Cashier 260 salaries reported	$15.42 per hour
Retail sales associate 36 salaries reported	$22.55 per hour
Lead retail sales associate 66 salaries reported	$17.50 per hour

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