sales associate

customer service representative

machine operator

material handler

replenishment associate

Nebraska Furniture Mart Inc.

PLEASE READ IF INTERESTED IN SECURITY THIS IS THE TRUTH!!!!!!



When working security you are more of a customer service representative 98% of the time. The other 2% you are able to detain people who commit any sort of crime against retail (shoplifter and fraud are the most common), and respond to medical situations. 

While working inside the store you HAVE to greet every customer, if a customer wants a scooter you HAVE to provide them with a scooter. Give directions to the customers at the desk. You are graded monthly on what they call a "greeting score" and if your greeting score is low then your performance review will be low.

Like I said, you are basically a customer service representative 98% of the time.

While at the desk, you have to write "fumble recoveries". You have a minimum number you have to do per month in order to have a "good performance review for the month". Fumble recoveries are when a customer is trying to leave upset and you stop them prior to leaving and calm them down to try to get a manager to come help out to have them stay and buy something. The executives of the company LOVE fumbles and they preach it all the time in the morning meetings that they MUST get fumbles. Everyone hates them and they are pointless.

Another thing you have to do is "customer services" When you write customer services, it is when you help out a customer find something or help them get a salesperson and then they buy something after you assist them. Then you write a report over it. You have to have a minimum number of them in a month to maintain a good performance review. Customer services are dumb as well. 

Another task you have to do is something called "preventions". Preventions are when you find an item without a sensor tag or spider wrap and apply it to the product, then you type it into a spreadsheet and you have to have a certain number of them in a month to maintain a good performance review. These are not bad to do it keeps you busy sometimes.

There are two shifts. the first shift is 930am-515pm Monday-Saturday and on Sunday it is 1030am-630pm. The second shift is 130pm-930pm Monday-Saturday and 1230-830 on Sunday. Everyone works weekends (except for a few people who have been apart of the security department for a while). Some people work all day Sunday's. 

The schedule's they have are never consistent. You might open 3 days in a row then close the 2 other days. Another example is that if someone is out, you will be asked to work that other person's shift with no questions asked then they will add an extra off day so they will not pay you overtime (even if promised to pay it).

Another issue is that they change schedules ALL THE TIME. You might have a consistent schedule for 6-8 months, but out of nowhere they will say you are not working X day anymore and Y time. You are working a different day at a different time with different off days. 

Also, they HATE GIVING OUT OVERTIME. If you work Full Time, you only work 35 hours a week (if that). 

If you do not like being a customer service specialist do not apply here. This is not a real security job, it is a customer service representative job majority of the time. 

The supervisors are cool. The head manager is suspect because people do not know what he does everyday. It seems like he does not do much. Assistant manager is alright. They just recently got a new one so he is trying to change the culture from before (basically being stricter). 

Only one officer can be off at a time when you request off. 

The final thing I have to say is that if they do not like you, then they will do EVERYTHING to get you fired or force you to quit. Texas is an at-will state so they can fire you for any reason. This applies to not only the security department , but for ALL DEPARTMENTS.

Now a positive of the job is the pay. For what you do, the pay is decent and better than most jobs that have the same description. 

Advice to the Company: When interviewing people do not only tell the partial truth of what the job is, tell them the whole truth to them and say they are doing everyday. It is a disgrace that you all talk about honesty and integrity, but only do so partially. This includes all departments within the company not just the security department.

For me a typical day at work was checking my customers orders for stock, reorganizing the cabinets, Putting products back in their place, calling different departments to fix tags take, back over overstock and repair demos, research tech heavy products, walk in a circle around the floor looking for customers to sell to and convince them to buy the warranty and front the product on the shelves at the end of the day. We learned how to learn because after a 3 week long classroom version of training that is too broad to cover your individual department they throw you in without explanation into a very complex and unorganized system. (This is the same for almost every department too) Management is hit or miss as you usually have 3-5 supervisors who are either great teachers and leaders, are completely uninvolved, or blatantly toxic with favoritism, impossible standards, and angry outbursts.
In my case the hardest part of the job was juggling everything that both was and wasn't supposed to be my job: Salespeople like me are treated the best on paper but are essentially asked to be responsible for everything including communication between departments. One untrained salesperson is supposed to call the people who stock and the people who price without them being able to talk to eachother. That salesperson also usually has to find those phone numbers as it's hit or miss if it's already programmed in. This leads to those departaments constantly blaming eachother and the often unwitting sales team and means that your day is constantly finding tags that don't match the item, stock in random places or looking empty because that team can't find the place to put it, arguing on the sales floor ECT.
The most enjoyable parts are the benefits general culture and you absolutely learn how to learn and how to lead. Health insurance, High pay, a RIDICULOUS amount of control and information(you can change price tags and set the price, look into when the next shipment of product comes in and how much of it is coming, you record and hold customers name, address, phone number and e-mail and make notes to share with your boss and customer service and delivery team and they can make notes for you to read too, and can change payment methods and update information, you can also research products on your cellphone on the floor to keep up to date and have accurate product knowledge), There are entire events designed for recognizing your team mates and competitions with pretty decent prizes ranging from gift cards to sounbars to days of PTO, and there is plenty of vacation time available. Some holidays or competitions even result in large free meals for everyone.

I've worked here for over a year, and let me tell you I am not pleased with their expectations. Coming in as a person with experience, they will find a lot of vulgar and un-comprehensible ways to get you kicked out from their company. Everybody is nice at first, but once you get to know everyone, they are too competitive and will do anything to get the sale. No one is considerate of anyone else, and it really is all about the numbers, from a sales standpoint. The amount of unreasonable pressure is always there, because you have to sell something which makes sense but is not supposed to be forced down our throats. There is an unnecessary amount of trainings you have to do which are mandatory, and need to be done, and be aware that if you are late to any of these ridiculous trainings, they will consider you late and make you sign a performance agreement form for being late, which I think is a negative way of reinforcement to an employee, to remind them that they are late. There is no PTO rarely at all, and you have to earn through working your hours, and I think this is also a problem, and this limits sick days and vacation time. They will watch every move you make as well, and that means even taking a break is like crime here, which is unacceptable and inhuman.  Also management is not friendly, until you show that you are doing everything in your power to be a good person. The managers will always be strict and will reinforce this behavior of what is good and bad for the company, and again this is being forced down your throat. I also think that this company, needs to provide more leniency about rules, and they are way too rule heavy, which is the primary reason why this company has a high turnover rating. The rules are also very rude, and inexplicably hostile to your termination. There is also no job security whatsoever, since their system is designed to fire people for particularly no reason, and they will immediately do so. Everyone here is also two-face which means that the coworkers here are not your real friends. This is the primary reason of why the work environment is toxic, and is only becoming more a dilemma than a social problem. At the same time, be careful if you apply here and it is a very cut-throat company. People here also expose you if you do anything bad here, which shows signs of childish influence and a lack of company integrity. Also make sure to write your greeting cards, otherwise that will result in your termination as well. I hope that if anyone reads this finds this useful.

Once I was out on the floor - released from HR training, I thought I'd  stepped into the twilight zone.  You have what Human Resources says, and then you have reality.  

Unfortunately, I was living under a cloud of belief that the traffic would be so good regularly at NFM, nice commissions would follow.  That is the ONLY reason I accepted a straight commission position.  Not so.  Some days I earned less than $10 for being there 8 hours - that is for the entire day. 

Trying to move to a different department to sell higher dollar merchandise is often impossible.  Let's say you work in clearance, for example, and no one wants to work in clearance.  People are always leaving clearance.  So, your manager conveniently chooses to write you up for being late returning from lunch when your car engine blew and left you without transportation.  Or your customer  returns merchandise.  That goes on your record and keeps you from transferring to different departments, and it prevents you from getting a bonus.  

The benefits sound really good, but when you actually use them, and you see it whittle away at your paycheck, it's not a good deal.  I realized I would be money ahead to pay cash when going to the doctor.  Offices usually discount for cash pay because they don't have to pay so many extra people to handle insurance, which is really expensive.

I was let go for taking a brief break, which is taboo - ESPECIALLY  going outside.  Well, actually, it really does depend on which manager you ask.  Problem is it gets confusing and frustrating.  

The people of NFM , I think, really are good people.  But the two big, or little guys, actually, at the top - and this is just my opinion - are a bit strange and may not know what they're doing.  It was their mother, after all, who started the whole thing.  It was bequeathed to them.  

Let me finish by saying that I attended a "state of the states" meeting, where one of the big guys tells us how things are going with the business.  He has the theme song from "THE GODFATHER" playing.  He tells us this is his favorite movie.  He says, "...take no prisoners."  What in the world???!!!

If you are a classic sales person who is okay with shoving a warranty down somebody's throat, this is the job for you! I know this sounds like a joke but it is true. You will get fired if you don't meet warranty numbers. After a month in they do make that clear but then the goal keeps going up every couple months until their department turnover is at 30 percent, then they bring it back down to Earth for a bit because they become under staffed. They do pay well for warranty ( roughly 500% more than they do on product ) but this does make it less about helping a customer and more about your pay and WAY TOO MUCH about keeping your job. When in training, I thought it was a joke but this ended up being true, I was told "if you're close on your warranty at the end of your month, don't put your numbers on anything without warranty." That should have been the warning sign. Outside of how toxic that made the sales team, it also caused a tenure/turnover problem. There are plenty of people there that have been with the company for many years and when they were new employees, their warranty goals were less than half of what they are now.  Now, any new employee has the same expectations as a 20-year veteran in sales. This is why you don't see too many "young" people that work there, they all get fired before they can develop. The two team leads I had were great and did a lot to help with customer issues you may have and training was easy to come by. Unfortunately, management above that is so blind to the problems they have and DO NOT listen to your feedback. They also have exactly zero back bone when it comes to sticking up to "corporate" when they make bad decisions or policies. When it comes to culture, they have great volunteer opportunities and try their best to be "progressive" unless you work sales, in that case you might as well be living in the 50's. So in summary, if you are okay with selling warranty first and product second with the possibility of making 60K a year but 50 hours a week, its an ok job but if you have a soul and want to sleep at night, take the pay cut and go somewhere else, you'll be happier. I know I am.  

The daily routine works, it's not horrible but it could definitely be better, the job can sometimes be stressful on your body so be sure to actually take care of yourself rather than just throwing yourself at the position, as it can take a toll if you're not careful. I learned that the hard way, so hopefully you don't have to. 

I think one of the things I really enjoy about the job itself is that they give you active stats on your efficiency, that, for better or worse, is available for everybody to see. 
Unfortunately, this can sometimes result in someone being targeted for very minor acts of childish harassment. The culture of the job also sort of pushes you into feeling like you shouldn't take breaks, despite them being offered at the standard amount, as the time you get out sort of depends on the time you get done with the load of work you do, and that can leave some people sometimes staying 3-4 hours after their shift, and so by missing those breaks you can in some ways get out earlier. 

Management is all right for the most part, however they're sometimes slow to act on issues that are important to employees, and it can feel demoralizing when you work your butt off only to see someone not show up for nearly weeks on end when they're scheduled and not be fired, which directly affects your workload and productivity for the day. 

Those things along with the incessant beeping of the machine are some of the things that really make this job hard for me personally. 

On the flip side of that, some of my favorite parts are really being able to exert myself at work, I sort of just treat it as an all-day workout, and more often than not have discovered that the physicality of it has enriched my life, sort of. 

Overall, if you can get past the annoying work culture, the job is fulfilling in its own right and serves its purpose. It's not awful, but it's not sunshine and daisies. 
3/5

This is strictly for working overnights as a machine operator. If you can't handle daily changes to your schedule without warning from either the supervisors or management, I highly recommend you look elsewhere. At most they'll give you a couple days heads up on changes for the full nightly staff in terms of what practices, what schedule changes, and what plans are made for where people will be on the floor. They won't, however, keep it consistent as on many, many occasions in my brief time working there I was subjected to finding myself needing to readjust my hours of sleep and recovery both before and after shift. I started working 4 days with two 15 min breaks and a lunch and left when the schedule had a staggered start time depending on area, a 5 day work week, and stuck with just a lunch guaranteed for recovery of an exceedingly heavy workload on my body during shift. Unless you operate certain equipment which you won't start working with until several weeks in, it's 100% on your feet. You will get a lot of support from the majority of the workers, most leads and the supervisors as long as you're shown to be doing your job. It's the one thing I did enjoy a lot about the job was the immediate higher ups were willing and able to aid new workers to ensure safety was kept in mind while helping improve productivity speeds and showed techniques to handle the heavier furniture that had to be moved. 

When NFM came to Texas, there was a massive demand for workers in the distribution center. As the client base has grown, management has failed to properly address a menagerie of issues inside the business, often accepting poor answers to some glaring issues in an effort to lazily compete with other businesses and maximize efficiency at the cost of both safety and work satisfaction.
NFM has a history and an image of a family company, but that mentality must have been left up North from whence it came. This store offers little regard for the warehouse staff, claims competitive pay whilst offering less than many warehouses in the area, limits employees to minimal discounts when they are available, and ensures the protection of upper management through a human resources department geared toward protecting their own at all costs... even if it means potentially pushing employees out the door.
It also seems that as soon as some level of safety and efficiency are achieved management feels the need to make a shift in priorities or even make full-scale software changes in order to closely monitor and micromanage their workers without proper training any level of staff on the new systems. 
This distribution center is run by amateurs that hold very little regard for their subordinates, which creates a long list of issues that only seems to grow longer over time.
The health insurance benefits and paid time off are two upsides that hardly offset the glaring issues of working for this particular company.
Full-scale changes to management would need to take place in order to truly begin fixing this place.

NFM has a reputation in Omaha as a great place to work, and somewhere that has dominated the market for 80 years. 

They have a decent onboarding process, and they definitely sell you on the culture and training programs available to you. The family history and culture is great on the surface, but at the top the leadership does not represent the same values. 

As a manager you are given multiple courses on leadership and management development, however above the mid-manager level those rules don't apply. You are forced to follow rules and processes that are not afforded to you as an employee. Not to mention most of their pay grades are well below market average, and don't compensate for any of these flaws. 

Their highest leadership is full of micro-managers, and opinion driven leaders. Their actions never match their words; check boxes are more important than doing it right. They value internal untrained hires, instead of recruiting and paying for industry leading talent. If you don't fit in as a "yes" manager, you are talked about amongst leadership who has never worked with you, and many times forced out without proper coaching or adjustments. 

I think for the majority of jobs that fall within sales, customer service, or warehousing it is a great opportunity for stable work. For home office staff; HR, Marketing, Merchandising, IT, or Ecommerce be prepared for an environment not up to par in the industry. The continued promotion of inexperience internals, and lack of trust of leadership has developed a toxic home office.   

This company is too big to be run like a small family company.

I arrive a little early to update schedules and speak with the supervisors from the early shift. We hold a short shift meeting and get to work.

Throughout the day I answer phone calls from other departments, fix issues that employees encounter, monitor performance, and make sure everyone is working safely and staying busy. I assist my leads to ensure that our various tasks are completed on-time. I'm responsible for managing timesheets and PTO requests, as well as having one-one-ones with my direct reports every month.

There is always work to do, especially in the busy months. NFM has never laid anyone off for financial reasons. Second shift often gets out early if our work is complete before the scheduled end of shift, but we also have to stay late sometimes.

An issue I have is that we are chronically short staffed. We have been under a hiring freeze for months. Even now that our department has some positions open we just aren't getting applicants. If even one or two people call out (which happens every day) we are short handed and I can barely fill the schedule. This results in the staff having to do more than their fair share of work and requires department leadership to step in an do the work that would otherwise be done by hourly staff. 

NFM has all these lofty goals of customer service and being a family, but most of us in the warehouse don't really care. It's just a blue collar job after all. I will say that opportunity for advancement is excellent. Those who consistently show up and work hard will receive good annual reviews and can be promoted to lead, etc. with time.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Sales associate 11 salaries reported	$54,328 per year
Customer service representative 10 salaries reported	$17.60 per hour
Machine operator 3 salaries reported	$18.65 per hour
Material handler 20 salaries reported	$20.00 per hour
Replenishment associate 3 salaries reported	$53,333 per year

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