host/hostess

cashier

baker

security officer

receiver

Stew Leonards

Stew's is a company whose quality has several declined. I have had team leaders, managers and employees with tenure tell me to get out while I could, and they meant it with compassion.

It varies depending on department, but there is one simple employee problem: there is poor and inconsistent hour availability.

 I got hired for (part-time) 28 hrs, saw that for 3 or so months, made 40 hrs for two weeks during the holidays. Then the cuts happened, some people got taken of the schedule the rest dropped between 7-14 hrs a week. We were all required to take a weeks worth of our vacation time during the cut. This has gone on for several months. At starting pay that meant about a 50$ paycheck for every week for 12 weeks. Everyone is struggling, everyone is unhappy. Good managers aren't able to hand these problems effectively because the higher-ups and company ties there hands. If you care and you work hard, it is frustrating and heartbreaking to watch the way the stress and frustrations tears down the people around you who already work 2 and 3 jobs to support themselves. Management is tied, HR is tied, you are on your own with your problems, especially if your life and your work, or additional work conflicts or becomes difficult.

This is a yearly cycle. Co-workers have told me it's been getting worse every year. The value of the human resource within the company is minimal to non-existent.

There is no real lateral mobility. Vertical mobility is limited and difficult. Vertical mobility I have been told is undesirable - because the stress and limitations from upper management make it even more of a thankless job.

I have had co-workers threatened and harassed verbally and physically by costumers. We have a security team, and it's there for a reason. It's rare, but we get some very unstable costumers and there already really isn't room to fail to please normal costumers in retail in general.

If you are looking for a first time job - Stew's can be okay for a short tenure, preferably in produce or front end. Maybe kitchen I've heard okay things about the kitchen.

Places you don't want to go regardless of what your looking for: Deli, Hoe Down, certain parts of Bakery.

If you are looking for hours and mobility, this is not the place to be.

There is fantastic lower management at Stews and there is fantastic human resource, your co-workers can be very supportive. But the bad top-down policy divides everyone. I hope the company sees its problems and makes changes, but I am not optimistic.

On a side note, don't sign on and take vacation time in any way - even if they tell you that you must, if you have any inkling that you might not stay the year - you will be expected to pay back your vacations time. No one can afford to do that, it's not worth the stress and the anxiety.

Stew’s was my first job and it was definitely a learning experience. It was fun chatting with customers as most of them were amazing and nice, I even had regulars who I would flag over to my register when I saw them. Though management gave a bit too much to some customers, if a customer complained they got something for free or significantly priced down. Not to mention if they got too many of an item (limit on sales items or just a big ticket item) and a manager was called over (which was often what the customer would ask for) they’d ignore the quantity limit for the most part. Stew’s definitely made sure the customer was always right, even if it wasn’t “right”. My coworkers and management were amazing for the most part, although I learned HR isn’t there for the workers as much as I’d hoped. If you called out for a sickness that made it so you couldn’t work for more than the allotted (sick) days you were penalized, even with a doctors note. Not being able to talk/coughing every other second seems pretty impeding on being a cashier at a grocery store, much less around holiday season when we had more customers from all over. Risking customers getting sick, yourself being berated for working while sick, being reported to your managers for being unsanitary? Don’t know how that made sense. Up until recently (this year) you also needed a doctors note to have a water bottle with on register with you, which was thanks to one manager and only one manager, who also claimed we went to the bathroom too much. Weird since we would always have more cashiers sitting around on the registers doing nothing for the most part, so customers would still be served. If you were assigned to a register you did that and that only until told otherwise, often having around 4 cashiers being unproductive, bored begging for work. All this said, none of the management was rude when telling me being sick was my fault, and that they believed I could do better at not being sick. HR was always welcoming and nice, even when telling me they could do nothing with a doctors note for an infection, even though they accepted one for a mere water bottle. The best thing that came out of this job was my customer experience, I learned how to handle multiple types of people I thought I knew how to handle already. My coworkers and favorite customers are tied in second place. They truly made it worth it to work there, having fun with everyone while working minimum wage helped. My coworkers were always cracking jokes with me, it truly seemed like a family for the most part. 

In conclusion, Stew’s was a good learning experience as a first job, but not something I would like to stay at for 11 years as a full time cashier (no hate to those who it works for). Coworkers and good customers made it worth it, whereas management could understand that we’re human more than machine.

● Work-life balance
My department has been understaffed for quite some time, and I often end up working different schedules every week to accommodate this and often feel overwhelmed, not wanting to do my own housework by the time I finally get home

● Pay & benefits
The pay is fine, for a starting salary it could be worse than many other places, but they only give out raises yearly and especially since my department is understaffed, I find that my pay does not really match why is expected of me.

● Job security and advancement
I’ve never felt like I was going to lose my job, however it often felt like a struggle to have any meaningful advancement in a full time position and it feels like there is favoritism between departments and more often than not, cashiers and other front end people will get promotions before anyone from their departments are Ben considered.

● Management
Management in the individual stores may vary, but my management has been very cold and distant towards me for most of my time here, preferring to only step in to tell me off rather than build me up or even just have a casual conversation to even get to know me. I feel like any cog in the machine here.

● Culture
Most people outside of management are quite enjoyable to work with, but management can often times take advantage of you and your hard work, leaving you behind and intentionally short staffing your shift or even your whole department if they know they can get away with it because of your hard work.

● Overall
In the beginning, I often enjoyed my time and experience here at the company and found a lot of fulfillment in what I did. But after almost a year of working here, my experience has started to decline and I often find that my short staffed department and lack of leadership and initiative from upper management have deterred me from saying anything to them or wanting to stay much longer. I only stay because I need the work and people below management are all quite great and easy to get along with.

A typical day at work would be interacting with customers while checking out their merchandise, also helping out in the whatever area of the store that needed it. Always providing superior customer service which is the motto of the store I work at. There was also opportunity to interact with your fellow co-workers and form good relationships. I learned a lot about the value of working in a place that makes you feel at home. I believe a lot of the workers stay there so long because they love their job and feel good there, and customers always come back no matter the competition, because they feel the same way. Management never made anyone feel uncomfortable, and you could always go and talk with them about anything. Everyone was very friendly and helpful. it was a nice place to work. The hardest part was commuting on a bus for 1hr and 15mins to get there, and the fact the pay and hours were a little low. Hard to live like that. The most enjoyable part of the job was the store itself. It is really an entertaining place, and just interacting with people and being recognized when you were doing good. They always would surprise you and congratulate you. It was very nice to be appreciated.

A typical day consisted of ringing customers with small or large transactions, cleaning the work station, and providing customer service to any customer in need. 

I learned basic retail / grocery skills such as how to use a cash register, how to keep the work station clean, and when it is appropriate to ask a supervisor for assistance.

The management of this job was adequate. Most of the supervisors were friendly and willing to help and make any situation into a learning opportunity, however others would show a negative attitude. 

The co-workers at this job were mainly excellent. During the training sessions I was very comfortable with every person I worked with and was able to complete my training in a reasonable time. 

One of the hardest parts of the job was dealing with extremely difficult customers. The rule at this store was "The customer is always right, no exceptions!" This rule would be applied even when customers would break store policies or be rude to myself of the other employees. 

The most enjoyable part of the job was conversing with the nice and respectful customers. Being able to make small talk while providing fast customer service made the job very enjoyable.

Stew Leonard's was my first official job and a wonderful first experience in an professional working environment.They provide healthcare to all employees and also give many opportunities for promotion, including training. Days are filled with fun conversation with customers and co-workers who are easily the easily the friendliest people I've ever met whether elder or adolescent. Management, all the while serious at there job, treated me as an equal and considered everything that I said or asked with the importance of a serious issue. Strict but fair with scheduling and time off. I would have the say hardest part about working at this establishment was working through holidays. This is common among all workplaces and not in any way a negative on my experience here. The best part about working here is not only is the cafeteria often stocked with food for employees, you are guaranteed to not only have fun at the workplace but also outside the workplace with various activities, and parties that Stew Leonard's puts together throughout the year for all to enjoy. All in all, though it was my first place of work, it will undoubtedly remain my favorite.

At the time I'm writing this I've been working at Stew's for almost 4 years, and I would say that a lot of what they presented themselves as does not reflect what working here is actually like.

On the surface, they seem friendly and say they're committed to making their employees happy, but that only counts for those they see as "favorites" as for the others they don't actually treat workers all that well and it shows.

The store policy sort of emboldens customers to treat employees pretty poorly too, so if you don't have a lot of paitence for that kind of thing, this probably won't be for you.

HR is pretty passive aggressive and essentially does nothing for the employees. They also will not solve disputes of any kind, even with subjects like workplace harrassment.

Pay isn't too great either, starting you off at minimum and not giving you much in the way of raises. They'll justify it as "you need to do more" no matter how much you do.

There is free food in the breakroom and there are worse places to work, that doesn't make this one all that good.

I’m the beginning it was incredibly fun, everyone was so nice and made it seem like it was almost an amusement park working there! But then slowly it started to become hostile, they have favorites/seniority. Insane amount of drama, rumors and no sort of privacy about personal life. Everyone knows everything and it spreads like a wild fire, management does not care nor do anything after multiple times I have PERSONALLY spoken to HR and they essentially said to “suck it up buttercup”. Managers and supervisors act like teenagers as well, the front end is lead by 16 year olds that barely get breaks or are forgotten about until they have to personally call a supervisor and REMIND them of their break. Mental health is a joke there, no one takes it seriously. I don’t know about the other departments, but cashier, ice cream and coffee departments are extremely toxic. I wouldn’t suggest it if you want to work there longer than a few months.

Working at Stew's is generally okay. The hours are alright, the work is manageable, and the coworkers are great. However, my experience has severely declined due to the company's decisions surrounding the coronavirus. For one, the ice cream counter and coffee counter remain open. Social distancing is just not possible in the store, especially at peak times, and customers are constantly taking off their masks to eat ice cream and drink coffee, putting employees and other customers needlessly at risk. Also, hazard pay has not returned, even though many employees have been exposed recently due to a spike in Danbury cases. Otherwise Stew Leonard's is normally an okay place to work, but I really disapprove of the company's approach to COVID. Also, the policies on appearance are really conservative: no beards, no visible tattoos, no unnatural hair colors, very limited piercings, etc.

Supervisors were approachable and overall friendly. Flexible with hours. Generally gave employees the benefit of the doubt if a customer situation got out of control. Expected deadlines were reasonable, they preferred that employees take their time to do the job right than to rush through to meet a certain quota. Gave balloons, a slice of cake, and sang happy birthday for employees. Better benefits than most other places.

Lunches were typically not discounted or free, but there was usually bagels, bananas, breakfast cereal, milk, OJ in the break room for anyone to take. Supervisors would issue discount lunch tickets for good work. Every so often would be free food for whatever reason. Supervisors were lenient with break schedules to ensure everyone who wanted could get food in those events.

Wages left something to be desired and were generally not enough to afford to live nearby.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Host/hostess 190 salaries reported	$17.65 per hour
Cashier 85 salaries reported	$17.32 per hour
Baker 127 salaries reported	$18.63 per hour
Security officer 44 salaries reported	$17.98 per hour
Receiver 66 salaries reported	$18.72 per hour

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