customer experience associate

food service worker

retail sales associate

foreman

shift manager

The Exchange

AAFES has a network in it that only promotes based on popularity. It's one of the worst career moves you can make. Regardless of how hard you work, or how much they put you in charge of while you worked there if your manager is called on a day when they are in a bad mood they will give you a negative referral. I've had managers who have praised me endlessly and then when I talked to employers who called them I was told they spoke negatively about me or failed to have anything positive to say at all.  You can't get promoted either. You have to apply for a whole new job in the company. If you go from one position to another within AAFES they don't even call your last manager. They rate you based on military service, employee reviews (3 years and I've only gotten one it was positive but not having a current one hurts your chances of advancing,) and time with the company. This last one is really crucial. Some of the laziest and incompetent people I have ever met in my life are the managers at AAFES. They get these positions for three reasons; they have been with the company for a long time (it's also impossible to get fired,) they retired from the military with a high rank, or they are a local national (overseas, they hire mostly local nationals so they don't have to give benefits.) Working for AAFES you will encounter some of the worst people you will ever meet, but only as it concerns easy to spot things YOU do, and not how they do their own jobs. For instance, you could work really hard for hours, but if a manager who's been outside smoking all day comes by and sees you going to the bathroom they will treat you like you're lazy. In their defense though, they don't spend too much time actually working so they wouldn't really know that you do. You will also find that they make decisions that affect your livelihood based on nothing more than an opinion they have. Managers are never questioned. The employee is always wrong. Blame is always placed at the lowest level. You will be accused of being slow, lazy, or even stealing if your manager is doing such a poor job that customers complain or they lose inventory. There doesn't even have to be any reason for them to think it's you, that's simply where the blame process will start. I've worked in the warehouse, customer service, food delivery, on the sales floor, for LP, and in the HR department. I haven't had one decent manager yet. I've seen people be backstabbing, deceitful, gossipy, commit character assassination, and any other form of corruption you can think of to throw a subordinate under the bus just to avoid being called out for their poor management. This is the worst company culture I have ever seen and I was in a military unit that was put under investigation. If I had a time machine I would go back and never apply to this company. It's ruined my chances of ever getting another job on base, and I am considered a stellar employee by everyone I work for.

Like anyone, I was very excited when I first got the job as a foo service worker. The food court manager was friendly and he really cared about the progression of the business and my coworkers, His first day was also my first day so it was pretty cool. After he left, however, things seemed to take a turn for the worst. No one seems to care that certain employees are over worked, and those same over worked individuals are given a hard time when it comes to getting paid for hours already worked. Several of the employees' checks (including my own) have been shorted by managers in order to save their skins. According to what we are told my managers: "AFFES doesn't do overtime". This isn't true because it is illegal, however, some managers get away with it anyway if you are not paying attention. Apparently, the GM is the only one who can approve overtime and it must be requested first. But this helps no one when the food court is slam packed with customers and your facility is short on man power because someone failed to show up for their shift. This rule seems so heavily enforced that our own managers are willing to steal the hours you worked hard for in order to make it look like they did everything right. Meanwhile, employees continue to work hard and settle for whatever they get in order to keep their jobs and tend to their responsibilities at home.

I was getting 35 hours a week for a period in time because I was the only person who could fulfill running the facility while both managers were absent over a course of 3 weeks. Often times I had to stay late resulting in me going over 40 hours for the week. instead of receiving time and a half, I was persuaded into settling for Sunday pay plus night time pay (which still only reached up to half of what i should have received). Considering the fact that I left school in order to maintain my job, I expected a bit more effort into treating me fairly. This brings me to my last point.

This position advertises itself on being flexible with students. this has to be the worst lie AAFES has ever told. I could not even maintain being in school half time and working without my managers hounding me for not giving the, enough of my time. AAFES isn't all terrible, but the only ones who seem to back you 110% is Human Resources. But who wants to spend half their time running back and forth to them after being mistreated over and over? I've gotten lengthy here, but If you are a student or young person looking for your first job, do not work for AAFES.I would use AAFES as a stepping stone to greater opportunities elsewhere, but not within the company. AAFES seems to do their best to hold you down where you are no mater how much you have contributed with little to no chances of climbing the ladder.

As an optimistic person, I truly had my hopes up to enjoy my newfound job. I've come to realize this company really doesn't care how it's associates are handled. The second day I come in I'm hearing how majority of the front cashiers left and people in outdoor living all quit. How about I just say these pointers. 
1. You start out at $8.00/hour ($9.75 is the base amount of which Aafes gives 1.75 and hour of your paycheck to charity, so you're partially working for free)

2. We had the loss prevention team always harassing employees, they watched their employees more than their customers.

3. There is NO benefits, whatsoever from working for Aafes, (even our foodcourt vendors received benefits), however "Aafes doesn't care" that's what everybody says as a slogan.

4. They give silly incentives, work for one year to get a .25 raise, and a 10% discount giftcard (there is no creativity in this job these trash incentives are just meant to deter you from pursuing your life goals and feeling good about a little reward)

5. Promotion is almost pointless. Supervisors/Managers starting pay is $9.73/hour which you can start with at any a federal job with. I couldn't understand how people survive if they're not only working for free but being UNDER PAID.

6. I was always lied to about my rights and things I was allowed to do. Most of my actions that I was allowed to do was restricted because management making up rules that didn't exist.

7. Now you're reading this and thinking maybe this is just your typical stressful job, however management trash. My dept. had to do the job of THREE different other departments; simply because management "Tolerated" other dept. managers slacking while we had to exert ourselves harder.

So as I wrap my conclusions up. Let me just say a few more words. I sold 40k by myself in one day through electronics (NO commission given). My paycheck comes out to 360$ every two weeks, they've messed my paycheck up and underpaid me. I am still young, and many people might be thinking "welcome to the real world", but for every sale I make, I'm making another person richer and I'm practically losing money for the time I spend working there. My advice is don't waste your time at Aafes and become miserable over an $8/hour job. It's really, really isn't not worth it. Many jobs especially "retail" will give commission for your skills & knowledge but legit everybody in my job told me "Aafes does not give a sh** about their workers" They really do NOT. 

Please do not work at this terrible job that underpays you, overworks you, and doesn't even give you a DESERVING award/bonus. Find anywhere else to work but Aafes.

not a very fun place to work at all.. but is someone supposed to enjoy 'work' ? - interview was very easy - just got filled in with info and didn't have many questions at all. was a little pumped to get the job. but, after a year or so, i begin to figure out that if your foreman doesn't like you, you won't get very far. work is not equal - some people seem to just walk back and forth while others are constantly loading boxes (light and HEAVY boxes - like cases of liquor - 100's of cases at a time). they talk about teamwork, but a lot of people just stand around and talk or help their friends. you never know when you will be leaving when you get there - different amount of boxes to load each day - you might have a door that has 300 or you might have a door that has 1500 or 2000 boxes weighing up to 60,000lbs total. and you have to load almost all by hand....it's not on pallets that you load... they come down a conveyor at a steady rate. you have a garage door opener switch to let the boxes come down, but if you get behind a red light comes on (that's where the teamwork supposed to come in - they say "help the ones with the red light" but don't count on it)... and if it's a heavy day, plan on staying past 8hrs loading at "your door".... then when it's wednesday, here comes the foreman with a volunteer sheet asking if you want to work saturday... no volunteers? - that's okay, they just come back around with another sheet saying that "due to the workload, there will be mandatory overtime on saturday - thanks for doing your part to support the warriors".... then on holidays same story - memorial day, july 4th, labor day, new years day - mandatory work day - "...thanks for doing your part in supporting the warriors..." sure you can quit, but in this economy, who is going to quit?... and if you have health issues, who can afford to lose the insurance?.... after 3yrs with the "pay freeze" for federal employees, still making $10.40/hr. that's what they pay for somebody to wear out their body loading trailers. i'll probably resign soon..... oh forgot to mention, they have an ergonomics online training bit that says that employees should be allowed to sit when possible - but they want everybody to stand, even when there is a break in the work.. and when there's not really anything to do, they want you to be sweeping, dusting, or picking up trash.... but then again there's people in the offices playing solitaire on the computer. so if you want to get ahead at aafes, just be there everyday - stay late - volunteer for overtime - come in early .....................

I worked here from late 2019 to early 2020. I got the job as a favor since the warehouse manager knew my wife. I thought I was extremely lucky but what I got in return was that I was regularly moved to different departments to stock where I regularly was given over 8 pallets every other day and was "expected to finish" unloading them all myself within a few hours, meanwhile everybody else had 1 and a half pallets. Asking for help was very frowned upon. Since I was unable to keep up, the warehouse manager talked to my wife and casually mentioned the idea of firing me for a "lack of performance." Returning the next day, they moved me to working for their Ecommerce section, a section that got paid higher yet I was not compensated for it. Meanwhile, I was not allowed to stock my area which left it unstocked for two weeks which management was upset, however, I was not allowed to stock my own area on my shift since I was in Ecommerce for two weeks. They kept me for the holiday season but did not socialize with me and management often highly regarded people who did little to no work every day and spent their day socializing.

One day in late January, I was working a shift with my wife and a friend when I noticed management would not acknowledge my presence at all and would refuse to talk to me or look at me, meanwhile the warehouse manager came up to a girl I was working with and made very uncomfortable remarks about their body, right next to me. At the end of my shift, I was pulled into the office where the warehouse manager told me he was firing me, did not state a reason, and encouraged me to apply for a food court position instead. I shook his hand and thanked him for the opportunity at this job.

After my termination, my access to the employee panel was immediately cut off and I lost access to my paystubs and where my W-2 would be. I called HR multiple times to gain access to my W-2 since taxes would be due and they said they would mail it out. With taxes being due within days, I had to email corporate HR and threaten legal action if I did not receive my W-2 and it was mailed out the next day.

Worked here as an office assistant for services and left a little less than a year into the job. The office manager was a very foul human being who constantly talked badly about workers in other offices that she didn't even know and called them names I wouldn't repeat. I was hired at the age of 19, and she would often call me a teenager or a kid and tell me she knew how to handle me because she "raised a teenager before". She had a raging superiority complex and told me she was "bold" when in reality, she was just horribly mean to anyone who talked to her. She would often demand thank I do menial tasks I wasn't hired for such as dumping out her drinks or throwing away her lunch waste for her, and she would often leave her garbage on my desk (once she even left a pair of socks there). There was one incident where she physically shoved me out of her way. I went to the human resources manager to report it, who told me I would have to talk to the regional HR office but convinced me not to. The office manager I worked for was always out of office and her office assistant was mainly in charge for the duration of my employment. He was equally unprofessional, often pushing for me to work through my breaks and reflecting his own self-image issues onto me, telling me when I was eating something that had too many carbs, when I was gaining weight and when my butt was getting smaller, and on multiple occasions sitting me down at his desk to show me photos of when he was "skinnier" and asked me if he has gotten fat. Both managers would make fun of me and mock things I said in a "valley girl accent," probably just because I'm a young white girl, and both would be out of office for the whole day without telling me or answering my phone calls, leaving me unsupervised and unsure of my tasks for the day. I switched to another department that had similar problems and eventually just decided to ditch the company altogether. I was paid well but both positions were HR nightmares and I would never work there again. 

Coming from a military background I was excited to be apart of a company that serves our military and their families. I’ve worked at this company for several years now and the first couple of years was Amazing! I had the chance to build relationships with many of the customers and some of the employees. Over time I learned  different jobs and increase my knowledge in the retail business. Yet things changed with the new management that’s in charge at this present time. Customers complain much more now. Unsatisfied with merchandise and how they are talked too when they have a problem concerning their purchase/purchases. (from Management) Associates are over worked, definitely underpaid, & are treated horribly. Even in the presence of customers, the superiors are outrageously unprofessional. Management doesn’t appreciate the workers. Associates are more frustrated and stressed because of the hostile and uncomfortable environment. I’ve watched many employees come and go because of unfair treatment. The Company will cover up wrong doings of the management and higher ups, leaving the door open for more unnecessary issues that causes more problems. Associates feel theirs No one in their corner when issues arise. HR isn’t any better, doesn’t know the job or how to go about situations as they arise as well. Takes entirely too long for them to acknowledge a problem rather it be Customers or Associates. They are giving people positions by the way of favoritism. Don’t look forward to promotions if you’re not in their good graces. Literally they have individuals (management) in positions that are collecting checks and no where near concerned or considerate of the work place nor associates! Even during Covid-19 Pandemic No extra income is a option for the workers. Early yearly bonus, yay. Help for one Month. Things are handled just enough for the management to get by. No protection. Nothing but bad attitudes and excuses are given to comfort the associates! In Need of New Management all the way up to the GM. From my understanding her record of complaints created speaks for itself.

I'll say up front that many of the coworkers and supervisors I worked with were really friendly people, and that the company was great at recognizing employees' hard work, however...from the time I was onboarding to after my departure, I experienced nothing but disorganization and a complete lack of communication in this company.  I was given 30 minutes notice one day to show up for orientation despite it being scheduled for the following week, and then was made the butt of jokes at that orientation for showing up a few minutes after it started (I was late because I was given such short notice). I was scheduled past my availability, which we agreed on up front, on countless occasions, and despite speaking with the supervisors about it every single time, it persisted throughout my time there.  No one contacted me when we opened late during bad weather, so multiple times I showed up at 5:30 a.m. to an empty building and parking lot, only to have to try to contact the supervisors myself to get details.  I witnessed employees who'd been scheduled for days off having them revoked a day before because the supervisor who made the schedule decided they wanted one more person the next day (despite those employees already having made commitments for those days off). Some supervisors would openly scold employees in common areas where employees and customers could see/hear, and many times I witnessed supervisors talking ill of employees in common areas where others could hear.  Supervisors had a very hard time communicating goals, expectations, and duties to employees and each other on a daily basis, which led to misunderstandings and goals not being met.  After resigning, the company immediately revoked my ability to view my pay stubs and W-2 online, and my W-2 still hasn't been mailed (it's mid- February now).  I could go on, but I think the picture is pretty clear.  Friendliness, be it genuine or a facade, can only go so far in a company, so just be aware of these things if you decide to apply.  

Each working day different from other days some are long and some are short. Typical day when we are not helping customers we are stocking, building, and checking inventory for anything new to be put out. 
    You learn something everyday and learn a lot from customers in the process. What I have learned that customers always first, listen to what they are asking, and  give it you all to provide help, answers, or merchandise for your customers. Customers who leaves the store with a smile and satisfied with the service tends to come back for repeat service as a store you want that.
    Managers at my job are wonderful people and enjoying with them each day. They are good what they do and they make it easy to learn from them in tough situations. They provide that sense of support and always try to maintain contact throughout the day should their assistance is need. During my time at my current job I have worked with managers who has shown great deal of support for their associates.  Management I'm working with nothing but a pleasure  working with them and I have learn a lot from them.
    My co-workers are wonderful people I have the pleasure working with. It has been awhile since I have worked with my current co-workers and they a blessing to work with. Working with them make working a lot easier and a lot more fun that helps tremendously on morale and for customers.
    Everyday has a chance of you being pulled in many different directions and helping others at the same time. It is difficult when you are short handed and trying to provide assistance to customers as well. During hard times like that best thing I can do is one step, one person at a time.
    At the end of the day when a customers or customers you have helped comes up to you smiles and thanks you for your time that is the most enjoyable part of the job. Knowing you have provided a wonderful shopping experience, provided answers for their questions, and when they leave their merchandise in had and with a smile there is not better joy then getting a smiling thank you from customers.

I have worked for AAFES (Exchange) in management for years, I’m closer to retirement than not.  At this particular point, I am too invested to leave.  I am loyal to the organization and believe in the mission (at least as defined by HQ), but I would never recommend that anyone make the Exchange a career.  If you just need a job or aren’t looking to make any sort of commitment, you’d probably be ok.  Just don’t have high expectations.

There is no real advancement potential for management.  They’ve cut costs and are leaving people in spot.  You do the same thing, day in and day out.  There is no growth.  They’ve also cut out most of the training opportunities that once existed and are relying on online training or have become overly dependent on webinars which are esssentially watching a Power Point on a computer monitor while someone one reads a script in a monotone voice.

My general manger attempts to manage through intimidation, but no one has enough respect for him to care.  Although his threats are mostly empty, it’s still a stressful and unrewarding environment.  I’ve lost respect for region leadership because they allow people like him to be in positions of responsibility.  They come in shake some hands, give a little direction and say something lofty things to make it seem like they care about us, but they don’t.  

I just don’t care anymore.  I do my job and make no effort to go above and beyond because it accomplishes nothing.  I still get paid the same no matter if I do just what’s required or go above and beyond,  There is no real recognition and no career advancement no matter how you are scored, rated or even perform (particularly when you work for someone who is afraid of region leadership and his only instinct is to cover himself and stay off the radar).

So tomorrow I will get up, go to work again and die a little bit more inside.  You don’t need to experience the same dread day in and day out, explore more viable career opportunities.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Customer experience associate 1628 salaries reported	$18.17 per hour
Food service worker 1389 salaries reported	$19.31 per hour
Retail sales associate 642 salaries reported	$19.87 per hour
Foreman 506 salaries reported	$24.56 per hour
Shift manager 414 salaries reported	$25.82 per hour

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