merchandising associate

retail sales associate

backroom associate

seasonal associate

retail assistant manager

The TJX Companies, Inc.

As an unarmed Loss Prevention Detective, I am required to perform the task of locating, watching and apprehending career criminals (customers) that enter the store and steal merchandise and exit the store with that merchandise. Then I am to somehow talk these (sometimes  unstable drug addict) individuals back into the store without touching them and all the way to the back of the store, embarrassing the subject by passing several staring customers, and get them to enter into a 7 by 7 inch LP office, where I would then gather information from the subject. Then I am to wait with this uncuffed anxious individual for sometimes hours for the police to arrive. This in a city where the police department only answers 911 calls by level of urgency according to the fire department who actually answers the calls. All this for about $12/hour and with a company who hours of operation are from 9:30am to 9:30pm making it impossible to work a second job that isn't overnight, especially when loss prevention detectives at this particular company are required to work two closing shifts, two mid shifts, and one opening shift every week. Basically any of those shifts will claim your whole day if you have plans to go to school or work a second job. And then on top of that, Management and above treat you, and speak to you as if you are beneath them and not worthy of any recognition or respect. And that's just my position. The other employees that are tasked with receiving the truck every morning at 4am or running a register for hours hoping to get a customer to sign up for a TJX credit card that they don't even want so as to not be written up, these employees make between $7.25 and $11.00 an hour depending on how many years they have been there. It breaks my heart to know that I came into this company at $12/hour ( $3.65 less than I was paid at another company to do the same job) and everyday I see a guy who works so hard to take care of his family on a wage of just $11.00 an hour having been with this company just over eleven years. That is Modern day Slavery and that is just one example of how this company gets over on its employees on referred to by a store manager right in front of me as the help... It disgusted me to hear those words come out of his mouth in reference to the people that help to make his store one the highest in sales in the district, if not the region...That is why I am on this website today looking for a better position elsewhere, because this company has caused me so much stress, anxiety, mental anguish, fear, time loss, and bitterness from struggling trying to hold on to see if it gets better. I know now that it will not and I know now that for my own health, I must leave as soon as possible... I'm tired of putting myself on the line for forty hours every week trying to stop a delegated amount of criminal shoplifters every mouth to secure my stressful position with a company that has only given me 38 hours of vacation time, about 21 hours of personal time within a two year time period in which most of that time was used when I was out of work with a back injury caused by sitting in rock hard chairs watching cameras in their stores for hours at a time. Every company I have ever worked for except this one gives their full time employees 8 hours of holiday pay and the choice to work on the holiday for extra income (time & a half). Not TJMaxx... I am only give 7 hours holiday pay and I am not allowed to get any time in a half as if I make to much already... Working at TJMaxx, you will be super stressed, in most cases, unappreciated and definitely under compensated. I don't recommend anyone but high school students work for this company unless you are management or above where you could possibly be somewhat safe from the tragedy that is of working in these modern day plantation-like concentration camp stores... God Bless all struggling to make ends meet in RETAIL...

They say they’re looking to the future but change is very slow. They’re comfortable where they are and any real change will always be challenged with “we have a process”, even if that process makes no sense. Based on my experience I was constantly trying to tell management ways to improve the role, different processes we can implement, etc. But I was always shot down to conform to the way they wanted to do things even when it didn’t make sense. This is a creative role so a lot of the ways that traditional corporate processes work won’t apply 1:1. Even when I would give explanations and reasons, I was still not listened to. It seemed like they just wanted to be correct because they were “the boss”. I never got a sense that they actually valued my experience. They just wanted someone to tell what to do with the facade of making to seem like they wanted your opinion 

Projects are often rushed with little prep time which leads to a lot of backtracking once a project is in motion. I cannot tell you the amount of times where I had to go back to a store to re-film or photograph something that should have been done the first time. 

Any legitimate issue I had and brought up they would always find a way to turn it back on me. They’d recommend what I could have done better, even if the issue at hand was no way in my control or I wasn’t at fault. They never took accountability of anything so real issues never were fixed. 

Often times it felt like management did not know how to articulate what they wanted out of a project. Instead, they’ll tell you to do what you think or “we want to see what you come up with” only for it to be changed to exactly what they wanted which leads to a lot of wasted time. It was frustrating because I would go into a project not having a clear scope, direction, or drive. 

Management was not knowledgeable of key terms and responsibilities of my role. My role focused on video production and photography. A lot of time they would lump terms/roles together because it fits into the creative bucket which lead to a lot of confusion about expectations. For instance they thought that motion design means graphic design which if you are either of these you know how wrong that is.

My manager was not at all knowledgeable in the role I was in. I have a strong video production and creative background and my manager does not, at all. I found it difficult to believe how TJX thought it best to have someone manage me that didn’t know the industry I worked in. It became hard to bring up issues as whenever I did it felt like my manager never saw my side and would instantly take upper managements side on issues, even if I did my best to articulate myself. They never listened to me. In my experience a manager always had more experience than me and would advocate on my behalf because they knew what was needed to get the job done. No offense to my manager but they were thrusted into a manager role in which they were not ready for. I’m not saying that my manager was a bad manager per se, they were just a bad manager FOR ME and the role I was in. 

The place was way too cliquey. Social events were forced but if you didn’t show up it won’t be definitely frowned upon. I was once told to interact with people in the office more when I told them that I felt like the team I was put on doesn’t represent my role. Instead of listening to me concerns their solutions was that “I must not be social enough”. I’ve never seen more office politics into life. And they’ll make it seem like it isn’t so but it’s there. Politics seemed more important than the work at times.

HR is a joke. They will find ways to lie to you and blame you so they are not at fault. Even when you have evidence on your side they will act dumb and give you a generic “corporate answer” not ever addressing the issue. They address it by threatening termination and other solutions that only work for them.

Everything is terrible, and here's why:

MarMaxx and TJX do not care about anything but credit card goals. Your goal is always 1 credit signup for every 100 customers you cashier, but that's nearly impossible considering most people do not want a credit card. Only 2-3 of my coworkers were able to achieve that 1% ratio monthly and they usually do it by lying about card benefits or not disclosing to customers that what they're applying for is NOT a rewards card (ie. a points card a la ULTAmate Rewards or Target Circle), but a full-fledged instant credit line with TJ Maxx. They would even tell me to target people who don't speak English or younger/really old people for easy signups. Every five minutes somebody will shout into the walkie that "we can't have a zero day!" The rewards from being the first one to get a credit card are useless in the long run and mean nothing to me as a career-forward person; rewards can be anything from snacks to REACH cards (stands for Remember Everyone Affects Customer Happiness - very culty!) that are cashed in daily to be entered into a drawing to win, wait for it, a 20% OFF COUPON. That's it!

There are essentially no promotion opportunities if you don't hit this goal. If anything they give you more work to do without an increase in pay. The 2-3 people who hit that goal are overworked and have seen basically no  benefits increase in YEARS. These poor people are stuck doing the same job every single day and are carrying the store on their backs, and for what? Break room snacks? Big whoop!

Another issue would be the lack of staff available on any given day. I've been in situations where I was the ONLY PERSON scheduled to cashier on a weekend day until around 2:30-3 PM. I'd have to pull coordinators off the floor to help with cashiering, preventing them from doing their job, and then they'd get upset with management when they can't do what they're supposed to do. It makes it even harder when some merch coords don't know how to operate a cash register. My location also deals with a lot of minors, which makes it difficult for us to get help before 2-3 PM anyway because of school. I can genuinely say we have maybe 1 or 2 part-time cashiers that have open availability. Everybody is very moody regarding this issue, especially since it can easily be fixed with shifting people around or considering that somebody may call out sick. (another thing - if somebody calls out sick, you're pretty much SOL. They will sometimes try to bring somebody in to replace them, but usually there's no replacement for the day.) 

Something else that frequently happens is how slow the line moves and the frustration that comes from customers as this happens. I've been called names countless times because of this issue, and it's not even my fault. I addressed this with all four of my supervisors and the answer every time is to "roll it off your back." It's just discouraging to hear that they wont make any changes to scheduling and allow their workers to be in the firing line. I've had customers tell me awful things or make me feel like a massive idiot for something I can't even control. 

The only good thing about TJ Maxx are the lunch breaks - 45 minutes for full time - and you get benefits if you're a full time employee. You also get a fun name tag that says your role, if you like feeling important for two seconds. Discount is bad - 10% off year round and 20% off weekends like 5 times a year. You can hold merchandise for the 20% off a few weeks in advance though, so that's cool. 

Steer clear if you're looking for full time work, might be good if you're young or in school and look for some extra $$. Hours are bad for PT though so you might be stuck not working for a whole week or two. Would really only recommend to a HS student with no bills to pay.

I was a CSC and MC for both a TJ MAXX and a Marshalls. I liked working at TJ MAXX for the most part. I started out part time in Zone 3 and a year later I was a MC for Zones 2 and 3 and I also filled in as a CSC on non-truck days when one quit. Working at the TJ MAXX was like hanging out with my second family. There was one manager who nobody liked though. She sat in the office the enitre time eating cookies and kept shoving her work off onto me. Filing and paperwork and other stuff that was part of her job as the operations manager kept ending up in my box with notes telling me to hurry up and do these things so she wouldn't get in trouble. Nobody liked her. Other than that, I loved it. I worked a lot of overtime which kind of made up for the low hourly pay even though it was more work to get the money. Unfortunately that store closed due to the bad location. They reopened a few years later in a different location but by that time I had transferred to a Marshalls in another state.

Marshalls was a different story. They had basically the same routine for me. MC on truck days and CSC on non-truck days. But they cut my hours down to half of what I was working at TJ MAXX and still expected me to get things done. Of course I couldn't do it barely getting 30 hours a week with merchandisers only scheduled for 4 hours on truck days to process merchandise and not have time to push freight. I had to push all the Z2 and Z3 merchandise then by myself. The managers were mean. They made fun of people (I'm sure I was included in those people though they made sure to never do it to my face though I did hear them doing it to others.) behind their backs and were always shoving there work onto me and others. They tried to make me also cover the BRC job on truck days but I refused because we had a BRC already and I got yelled at for refusing. They kept pulling the BRC away to process things because the processors were so busy chatting on their cell phones they couldn't get their work done instead of making them all do their jobs which includes helping to unload the truck. The other associates were not any nicer. I couldn't get any of my merchandisers or cashiers working in my areas to do anything. They were all really rude and kept saying since we weren't friends they weren't going to do any work I told them to do. I tried reporting them to my managers but was told that it was my fault. The managers were good friends outside of work with some of the associates I was reporting so of course they threw the blame all on me. I ended up just walking out after 6 months of working there. I didn't call in. I didn't give a notice. I didn't care. The former store manager at the TJ MAXX I had worked at was so nice to me about it. He gave me a reference and told me to hang in there when it came to my job search after leaving Marshalls.

It's crazy how one store can care so much about it's associates and customers (With the exception of that one opertions manager.) to another store clearly not caring about anyone. Last I heard about that Marshalls store was that the DM had to come in and do a complete overhaul because all the Coordinators quit and walked out. At least one of the managers was fired. I don't know what happened after that. I hope they shut that store down. Terrible place to work. If that TJ MAXX hadn't closed down I know for a fact I'd still be working there. Even with that one bad manager and the low pay. I loved everyone else there and how willing they were to help you out and work together. Too bad that Marshalls ruined it for me. I really liked working for this company.

My typical day depended on the area I was working, if I was the key carrier I would be responsible for all duties of a store manager, it would be opening the store, making sure the employees were all present that were scheduled, if someone was not present I would replace them if needed. Make sure the days shipment of merchandise is accepted and processed. Make sure all department managers are aware of the days tasks. Place the change in all registers and make sure that they are all working, after making sure that the store was ready to open I would open the doors. I would then follow up with all associates and make sure everything is moving smoothly while greeting our guests, When the office manager was ready I would finalize the deposits for the previous days receipts insuring that the deposit was ready to be picked up. If I was closing I would be responsible for the cleanliness of the store assigning associate to the areas that need the most work and following up to made sure that the total store is ready for the next says opening, After the store is closed I would close all registers, place all money in the safe and then start the days computer closing process. Lastly I would set alarm and make sure all associates are out of the store and that all doors are all locked.
If i was a department manager I would first check to see today's list of tasks that were left by our Merch. manag , then walk my area listing all items that needed to be addressed, next would be to prioritize today's needs. Followed by meeting with my associates that work my area and discuss to days agenda and plan our attack.I would work with associates that needed assistance ,either to teach or just assist. If my assistance is not needed I would work on today's tasked working to finish all needed tasks in a timely manner. Along with my duties as a department manager I also greet guests, answer question, and assist them in their shopping need. If needed I also cashier. If I am their in the morning when we receive the merchandise shipment I either help to received the truck or if I'm the floor manager I inform all associates were the merchandise that was delivered today needed to be placed,

My time at TJX I was taught their merchandising procedures, their receiving procedures, the responsibilities of a department manager and how to teach and work with associates, I was taught the the procedures of being an assistant manager and all that it detailed,

For the most part all my co-workers at TJX were wonderful, like anywhere you will always have difficulty with some , and your task is to work to make that difficulty a positive.

The hardest part of my job may have been not having enough time with with associates to properly teach, and my most enjoyable part was seeing a associate that you have wprked with succeed and also
helping our guests.

The last item I will comment on is management in the 7 years I worked for TJX I had an arey of managers all had their strengths and their faults but one thing I can positivily state that I did learn from all of them.

When you start off at The TJX Companies or one of its brands (HomeGoods, Marshalls, etc) it is an enjoyable experience. Once you work for the company for a few months, you start to see all of the issues within the company. As a Loss Prevention Detective, the pay is extremely poor for the amount of work that is expected from you. The entire company pays all of its employees poorly and doesn't give many raises. Every year the company will do an annual review on you and you may get a small raise. Other than that don't expect to get paid much at all. The turnover rate is extremely high because of poor pay and everyone is miserable because the company expects so much from us. The higher-ups then blame the management staff for low headcounts in stores but refuse to raise the minimum hourly rate to over $11. Working with Loss Prevention isn't nearly as bad as working on the store operations side of things. You report to the DLPM and you receive adequate training that will help you succeed. You get to meet a lot of great people, but just like any company, there are the ones that do not care and are lazy. As an LP Detective, you indirectly oversee hundreds of store associates, including management. Management in stores for the most part does a great job, but I have noticed that some of the managers will gladly throw you under the bus if it means they protect themselves from any repercussions. Workplace culture is decent, but far from great. You can learn a lot from the company but it definitely comes at a cost. The hardest part was dealing with partnering with management when you notice an issue that needs to be fixed. This isn't really any fault on the managers but rather corporate putting so much work and stress on the management teams. Job advancement is possible in this company, but good luck going from a regular associate all the way to a management position. The company will do anything but improve the quality of work-life if it means they maximize their profits as much as they can. If you're looking for a part-time job, then this might be a good place for you to make a few hundred bucks on the side. If you are looking for full-time, I highly recommend you seek other employment opportunities, or else you'll regret it. I do not recommend working for this company. All of these reasons, most importantly pay, have forced me to leave this company.

Management was never anywhere to be found. They found out that if they understaffed us and saved money each week from doing so, they could get a bigger bonus at the end of the year, so that's what they did. They would always hide away in the office, and you would have to ask for a certain person over the intercom, over the walkie, and by phoning the office several times before they would come up. Managers never helped. They would just come up and criticize us for the long lines when we were doing the best we could with only two cashiers. They never helped with returns unless they were closing and they saw that we couldn't do it on our own while also being the only cashiers available. By then it would be too late. We were constantly staying way over our scheduled time. We would be scheduled until 9:45, but would work until 10:30. If you asked to go home sooner, they'd look at you like you were crazy and tell you that when you're scheduled until 9:45, you're actually scheduled until when everything's done, no matter how long it takes. It always took forever due to the chronic understaffing. People were horribly undertrained. Management was often very rude to people, playing favorites and being downright mean to people they didn't like. They were often very childish in how they acted towards people. Management would never give us the resources we needed to thrive and would get mad at us for not meeting their high expectations. Nothing was ever enough. They were inconsistent with how many hours a week they worked you, and if you requested off even a day or two, they would cut your hours down for weeks as punishment. I was often left doing their role- leading people, talking to customers, trying to find solutions and fix things, being a presence- all while having to check people out because I was one of few cashiers during a busy time. Moral was horrendously low. No one liked working there. Several people cried due to the stress management was constantly putting on us. It became apparent after some time the only way to get promoted was to suck up. That's just the tip of the iceberg for why working for TJX sucked. It was overall an extremely stressful and toxic environment, to the point where I don't even want to shop at any company owned by TJX. I would definitely never work there again. I'd rather be poor and unemployed than subject myself to an incredibly toxic and stressful environment where management constantly walked all over me and others.

Working in planning has been a double-edged sword.  Depending on the team dynamics of the group you are working with at any time, your experience could be an absolute pleasure or total nightmare.

The company's "open door policy" allows associates at any level to provide and receive feedback or discuss issues or developmental needs with their managers and fellow associates at any time.  Unfortunately, because the office environment is also very open, privacy can be difficult, and often times associates and/or management will gather in the halls or cubicles to whisper.  This behavior, though potentially done so for the sake of confidentiality, actually is more of a distraction to the workplace, and at times instills a sense of paranoia within a department.

The company's "working in the gray" mantra is also a key element of the company culture, particularly in planning.  Unfortunately, this also gives managers the ability to place blame on associates for completing tasks or strategizing in a way that is different from theirs by telling them they could have performed their work in a different way than it had been.  Though this mindset claims "there's no wrong way of looking at something," often times you are being told you are wrong simply because when you're working in the gray, there really isn't a "right" way to do anything at all.

Lastly, the overall sense of ego within the company made it difficult to remain focused on my development.  You will be constantly pushed to prove "how bad you want it."  Just saying you want to work here and be a buyer isn't enough.  Several times people have almost cannibalized their team by bending the truth, gossiping or even lying about other associates.  It's quite dispicable.

Overall my experience at TJX was mixed, and it all depended on who I was working with at the time.  People are the company's biggest asset and the biggest challenge; unfortunately once you become a buyer, bad behavior is rewarded, and things like "open door policy," open and honest feedback, and working in the gray go out the window to satisfy the egos of the folks that so many of the associates in planing aspire to become.  If you can grit your teeth and hang on, best of luck.  If you're a mature human being who knows what a corporate job could be like, I'd move on.

As stock room associate I was in charge of all aspects of the back room operations and if I was need on the floor I communicated with customers as well. A typical day at work encompassed communication with both internal and external customers, 
Co-workers and peers great group of people. Most enjoyable aspect was in getting to know employees and valuing them like family.Jobs in the category are responsible for the execution of all receiving activities including unloading merchandise, merchandise preparation and staging, outbound shipments, and daily stockroom activities. Assist in maintaining the stockroom in a neat, orderly and safe manner. Other duties include promptly serving the customer at merchandise pick-up, properly sorting merchandise, and properly using all material handling and safety equipment. 
• Partners with Selling and Sales Support Associates to provide superior customer service 
• Unloads delivery trucks, moves merchandise to appropriate staging locations, and maintains stockrooms in a neat, orderly, and safe manner 
• Serves customers promptly at Merchandise Pick Up 
• Understands website navigation, and proactively leverages technology in order to facilitate the customer experience 
• Performs Fill Floor process multiple times per day based on business need, pulling and staging merchandise for Merchandising & Pricing Associate to place on the sales floor 
• Locates and pulls merchandise on Out of Stock Pull List, and stages merchandise for Merchandising & Pricing Associates to place on the sales floor 
• Locates and pulls merchandise and fixtures to support sales floor resets 
• Completes minor repairs of store stock and customer merchandise 
• Assembles merchandise for sales floor display and customer sales 
• Completes point of sale equipment repair and assists Facility team as required 
• Inspects returned merchandise, and determines proper disposition or handling 
• Adheres to merchandise and inventory protection standards 
• Uses basic internet navigation to access and print information/reports 
• Performs other duties as assigned 
As with all retail I believe you are continually faced with challenges, you have to be willing to be flexible, have a sense of urgency everyday and with every project, value your customers and your employees, and like what you do.

TJ Maxx is a great place to work in if you're a college student, a first time worker, or someone in need of pocket change.

The hours are incredibly flexible and based on your availability, though they have their requirements too (like weekends/closing shifts), etc.

The pay could be better, but you get an increase every year and there is opportunity to grow, though it may depend on your willingness to move forward with the company.

The employee culture is incredibly diverse. Everyone gets along for the most part and employees look out for each other, especially when management can get troublesome. Management changes every 3 years, so adjusting to the newest Assistant Manager may be a hassle for some people.

And because management changes so often, you'll sometimes get someone you either really enjoy or really dislike.

The holiday season is the worst, starting from after Thanksgiving all the way through the New Year. Hours are long, management is stressed, there's too much merchandise and the store hours change to accommodate for the insanity. The worst part of the holiday is when it's over. Schedules get cut to accommodate for the holiday expenses, and you may find yourself with little to no days of work. This period only lasts up until March, but two months of working between 10-15 hours may be too much of a risk for some.

Full-timers get the usual benefits (retirement, health insurance, accumulative paid vacations, etc) while part-timers get some benefits (accumulated personal hours, sick hours & a retirement plan)

The most annoying thing is pushing their credit card. It's not difficult to do, but there are daily goals to meet and depending on the management, can either make you or break you (in terms of patience).

Overall, it's a great place for high schoolers or people who have been out of the workforce for a while as it will help them gain customer service experience and cashiering skills. The flexibility in hours is great for people who either need a second job to supplement their income or broke college students.

Depending on your personality, you will either have a lot of fun working with the company or find yourself exceedingly bored with the tasks.

It's not the best job in the world, but it's not the worst either.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Merchandising associate 2740 salaries reported	$14.11 per hour
Retail sales associate 1516 salaries reported	$13.89 per hour
Backroom associate 738 salaries reported	$14.23 per hour
Seasonal associate 634 salaries reported	$13.93 per hour
Retail assistant manager 474 salaries reported	$15.92 per hour

Working at The TJX Companies, Inc.: Company Overview and Reviews

The TJX Companies, Inc.

The TJX Companies, Inc. Ratings

Popular jobs at The TJX Companies, Inc.

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected