Idiotic Management, Horrible Workers, Stupid System, Avoid this job!
I don't even know where to begin. First off, training was a joke. The second day, the SECOND DAY, I came in and the HR person was not there, and no one knew what to do. So I had to dig out the videos I still needed to watch, and an hour and a half later the HR person shows up. I should have known then something was wrong about the store and company.
I was told I would be unloading trucks and stocking shelves, which was fine. I was also told I might, MIGHT, work a cash register, again this was fine. However, the only register training I was given, was a ten minute video. I was then thrown on the register, during Mothers Day weekend of all weekends, with no one to watch over me or walk me through the process. Needless to say, this made my early days at work tough.
Then there's the entire unloading process, which is a joke. Clothes come in on hangers and some come in boxes. When I started, we had to hang everything, which was a nightmare, as the departments weren't labeled, and since I was knew and had no idea how sizing and departments worked, I was clueless. Constantly being yelled at about putting the wrong clothes in the wrong spots was a highlight of the first week there.
Unloading boxes was even more fun, as you had to straighten the clothes out and make sure they were sized right. While this shouldn't have been a problem, putting them on the carts was as I kept getting yelled at for not putting the right clothes in the right spot. Keep in mind, this was my first
ProsTo see how retail is not done.
ConsEverything. Stay away from this place.
2.0
Sales Support Representative | Albuquerque, NM | Aug 28, 2013
Great people, but miserable return for time invested.
Working at JCPenney has been more of a challenge to convince myself to remain an employee with the company than anything else. What keeps most people there is the scarcity of employment in Albuquerque and the WONDERFUL people who work with us as co-workers and management. A job is hard to find, a good work environment is even more difficult to find in today's economy.
Culturally, JCPenney is a wonderful place to work lately. When I started it was more hectic, less motivational. But the people are wonderful, both customers and employees alike. It truly feels like a big family, the people on your mind each day and many of your closest friends tend to be your coworkers. We all get along, communicate well, and truly have enjoyable experiences working together, regardless of who is working with who.
My current position provides the dependability I need for school or a second job to be possible, that tied with the social culture of my workplace are what I enjoy most at JCP, hands down.
The only things I could ask for to make my job better are pay, benefits and opportunity for career advancement. There is VERY little job security at JCP. I watch 4 times a year practically as we hire on 20-30 temporary people, 1 or 2 of which might actually get kept on after the temporary period. We are CONSTANTLY hiring part-time employees because most people are forced to quit due to a lack of hours. I have one of the most reliable position for hours in our store, and even mine are dras
ProsGreat people, consistent schedule, employee 20% discount on merchandise.
ConsMinimal pay for the responsibilities and knowledge possessed, minimal hours, unaffordable benefits for part-time workers, volatile company profile.
Pros:
- Moderately good compensation and benefits. Liveable wage (for management at least) and the benefits were acceptable.
- Employee discount is generous. 25% if you pay cash and 15% for other methods of payment, which is really good when compared to other retailers.
- There were a lot of very sweet customers. Yes, we did get a LOT of bad apples that came in to our store, but I never had a day where I didn't have a positive customer interaction.
Cons:
- Poor management. The management strategy was laughable. No one seemed to know what was going on in the store. You're largely left to deal with problems on your own with no guidance and are reprimanded when you make mistakes (when you were given no instruction on the task to begin with.) For example, we would hire cashiers and give NO training on how to use the register. Absolutely none. Associates were expected to "figure it out" and were looked down upon and gossiped about when they asked for more help.
- Poor company culture. On the outside, JCP presents itself as a company built on team work and collaboration. In reality, this is a dog eat dog company. I was told by a long-time employee at my store that you HAVE to throw people under the bus to survive in this company. I was appalled. I watched this culture bred low morale, low productivity, and complacency for the store's well being. Hard working and honest associates were regularly reprimanded and punished for things out of their control. There
If I could give this JCPenney store 0 stars, I would! I went to work there a few years ago with a part time schedule and they said that it would be fine. At first the job seemed fine. I rang up people at the cash register and folded clothes. It seemed like a nice part time job at that point. I learned how to fold clothes better. The co-workers seemed like friendly people. The most enjoyable part of the job was interacting with people. Then they tried to give me way more hours to work than we agreed to. I was also being called to come in on days I was scheduled to have off. I was nice enough to come in at first on these days. I realized that I did not have the time to do a full time schedule at this point and that is when I put in a request to make some changes in order to have a part time schedule. When I put in a schedule request, the supervisor came up to me in front of customers and rudely said "I can't allow that!" I understand the need to change the schedule but that is NO reason to be publicly rude to me. There was also a weekend we agreed for me to have off and I was called at least twice to come in and work even though I was not scheduled to work that weekend. They also scheduled me to come in and work the Monday following that weekend we agreed for me not to. However, I was nice enough to shorten my trip to work that Monday. For a month I worked a reasonable part time schedule that seemed fine for everyone. After a month, the supervisor and sales manager met with me.
ProsNone
ConsThey set people up and make false statements about people, They have an unsatisfactory system to ensure the employee knows when there is a problem, The Supervisor is rude to people
2.0
Call Center Representative | Lenexa, KS | Dec 16, 2017
JCPenney Lenexa Call Center
Working at the JCPenney call center is Lenexa is a standard call center job. The culture is very relaxed and most of the people are friendly. There is virtually no dress code and even supervisors dress extremely casual. Associates are supposed to follow metrics, although at this particular call center the metrics are no where near as strict as other call centers. This is nice in that you are not going to be disciplined just because your metrics are poor.
The bad side of the relaxed culture is the lack of structure. There is no real clear definition of what the expectations are to be considered a good performer and the metrics are not uniformly enforced. Job performance, annual reviews and advancement (if any) are more so based on how much the supervisors and management like you as opposed to how well you actually perform.
When I received my annual review, the person who wrote it and explained it to me admitted they had no idea how I performed and the feedback they gave was so generic it could be applied to anyone. I was given a very minimal raise and was very disappointed to say the least.
Unfortunately the only thing this call center is not flexible with is the attendance policy. It has an incredibly confusing point system and I had difficulty finding any supervisors or management who were able to explain it clearly. The attendance policy is very restrictive and does does make for a good work life balance. Regardless of whether or not you have an excus
ProsCo-workers are nice, very relaxed dress code-even for management, okay benefits
ConsNo career advancement or growth, weak management, inflexible attendance policy and scheduling, low pay
Good place to work, work ends up being more like family.
My typical day at work started with making schedules, break schedules most of the time, to keep the store in organization while everyone wanted to take lunch at the same time. As leaders, we took shifts to promote customer service, sales, and credit applications. The rest of our time was dedicated to "setting" the store as directed per our "Monthly Set Guide," as well as answering customer complaint calls and other miscellaneous work.
My experience was not probably not typical for what someone learns in a position, it was a great deal of searching for the answers yourself, and teaching yourself how to solve the problem. This lead to more confidence and the ability to speak in front of groups of associates. Learning to speak in front of small groups without losing confidence or focus has been my greatest accomplishment, thanks to my Store Leader. My management (Store Leader) was a great source of information, positivity, and energy. He/She pushed us to be that for our team and that made the job much easier, and harder, because that was not who I was when I took the job. He/She was a great fall back and always backed us up.
My direct co-workers were great. I got along excellent with all the other Lead Experts. We all had the same drive to get things accomplished and make it look amazing in the process. Not all the associates were as receptive to our drive. Some worked above and beyond what we asked for, others, wanted a customer service line, register job. We are not Wal-Mart,
Prosknowing your co-workers and customers like family.
I worked there for a little over two years. I worked in the children's department. They would only schedule one person to close the whole children's department purses and lingerie. They expected much more out of the children's staff than somewhere else in the store like juniors and we often had to stay later and go in early to help them put away carts/clean their fitting rooms ect. I understand sometimes it gets busy but the reason they didn't have their stuff done was because they were screwing around. Management still gave all of the raises to that department. I got one 22 cent raise when I was there they couldn't even round it to 25 cents lol making a total of 8.22 and I'm a hard worker my bosses would ask me to stay later than my eight hour shift almost every night. There was another person who the bosses did not like that got hired after me and she even got sent home before for not doing her work when she was a closer and they gave her 3 raises and she was making 9.50. That just wasn't right. Management also has unreasonable expectations. I got the most ICAPS (credit card apps) in the department but there were some days I would work four to eleven and there would literally be one customer the whole night and they already had a credit card but management doesn't consider the reason why places with more traffic and more expensive items get more icaps.
That was a little more negative than I intended for it to be. The job was very easy and the more I learned the more res
ProsVery easy job some opportunity for advancement.
ConsMost managers suck at managing, hard work gets you no where, They will overwork you and not give you a raise or promotion because they can.
2.0
Customer Service Representative | United States | Apr 28, 2014
bad management, bad pay, bad job
The nicest part of working at JCP is the discount: 25% off on top of coupons works nicely. What they don't tell you is that when you get rewards coupons you only get to use $7.00 instead of $10.00. They also only allow you to use your discount on your dependants or for presents (e.g. you need a present for a baby shower and use your discount with another person for a combined gift), but everyone uses their discounts for their friends. The problem with this is that when young people do it they get fired without any questions asked--they don't know if it was for a present, they just assumed. When an older person with dependants does it no questions are asked, but everyone knows what really is going on.
The management is a joke: I was assigned to a project and spent seven hour rearranging a department, moving shirts to hangers and folding hung clothes. The next day I came back and it was completely undone. They over-staff, change rules constantly, and manage employees poorly. They will have three employees closing on some of our busiest nights, and we have to stay late to pick up as much as we can, which makes us look bad to whomever is opening the next day. They assign two people to womens, one person to shows, three at the front, one in jewelry, and boys and mens is always left unattended, but we get in trouble when we get too far away from departments. We have stupid rules. Such as we aren't allowed to have bottled waters behind the register can't make any decisions by our
ProsWorks with your schedule, good discount
ConsShort breaks, favoritism, bad job security, bad management
Trust me, you don't want to sell appliances for JCPenney.
PROS:
• Good discount
• Co-workers are friendly
• Decent prices (most of the time)
• Decent product selection (when available)
CONS:
• JCPenney just switched to a hilariously low 1% commission for appliances, dropping base pay by as much as $4/hr. in the process. JCPenney wants (and refuse to hire anything but) good, experienced appliance salespeople, but only wants to pay them $10.75 an hour—well under the competition (even with commission).
• Leaders will regularly try to pull you outside of your department—even after the switch to commission. Despite assurance from management that this would no longer continue to happen after the switch.
• You will be expected to perform a large number of duties that don't fall under your job description, but won't be compensated as such.
• You will regularly be asked to move, install, or put out appliances, despite not being provided proper safety equipment or safe conditions to do so. You will be expected to do this while helping customers.
• Scheduling is atrociously bad—team members are often forced to sort it out amongst themselves when a team member is scheduled outside their availability, despite it being input correctly in the system (and despite repeated attempts to make management aware of the issue.)
• JCPenney will hire anyone and everyone (except in specialty, where they are extremely picky.) Many leaders are not qualified for their roles and it shows. Many associates are high school kids that
ProsGood discount, friendly co-workers, decent prices (most of the time), decent product selection (when available)
A typical day at work would require RFID meaning that I make sure every shoe that comes in is placed on display and place an RFID sticker on the bottom of the shoe. If there are shoes that aren't out, I have to pull them from the stock room. I communicate with my customers when they come in the store and ask them questions so that I can get a good idea of what the perfect shoe for them would be. I make sure I ask the customer if the shoe is needed for a special event or just a special occasion. I restocked shoes when help was needed. I would also take it upon myself to restock shoes without being asked to help the replenishment team out. I complete defective slips for shoes that had any wear or tear on the shoe. I scan miss mates for shoes that are two different sizes, or if there is just one shoe. I learned that it is good to go ahead and complete tasks that are given to me without being told what to do because its says something about the type of person I am. it also shows that I'm a hard worker, and a great team leader for my department. I love all my co-workers. They all have different personalities that makes them enjoyable to be around, but you also have some that just aren't people oriented at all. The supervisor that was over my department was very nice, but I didn't like the fact of how she would make me do tasks that other associates didn't complete. Even though I was done with my tasks, I still had to go back and complete their unfinished task. Every time there s
ProsMeeting new people, fun days, lunch days
Conshealth care, hours, raises, pto, schedules
Questions And Answers about JCPenney
What is the best part of working at JCPenney?
Asked Nov 22, 2019
Customers
Answered May 20, 2022
People were friendly
Answered May 18, 2022
Why did you leave your job at JCPenney?
Asked Mar 14, 2017
I worked as a cashier for little over a year and quit because it rarely worked with my school schedule. I would let the managers know ahead of time if I have an exam or something important for school; however, my schedule will still show I would have to clock in. Alongside of this, hours were so rare to get. Its good seasonally because I got hours left and right without it affecting school. But right when it hit Jan 1, I worked one 4 hour shift every other week or sometimes until the following month. I was a pretty good associate, I got credits every shift and did what I was told, but still I rarely got hours. Other than that, the coworkers were really rude when I first started and kissed up a lot to the managers-- very two-faced.
Answered Nov 16, 2020
I loved working at JCPenney. They were very kind to me and let me work when i wanted. I was there over 8 years and they closed my store. We were like a family. I will miss them all
Answered Oct 23, 2020
If you were in charge, what would you do to make JCPenney a better place to work?
Asked Nov 1, 2019
Ensure management is communicating policies with one another to avoid issues. Pay employees a liveable wage. Stop basing all praise/success/focus on credit card applications.
Answered Dec 29, 2020
Give people's more hours and a higher hourly wage
Answered Nov 26, 2020
Do they offer an employee discount?
Asked Feb 12, 2016
Discount was always 25% with an additional 15 to 20% during friends and family sales discounts don’t get much better than that on already reasonably priced items!. ( Former employee)
Answered Jul 10, 2020
Yes, depends on what you purchase
Answered Dec 3, 2019
Do they offer free lunch?
Asked May 22, 2016
Our store provides meals on certain days: Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas. The store manager also does some on his own throughout the year. There are enough leftovers for a couple of days. For example, at Thanksgiving/Black Friday we had: cereal, milk, fruit, pizza/salad, turkey, gravy, rolls, stuffing, pies, and other side dishes brought by staff. The comraderie at our store is pretty good, and management values our hard work. If you are in a store that has negative, complaining staff, it brings everyone down, and creates a negative environment for customers. Ergo, poor sales!
