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Costco might be fantastic to work for when you're front of house staff, but IT staff in the retail sector are nothing short of expendable. I lasted 9 months in
by LilBytes 7y ago
Costco might be fantastic to work for when you're front of house staff, but IT staff in the retail sector are nothing short of expendable. I lasted 9 months in my first and only retail job and the shocking standards that the company enforced.
I've worked in IT for the retail sector and I'd never, ever do it again. I was a Dev/System Admin/System Engineer/DBA/Network Engineer & Help Desk person. I needed a job rather desperately and took the first one that was available to me which at initial view I thought was promising.
As an example, if you worked on call which was restored 1 in 3 weeks, you didn't earn anything extra in wages on the days you were on call. But instead I earned 0.5 hours of TOIL for every hour that I was restored on which was from memory. 07:00-20: 00 Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays. And 07:00 -> 09:00 and 18:00 - 20:00 Monday to Friday.
I would get calls at all hours because we supported retail stores in New Zealand, Australia, US & Canada. We had local staff in those areas but for the gaps in follow the sun support we had the on call person fill that role.
This might have been a good deal if you didn't get many calls. But for the larger part it was a full time day of work on Saturda, Sunday and Public Holiday when _no one was working_ except the on call person. And on an evening and first thing in the morning for shop close and open you frequently got calls before and after your shift started. All for 0.5 hours for every hour worked!
This doesn't even begin to cover the problems we had with retaining staff (understandably) and an absolutely awful work environment. My manager did his best to foster a positive work environment but the C levels clearly had no desire to do anything but bleed their staff dry.
Wrapping up my tirade, it wouldn't surprise me if this was the standard across the retail industry for IT staff and developers. Based on those I've spoken to outside of my own personal experience, this seems to be close to true. For all the glory that Costco holds for paying higher than average wages, I'm certain their IT department fucks over it's staff in a way that closely resembles my own.
- 9nGQluzmnq3M 7y agoCan you explain what you mean by "restored 1 in 3 weeks" and "every hour that I was restored on"? Also, to be clear, your experience was working in IT at another retail company, not Costco? I'm not sure why you would expect these to be the same: as the article explains in detail, Costco's model lets it do some things very differently from, say, Walmart.
- LilBytes 7y agoTypo, was meant to say rostered but auto correct got the better of me. I didn't work in either of those chains. I'm replying to a comment directly above mine where OP says, they knew some one who worked in IT for Costco and their conditions were terrible. As was mine for another large, multinational retail chain. Costco are great in comparison to say, WalMart or Kmart/Target/BigW in Australia. But I assume they're under the same pressure to penny pinch as any other retail organisation because of their incredibly small margins for profits.