Pros
My immediate team is perfect – I've never worked with so many like-minded people. It really sets the standard going forward. Direct managers are incredible and offer whatever flexibility we need to get the best out of ourselves Until recently it actually felt like a haven for musicians and neurodivergent staff – to me, at least
Kontras
Ever since Soundbay was acquired by its current owners the company has begun amassing a monopoly of the music retail industry in Australia. This has been undertaken with seemingly no planning or care – each acquisition falls like a death-knell on what credibility we have left, the only guarantees being it will not be well-thought through, it will increase our workload, and these will not be acknowledged. Thanks to this ruthless expansion, a typical work day begins with logging into a few different platforms through which irate customers demand resolutions to issues that are easily preventable but incredibly circuitous to fix. We apologise and sweat bullets trying to fix what we can, and wait for the next top-down directive that implies it's not entirely understood what it is we do. We have the responsibility to plug holes without the equipment necessary to do so. We struggle through the day trying to repair a deepening sense of catastrophe, and then it ends the way it started, just one step further removed from the sense that what we do has any meaning at all. Staff are at breaking point. I love my immediate team and line managers, and it kills me to see burnout, stress and anger bleeding into everything we do. But as the business continues to grow, we remain overworked and underpaid. Every discussion about fair wages devolves to finger pointing and excuses. Our end of financial year pay review is nowhere in sight, but we're promptly updated when staff purchases will be more closely monitored, or when another business is absorbed. We do get notified when company cars go up for sale, though, which is fantastic news for people who struggle to pay for vegetables. I have no confidence whatsoever in this company's leadership and I wholeheartedly believe they have no respect for us.