Pros
20% discount on stock, not too bad as it's already cheap to begin with.
Kontras
The company is the worst and most exploititatative organsation I have ever worked for and I will explain why as clearly as possible. The company are determined to get the most out of staff and give the least in return. 1) Shifts the vast majority of staff are on 0 hour contracts. This was not a problem for me as it suited my circumstances, however the flexibility you would expect is not given, your availability is not respected and you are expected to find cover if shifts have been booked outside of your availability and you cannot make them. Or face the consequences. If you have confirmed a shift and your at work and the store is not making enough money that day, expect to be sent home early. There is no transparent way of assigning shifts to staff, so it boils down to a popularity contest with you and the manager (depending on your store) A particular pattern emerged with me where I would work in the delivery room from 6am, scheduled to work till 2, but be sent home at 11 if the delivery was completed early. So I would have managers harassing me to work faster, so that I can save the company money and go home earlier than scheduled and lose out on pay myself. What do I do? Work slower, it's just common sense if working faster is affecting my pay. 2) Working pattern I was naive to assume that you had a break at work every 4 hours, however I soon realised that the law states you have a break every 6-7 hours of 20 minutes. The reason I didn't know this is that every other job I have had incorporates a 10 minute break every 4 hours, and of course sports direct will work to the letter of the law. As a result expect to have shifts booked for 5hrs and 45 minutes and less so you work without a break. Your required to clock in as soon as your ready to work however you must clock out when your shift is over. Fine, but after your clocked out and no longer being paid you are required to undertake a sweep of the entire store for tags on floors, alerting others if their are customers in changing rooms, providing a "presence on the shop floor", making sure each section is neat and tidy. All this after you have clocked out and no longer being paid, inevitably a customer somewhere will ask you for assistance and low and behold you find yourself working without being paid. 3) Company policy Your required to wear a sports direct uniform to work, normal right? Wrong, your required to wear a sports direct uniform TO and FROM work, so while your commuting back and forth you are providing free promotion to the company, similar to Newcadtle Uniteds football ground. It is normal in any retail job to maintain the security and cleanliness of the store you work in, however in the majority of sports direct stores, no external cleaners or security are employed. Which means e onus falls on staff to undertake cleaning of the entire store evey day and to provide security by standing at the door at all times. This cleaning takes place at the end of the night, 15 minutes of work is unpaid, if your called in for a 5hr 45min shift to close the store, you will work up 45mins extra, maybe more, so in the end you do work more than 6 hours, 15 unpaid, and without the break you are entitled to by law. The store intentionally misleads customers on the prices of their stock, they arrive discounted, the original price is actually fictitious and means nothing at all, you are directed to encourage customers to buy sport direct owned brands instead of its competitiors. E.g if you come in and ask for a pair of trainers to run in, I am only allowed to show you the brands owned by sports direct, not allowed to promote Nike Adidas etc. And of course you have targets left right and centre and you are constantly offering customers reusable sports world bags, in soles for shoes, socks, magazines etc earning between 5-50p commission everytime. Great! With zero job security for most, being sent home early if store is not making enough money, over working and ridiculous company policies what type of staff does sports direct attract? 1) those young without enough work experience to understand that is not how your employers are supposed to treat you. 2) those who are unable to get jobs in any other retail setting and are essentially stuck there. 3) those who don't give a toss collect their wages, do as little work as possible and go. 4) those who are only there until something else comes along. 3 out of 4 of those types don't provide the store with reliable staff, younger people will end up going to college or uni generally, people who don't care about the job will eventually get fired, however they are often so desperate to retain staff at they are kept on, and those who will leave the instant something else comes up. Which means stores are constantly understaffed, those who are there are overworked and all for what? Minimum wage? The job would be more bearable if managers where good, but often they are miserable people on a power trip, deeply entrenched in the culture of the company and will take advantage of you at every opportunity, often not very intelligent and have worked their way up in the company by jumping through hoops and obeying their ridiculous commands. But managers who have worked in any other retail establishment don't last in this company. I do to know what targets or policy's management have to adhere to, but knowing sports direct it's going to be exploitative which is probably why the managers are stressed and short tempered and treat staff like garbage. Good things about the company is that they obviously save a lot of money and making the owners very very rich, by being as stingy and draconian to staff as possible there are instances where the stores operate more efficiently. E.g you not allowed to stand around, you must always be moving and doing something, which means you constantly have to busy yourself with work. But with so many jobs that pay minimum wage there are definitely better places to work that will treat you better than sports direct.