store manager

assistant store manager

This is a very honest review of my time working here. I highly recommend anyone that is considering working here to read this and keep it in the back of your mind. 

Salary is not the greatest, but manageable. The issue is staff don’t get raises, and working hard or being a loyal employee essentially gets you nothing. People that shoulder responsibilities (even when given the “promotion” of being a lead in their department) aren’t given raises. I have witnessed staff who put their all into their work, and I have witnessed more laidback staff who put in 50%, they’re treated the same, paid the same, those who work harder are just given more pressure and responsibilities. Therefore, staff are better off giving 50% effort, as the pay won’t change either way, and staff won’t have to deal with management giving them extra responsibilities and stress with no incentive. 
There is an employee of the month, but the reward is a H&M gift card, which is ridiculous. 

The work/balance life is awful, and they take advantage of the softer/more sensitive people. Management will ask you (with pressure) to work last minute. They will ask you (with pressure) to increase your hours. Management change the schedules last minute. Often times I came into work to find out they had changed the schedule the day before, and I was no longer working that day. Or I would be called up by management asking where I was because I was supposedly working that day. Management take a long time to go over leave requests, even when given notice months prior, staff have to beg them to look over requests when the dates are approaching. 
After working at H&M for years, there wasn’t a single shift I left work on time, on average I was allowed to leave ten minutes (give or take) after my shift had already ended. But staff are expected to be on the floor, already clocked in, by their start time. Be aware that the courtesy is not reciprocated. 

H&M likes to pit staff against each other. Departments are pitted against each other every day in the name of “friendly competition”. There is banter between each department, which often verges on harmful — this is encouraged my management. Management read out the percentages each department made at the end of the day. This results in staff (including management) caring little about the departments that aren’t making the most money, and the staff working in those departments often suffer because little help or support is provided, even when asked. They have competitions (reward is a gift card, of course), which mostly consist of which staff member can sell the most of something. 

Management do not back up their staff, they allow their staff to be mistreated by customers. Staff are forced to uphold H&M’s policies, which often result in them being mistreated by customers, a manager is called and the manager always sides with the customer, allowing this disgusting behaviour to continue. I have witnessed staff being brought to tears by rude customers, to which the manager’s response was to appease the customer, with no care for their own staff member. 

The amount of stress and pressure given to staff when upper management visit a store. About a weeks notice is given in advance, which ensues a massive panic to get the store “perfect”. Staff are pressured to size the entire store and have everything perfectly folded and sized. All whilst doing their typical duties of helping customers, general cleaning, tills, fitting rooms, and clearing the rails. Staff are asked to achieve the impossible given the amount of staff, limited time frame, and amount of tasks given. When staff (obviously) cannot achieve this, they’re left feeling guilty. 
I must say, shame on all management involved. If that’s all such a necessity, hire more staff. 

There is far too many cons to working here, but there are some pros. The job can be quite fun once you get the hang of it. If you get good at it, there’s many things you can do and everyday doesn’t have to be the same. Tills, fitting rooms, clearing rails from fitting rooms, folding, are all things every staff member at any experience level will do. These tasks are rotated, so you won’t be stuck on just one for an entire shift. With more experience, you can learn more about visuals, and rearrange clothes and products around the store. 
H&M are great for promoting from within the company. So if you’re looking to go up the ladder, you’re in luck. However, this has the chance to be a con as well, as sometimes the wrong people are given the position, because of this preference to promote from within. 

Position wise… 
Casuals are not treated great at all. Their schedules fluctuate ridiculously. One week could be 30+ hours, the next week could be 3. They likely won’t keep you on as a casual unless you agree to take every single shift they offer you, especially when they call you up to work last minute. 
Part-timers and full-timers. Unless you want to be promoted to management level, I recommend not allowing the pressure and stress be forced upon you. Don’t work at 110% unless they’re paying you to do so (aka get a raise). Permanent staff can and should put their foot down when management starts acting up. Don’t allow management to pressure you to work when you can’t. Don’t allow them to mess with the schedule. Demand to leave on time. They can’t and won’t fire you. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
You get to collaborate with people from all walks of life, which brings fresh perspectives and energy to the workplace. H&M also invests in its people offering real opportunities for growth, development, and internal progression. Whether you're just starting out or looking to build a long-term career, they support you every step of the way.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The most stressful part of working at H&M can be the fast-paced environment and high expectations during peak trading periods. Retail demands can fluctuate rapidly, especially during sales, holidays, or new launches. This often means managing large volumes of stock, maintaining visual standards, and delivering exceptional customer service all at once. While the team culture is supportive, the pressure to meet performance targets and adapt quickly can be intense at times.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
H&M fosters a vibrant, fast-paced, and inclusive work environment. The culture is built on teamwork, diversity, and a strong sense of belonging. Employees are encouraged to bring their authentic selves to work, and there's a genuine emphasis on collaboration and mutual respect. The company values internal growth, offering development opportunities and promoting from within whenever possible. While the pace can be demanding especially during seasonal peaks the supportive team dynamic and clear communication help maintain a positive atmosphere.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
It usually starts with a morning briefing where priorities are set whether it's visual merchandising updates, stock replenishment, or customer service goals. Throughout the day, you're constantly interacting with customers, helping them find products, managing fitting rooms, and ensuring the store looks its best. Behind the scenes, there's also unpacking deliveries, organizing stock, and maintaining compliance with health and safety standards.

Teamwork is key everyone supports each other to meet targets and keep energy high, especially during busy periods. There's a strong focus on development, so you’re often encouraged to take on new responsibilities or learn different areas of the business.

This company is one of the most vile and horrible workplaces I have ever had the misfortune of working for. In particular the Australian arm of H&M is unprofessional, unsupportive and fosters a culture of workplace bullying. 

To the next department managers and visual merchandisers of the Adelaide store be very wary before applying, there is a disturbing level of intimidation by upper management that included foul language, spying on staff, random intrusive locker searches through your personal belongings, extreme micromanagement and very intrusive interviews after a sick day where you are asked what your symptoms were, what did your doctor say and if/what they prescribed. You will feel too intimidated not to answer these questions despite it being a complete breach of your privacy. These are done to make staff feel too intimidated to take their sick days.

I raised all these issues to a HR representative, the area team who all put down this store managers behaviour as a ‘personality clash’ and did nothing to protect staff despite that fact that they had voiced that they felt unsafe, intimidated and bullied. They insisted that his behaviour was not a form of bullying but rather part of his ‘driven’ management style. 

This company does not care about its people, it is run by extremely unqualified people who rose up in the company simply because they stuck around long enough and knew the right people in head office but don’t have any formal training or qualifications in management, effective communication, leadership or empathy.

I've worked at the company for over two years as a Sales Advisor (began as a casual and eventually converted to part-time), and I really can say its the best retail job I've ever had. Working in such a busy store means you are given your set functions for each hour, and the management trust you and give you autonomy to complete those without breathing down your neck (unless you're unlucky and get really fussy managers). Teamwork is a major focus of the company, so rather than being measured on our individual sales levels and whether or not we met KPI's as individuals, we never ever have that pressure placed on us, and are more focused on just helping customers if they need us to. I love working with lots of people, some coworkers better than others, and the managers are typically really flexible with setting our rosters etc to make room for other life commitments. Sometimes management can be disorganised and make mistakes, but that's the only negative part. Otherwise, it's just a generally nice working environment. An added bonus is that we don't have to mess around with online orders as the website is entirely separate unlike other retail stores, so we just focus on maintaining our physical store.

I worked for H&M for almost five years and would not recommend the company as an employer.

Throughout my employment, there was a strong emphasis on performance targets and productivity metrics, often creating an environment where employees were expected to consistently exceed expectations. Workloads frequently felt unsustainable, contributing to high levels of pressure and burnout, while compensation remained close to the minimum wage.

In my experience, the company prioritised operational statistics and performance outcomes over employee wellbeing. When employees struggled to meet expectations, support was limited, and there appeared to be a greater focus on performance management rather than addressing underlying challenges or providing meaningful assistance.

One particularly disappointing experience occurred when I informed management that I would need time off later that week to attend the funeral of a loved one. The response I received was one of frustration rather than understanding. Given the circumstances, I was visibly distressed, yet no one followed up to check on my wellbeing or offer support.

While experiences may vary between locations and management teams, my overall experience left me feeling that employee welfare was secondary to performance targets and business outcomes.

Beside from the pros part that you will gain more experiences from retail and learn how fast fashion work, there are more cons that I need to talk in here (and this is the truth that I experienced during my short time working). 

As Christmas Casual contract, we got the contract as Part Time and therefore, the pay rate is Part Time so it is already less than Casual pay rate. However, the problem is the store hired too many Christmas casual at same time and everyone got very less hours. Accordingly, most of Christmas Casuals got exactly minimum hours shows in the contract that are 12 hours. 

Also, when making roster, some Christmas Casuals still got much more hours than others; which some of them had 20 to over 20 hrs for 2 weeks continuing, and others are still only have 12 hrs. As above, it is shows that there is an  inequitableness from the management when doing the roster. 


I got the worst experience from the two girls who are permanent staffs for long time. The girls laughed at me when I tried to read and summary the scenario as part of the activity. The management teams were only shows me with awkward smile and not bother to protect me.



Daily duties include tidying and maintaining the store floor, stock replenishing, customer service, cash management and stock process. 

Working with a team of sales assistants would be fun at times with a young and energetic team. Honestly, there were a lot of good times when i first started working at the company. However as a year went by, management had a drastic change and it all went sideways. Management seems to strip workers of their freedom to speak freely with coworkers whilst working, even a simple greeting to one another whilst performing our duties would be given a stern instruction from managers to get back to work. Managers like to exercise their authority to tell you to do pointless things just so that you would not be able to catch your breath. They provide feedback, however its seldom positive as they seem to harp on the minor negatives in your performance, this really makes you feel like your efforts have not been appreciated. I believe this may not be the case for every H&M branch, but this was my experience at the end of my position at the Melbourne GPO branch.

I have worked at H&M for 3 years and i have made several friends from working there. it is a great culture and they really do try to break free from hierarchies, being that i talk to my store manager and area mangers weekly to daily, however for a company that makes as much as it does (most likely the highest grossing store is AUS) they fail to keep staff for long periods of time due to the incredibly low pay rates, lack of incentive and a ridiculous 1 hour unpaid lunch break. despite the constantly rotating roster they do offer a reasonable staff discount on already low prices and maybe once a year give out gift cards. good job for uni students or something for the time being but anything else i would keep looking. great progression rate also for becoming a manger with a reasonable amount of internal progressions if you are full-time, part timers cannot progress or if you need a day off every weekend for sporting commitments.

I was only a sales assistant, however i was responsible for numerous jobs. I was responsible for:
-Jewellery in the Accessories department.
-Visual Merchandising tasks in the Accessories department.
-Maintaining the flagship standards throughout the Accessories department.

I was trained by U.K. Support Staff members as i began working at H&M one month after its opening in Australia.

The hardest part of my job was not the work itself but having to deal with certain colleagues and managers who discriminated against my religion. Many colleagues and managers were out for their own, and sought out to cause stress for other colleagues including myself.

The most enjoyable part of my job was the responsibility my first department manager gave me. Being my first job, she placed a large amount of trust and faith in me to complete tasks that she believed i had the talent to do. Thanks to her, my confidence increased rapidly.  I enjoyed working under her as she gave me numerous opportunities to succeed in my work and gave me the utmost credit for my work.

i worked in Sydney Flagship store for more than 2 years, i met great local and international co workers, it's really a fun place to work, especially for students, But Sad part is the Management, most of the Managers are working in retail since their teenage and they were not into schooling i believe ,just because of their experience they are at managerial level, and to secure their job they put the blame game on Sales Advisors, most of the Manager never help you on shop floor in the busy hours but expect you to do all the jobs like a robot, the feedback culture is very tricky , and they play this as a major tool to manipulate staff, if you do not have self respect then its a great place to work with those ill mannered Managers,  one more thing if you belong to LGBT Community this place is heaven for you, 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Store manager 1 salary reported	$83,000 per year
Assistant store manager 1 salary reported	$77,300 per year

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