retail sales associate

store manager

sales assistant

department manager

assistant store manager

JD Sports Fashion

My experience working at JD Sports, first at Mid City and then at Bondi Junction, was deeply disappointing and had a significant impact on my well-being. I transferred to Bondi Junction hoping for a friendlier and more supportive work environment, only to find similar issues that left me feeling drained and demoralized.

At JD Sports Mid City, the store manager displayed a two-faced and insincere demeanor. Their lack of genuine leadership and integrity created a distrustful and unsupportive environment. This set the tone for a toxic workplace culture, which I had hoped to escape by transferring to Bondi Junction.

Unfortunately, Bondi Junction was no better. The micro-management was overwhelming, with an unreasonable focus on crep shoe cleaning products. Every action was scrutinized, creating a stifling atmosphere where I felt undervalued and constantly pressured.

The store manager at Bondi Junction was unkind and overly harsh, offering little constructive feedback or recognition for effort. The assistant manager’s approach compounded the negativity, leaving me mentally and emotionally drained after every shift. There was no sense of teamwork or support, only stress and dissatisfaction.

These experiences, across two stores, severely impacted my mental health and well-being. It is disheartening that workplaces meant to foster growth and collaboration instead cultivate such toxic environments.

I share my story to encourage others to prioritize their well-being and carefully consider their employment choices. No job is worth enduring an environment that undermines your confidence and happiness. I also urge JD Sports to reflect on these issues and take action to build a more supportive and respectful workplace culture.

Pretty much this place is full of cons and nothing great comes out of it except the discounts. Even then, discounts are pretty stingy at points and are limited to certain items, sales tend to exceed what an employee would receive. Been working for quite a while at this company to finally come to the conclusions that I no longer want to work here. The culture is amazing at times however administration is run by favouritism and lies not based on hard work. You will see yourself working the hardest and not getting rewarded at all unless you are on good terms with management. The place is a constant mess and employees cannot maintain regulations to keep places clean. Management would not give you a chance and at times you are often left in the dark without work for months. You are only to be thought of as a tool in their team which they can replace whenever and however they want and use you for backup. Zero loyalty is given to employees, zero communication to improvements and growth, terrible workplace environment and management is lazy with rosters often never changing them and copy and pasting rosters from last week. I initially liked this job but it all went downhill when management was constantly changing and whatnot, shifts being reduced, and payment issues. The environment is very toxic and the team believes Warehouse Management is the best role but is the worst, everyone demands everything from you and is toxic to receive the requested items. Overhiring of Christmas casuals and having to train them when operations are running smoothly. To summarise, terrible workplace, bad pay, favouritism, terrible management and not much good at all about the workplace. Go look for other places instead, this is no better than your local Maccas.

My experience working here had some challenges. While coworkers were generally polite in person, there was often negative talk about colleagues behind their backs, which created an uncomfortable work environment.

Communication within the team was inconsistent. I was told that the workplace WhatsApp group was no longer being used, but later found out that others were still using it, which made it difficult to stay informed and sometimes felt excluding.

As a person of colour, I personally felt that the workplace culture was not always inclusive. At times it seemed that certain groups were more included in communication and social circles than others, which raised concerns for me about inclusiveness.

Overall, I believe the workplace could improve transparency, communication, and inclusivity so that all employees feel equally supported.


Your manager is never satisfied with you, you could give your left kidney and they’d be upset because you didn’t give both of them. They expect you to wear all their clothing yet it’s so expensive and does not fit very nicely! If you’re in footwear you have to stay in the front of the store at all times and are not allowed to do anything else, even if there is jobs to do. Your job only is to stand and serve customers, if there is no customers you must stand in your area and make sure everything in presentable. Even within no customers in the store, communication with your team isn’t allowed unless you want to call them out in front of everyone on the radio. You’re never allowed to take your full breaks, if you go to the bathroom or get a drink you have to wait for permission EVEN AS A MANAGER and than still be told to “Hurry” or better yet “no” I could go on and on about how awful they treat their staff… Just be prepared to be yelled at all the time and never be good enough tbh. 

I applied for a role and was invited for an interview which ended up being a surprise group interview, the lady who hired me had already left by the time I started, my first day I wasn't introduced to anyone, the manager sat out the back in a room and I had to figure out what was going on myself, no other staff there knew I was even an employee until I introduced myself, no KPIs or acknowledgement for closing big sales, the team walked around with heads down avoiding customers which was a seriously weird environment to be a part of, shifts were given without much warning, you would find out when you were working next after your most recent shift which made any form of outside activities impossible to plan for, constantly underpaid as well which really topped off this awesome experience working for this company and took them about 2-3 Months to remove me from their payroll after constant hounding after I quit so I was getting taxed double for my new job.

Working here is fun and I enjoy it a lot. It has good systems in place and is very productive. The only issue I have is that our individual KPIs is literally based on how much Crep we sell (crep is shoe care products like spray, cleaner etc). AND we get so much pressure to sell them when majority of us don't even use it ourselves so we pitch it to customers like it's the best thing when it's not. Not to mention majority of us lie about it, saying it is waterproof or we use it ourselves etc. Which sucks but you got to do what you got to do otherwise it affects our overall performance and we will get told off by our manager we are not pulling our weight. Also managers are hit or miss, you either get really good ones that are cool and can actually train people or you get bad ones that expect the most and nitpick at every little thing you do.  But its overall good vibes, good people(most of the time) and its a really fun job if you like chatting with people. 

They have specific teams with the same people carrying each team to drive the numbers but then won't switch out these same people, so the workers get burnt out. Upper management- as in the bosses of the shift leaders need to be more realistic and not expect literal people to work at robot level, as there seems to be a shortage of workers. The issue is that on a daily basis, you have people working the jobs of 2, sometimes even 3 and then expecting them to continue doing the same thing day in and day out. Shift leaders- so your floor managers, team leaders and supervisors try to care about the teams sometimes but also only care about numbers and will do whatever it takes even at the expense of the team solely because THEIR bosses do not care about these faceless workers. At end of the day, if you do decide to work here, just know you are replaceable. People are really nice here, however. 

The job was super fast paced, with way to may sales objectives. Often feeling forced to have customers buy things and if the sale target was not met you would have to buy something. 

Way too many KPI's, not enough staff, expectations were so high (higher then any other retailer) but you were not paid higher then 95% of other retailers. If you tried to bring up pay it was always rescheduled or forgotten about. Store managers also never held accountable for anything. 

Seemed they would rather retrain casuals then hold a store manager accountable which caused a lot of staff turnover in the lower managers and casuals.  

I’ve worked at JD Sports Warehouse for 3 years, and I can honestly say it has been one of the worst experiences.

 As a warehouse assistant on day shift , I’ve witnessed toxic behaviour from management on multiple occasions. They regularly ask for confidential information and, to make matters worse, there is an absurd policy where they time workers when they use the toilet, enforcing a strict 10-minute limit.

This level of micromanagement and lack of respect for employees’ basic needs is unacceptable. It’s extremely frustrating to work in such a toxic environment where you’re treated more like a machine than a person. I would not recommend working here to anyone.

What is the best part of working at the company?
They have been exceptional in their understanding and training. The company prides itself on the wellbeing of staff and customers.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
It can be fast paced, and you have to be on top of your game when multi-serving and providing flawless service. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Their work environment and culture is amazing. Everyone is on the same page, and all departments are always working together. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
The day is usually very chill, with helping customers in textiles, fitting rooms, and at the counter. All departments work well, so if I am in need, I can radio them, and they deliver.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Retail sales associate 6 salaries reported	$27.50 per hour
Store manager 6 salaries reported	$72,333 per year
Sales assistant 6 salaries reported	$27.67 per hour
Department manager 3 salaries reported	$54,667 per year
Assistant store manager 1 salary reported	$52,500 per year

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