Lincraft

I gained my job through a week of work experience, my Team at the Bendigo store from 2017-2020 were the best people ever to work with. Higher management was the worst to deal with, either lazy or had unpleasant micro-managing skills. 
Almost everyone I worked with quit within the span of a month due to a particularly unorganized and overall awful area manager.  
I do miss the lovely and creative customers that would come into our Lincraft stores.
Lincraft tend to care more about profits than the well-being of their employees. Offering no incentives or rewards after the immense hard work when the COVID-19 Face Mask making frenzy rolled out and Lincraft stores become packed with lines of customers from 9 AM-5 PM. All we received was a lousy "thanks" phone call from one of the Lincraft owners. When we'd all go home crying due to the immense stress of the situation and management not allowing more employees to be working those days due to them not wanting to pay more on salaries.  
However, being mistreated by higher management overpowered my love for the physical work at Lincraft and led to my resignation. 
I have learned through my years working at Lincraft that if you're put under horrible management, it's not worth sticking around and gaining unnecessary stress that leads to other aspects of your life. 

I worked with Lincraft for 2 years total, 1 year of that as a store supervisor working part time, the second year managing a store.
At store management level the job is extremely stressful, the pressure put on you from upper management is extreme and the assistance you receive is zero. You are expected to work extra hours with no pay on a salary that is far from competitive. You have minimal staff to cover your roster and even then you are held to a strict minimal rostering in terms of hours and are questioned on any hours over the roster regardless of whether you are in the middle of a huge sale. 
There is no such thing as appreciation for a good job done, just constant raising of the bar. Being manager at one of the SA stores also meant we were neglected by upper management in favor of the NSW and VIC stores.
The stress of the job and the expectations of the sale setups have given me tendonitis in both wrists and I would not recommend working for Lincraft unless you understand and accept that you will be pushed to your limits daily. I have worked through a liquidation of a store and found it far less stressful than working for Lincraft.

A typical day at work has moments fast-paced energy, and then dead quiet. Customers can be a mixed bag of fun creative individuals and confused perfectionists, but in general, I really enjoyed getting to catch up with my customers and learn about their latest projects. I learnt alot about crafts I didnt even know existed. Management was fine, nothing to really say. Workplace culture was amazing, there wasnt too much time to make "friends" as such but everyone that really stuck around were into crafts and that creates an instant bond. There was also opportunities to share projects on a lincraft workers only forum. Hardest part about the job was probably the physical aspect. Although most retail jobs do require lifting of items and standing for long periods of time, lincraft also requires your to lend over desks as you cut fabric, and this put alot of strain on my lower back.

Lincraft was a good place to start working as my first job. It was quite easy and the interview was breezy to get through, no hard questions. Usually just serving most hours when busy or a sale was on. Other hours spent stocking shelves or making room for stock to go out. Rosters are paper and printed off so it is a bit difficult for unavailability, needs to be written on calendar and told to manager which sometimes was forgotten about but if you stress it, it can be arranged. Staff are kind and nice but after awhile if you make mistakes they can get annoyed but that is normal. 
Fun place to work and the pay was okay for a starter as a teenager. I got promoted to Supervisor after 1 year and gained more responsibilities and was stressful at times but the pay increased and overall was sort of more relaxed.  

A typical day at work involved me opening the store, counting all the money and doing paper work and reports an hour before the store opens. Throughout this supervising job I've learnt a great deal about finding the perfect balance of fun and seriousness in the working life. 
I got along with all my co-workers well, some my age, some a lot older. The good thing about my personality is that I can easily adapt myself to different personalities, making me a very tolerable person to others. 
The hardest part of the job would've been dealing with customers who would threaten us or insult us. I have zero tolerance for customers who treat staff baldy or staff who treat the customers badly.
The most enjoyable part of the job was being social with customers and staff members, forming good friendships with them. I am a very socially interactive person.

Working from 9 am, I would open the store then organise tasks to achieve  for the day. A regular day consists of stacking shelves, assisting customers, working at the cash register. From this, I acquired skills such as working independently, learning the importance of organisation and how it heightens productivity throughout the day. Working with speed and patience was one of the most practiced skills in lincraft, stacking shelves while checking bar codes, reorganising items that customers had misplaced. The benefits of this was that I acquired a lot of resilience, I received a lot of support during the settling in process. Having to cancel personal plans to work was the hardest part of the job although I learned to better prioritise my work. 

Customer interaction from start to finish, team work was great, everyone got on and worked well together.  Our manager was fantastic, he wouldn't tolerate any hint of discrimination and we all felt comfortable to ask him anything in regards to our job.  I learned many things about haberdashery having not stitched a thing in my life and even took up cross-stitching for a time.
The hardest part of the job was when the shop was undergoing refurbishment and the noise above us as we worked.
The most enjoyable part of this job was getting to know everyone and making friends and socializing with them outside work also.

It was a very large department store with a wide variety of craft products.
General knowledge of craft is essential as many customer require detailed advice. 
I enjoyed providing the customers with detailed service and upselling. The business model is fantastic but unfortunately the buyers made quite a few mistakes with poor quality products and the staffing levels are so low it is considered quite dangerous for the average store size. 
I have never seen such a large retail outlet run on such a small wages budget. 
The other downfall was that the customers were constantly complaining about lack of staff. I tried my hardest to give them the very best service and keep my existing staff positive but after a while you wear out.

A typical day at work is fairly laid-back, but during sales it gets BUSY BUSY BUSY and I LOVE IT! I've learnt so much about crafts and customer service and now couldn't imagine working anywhere else. The management in my particular store is FANTASTIC, they really care about their employees while still maintaining authority but earning respect. My coworkers are absolutely fabulous, incredibly fun to work with but also hard working. The hardest part of my job is not buying tons of merchandise from the store - there's just so much! The most enjoyable part of my job is working the register - I never thought I'd like it but I honestly love it!

A typical day offers a variety of tasks.
I learnt stock control, stock display, product knowledge, shrinkage control, stocktaking, start-of-day and end-of-day procedures, reconciliation, banking.
Management acknowledges customers' staff recommendations, staff discount, Christmas staff evening.
Friendly, 'family' work culture.
The hardest part of the job is the lifting, reaching and carrying required.
The most enjoyable part of the job is the professional relationships you can establish with both return customers and fellow work colleagues.

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