Yankee Candle Company - Merriville Indiana Store
Terrible working conditions, unprofessional staff, paranoid staff

I was so excited to be hired into one of my favorite stores a few months back. Yankee Candle seemed like it would be an awesome place to work and the woman that did all of my interviews seemed sweet and friendly.

Once I was hired in I met the actual store manager whom seemed a little rude but nothing to be to alarmed about. The more I worked there however the more I realized that this was not a place I wanted to be very long. You were scolded over the littlest of things (clocking in 1 minute late, not having the candles wicks all turned in one direction, having the candles to far or to close to the edge of the shelf). If you clocked in 1 minute late 15 minutes of pay was deducted, you were always being yelled at infront of customers, if you had a question the store manager went out of her way to make you look and feel like an idiot. One employee who had worked at the store for years spoke with the store manager about her concerns over the hour cuts she was making during the holiday season. The manager became infuriated and cut her hours from nearly 40 (all days) to 3 hours a week on a Friday from 9pm-midnight unloading stock. You quickly learned not to question anything.

The store manager also treated the assistant managers this way as well. She would push off last minute tasks on to the assistants so that when they didn't get done she wasn't to blame. If she was in the back on a phone call you were NOT to go bother her for any reason... Meaning customers or problems with the register. If you did you were yelled at and even written up. The manager was also very paranoid... Obsessing over the security tapes and watching them to see if she thought you were taking to long in the stock room while searching for products or see if you were taking to many bathroom breaks. She would often tell you to work one task specifically and not anything else then reprimand you for not helping on other parts of the floor.

At one point during my employment the district manager came in. When they found out she was coming the whole store became chaos making sure everything was just right. We were ver busy that day, being in the Christmas season, and this woman came in and immediatley started jumping on everyones cases. Their uniform wasn't just so, they weren't holding a basket, they weren't saying the introduction right, not following customers around. At one point she started reprimanded a manager right in front of customers and employees while she was trying to answer a question about a product for me and accused her of not doing her job. The district manager was even ruder then the store manager and sat in the back half the time watching the monitors to catch any littl mistake we made. Of course this made our store manager want to show off and she found any little reason real or not to get after the employees.

I quit shortly afer that. The entire time I worked at Yankee I hated it. I generally like work and have always had a good relationship with my employers and even visit regularly after I leave and in a couple of instances have been rehired later down the road. While at Yankee I was constantly nervous, made to feel like an idiot, afraid to ask questions, and always worring about every thing. I think the worst was the nervousness. I was sure that every time I did anything I would be reprimanded for it and I usually was. Any shift I knew I had with the store manager would make me physically sick to my stomach from hours before it until it ended. I don't know if all Yankee Candle stores are like this or if this is just the atmosphere because of the store manager and the DM. However because the District Manager is like that I assume that kind of atmosphere is present in other stores at least in this area.

In the time that I worked there 22 people were hired in and all but four quit because of these reasons. I will NEVER buy anything from or made by Yankee again. I urge all of my friends and family to do the same and anyone who reads this as well. I am not putting my name on this report due to fear of retaliation from the company.

Company: Yankee Candle Company - Merriville Indiana Store
Country: USA
State: Indiana
City: Merrilville
Address: Westfield Shopping Town

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