sales associate

assistant store manager

director

merchandiser

marketing coordinator

Knix

Pros 
- Remote - Work from Home 
- Humanitarian Efforts and Supporting the Underprivileged. 
- Industry Average Pay 
- Average Health & Dental Benefits 
- Discount on Products 
- Growing Company

Cons 

- Inconsistent messaging in Company Values (Talk the talk, but they don’t walk the walk) 
- Lack of Diversity and Support for minorities 
- Lack of Training Structure 
- Lack of Leadership and Poor Management Skills 
- Low Prioritization on Product Knowledge across departments 
- Poor Communication Skills in Management 
- Unrealistic expectations 
- Needs improvement on 
- Working overtime and weekends without additional compensation 
- Micro-aggressions from leadership /management 
- Clique-like mentality (feels like high school) 

You’ve been warned, they will say anything to get you hired, make sure you get it in writing. They don’t care about employee retention, they expect you to come without needing to be trained and excel without support. Their training program doesn’t accommodate different learning styles. 

Advice to Management 

Work on training your managers to be proper leaders. Get an external company or someone qualified to standardize your training because there are too many inconsistencies in messaging. Constantly work on inclusivity - if that is your value - having an optional reading library and some TedTalk/Youtube links doesn’t make you “educated” if you don’t make it a priority across your company. As a growing company makes sure your employees feel safe to provide feedback or voice their concerns without being at risk. Also, improve your exit interview process, there's valuable feedback that you miss out on that can vastly improve your company’s operations. 

created such a hostile and unwelcoming environment during my training week. ten managers in the store and yet i wasn't given any of the promised shadowing time, discussion about the selling model or helped me increase my PK. overall lacked a training plan. instead, i was pulled left and right in different tasks by different managers every 5 minutes. zero communication between managers. got berated for not knowing how to do something instead of being shown how to do it.

associates aren't asked to accommodate trainees or taught how to actually team sell, so the competitive environment fostered hostility. eg. was glared at by an associate when i talked to their customer despite not knowing that they had a claim on them already.

the best part of my training was surprisingly the customers. having told them that it's my first hour on the floor, and despite having little PK and training, they were very patient and understanding. 

having worked with competing brands and trained 10s of associates in similar environments, i can see that this company is a poor copycat of their more successful counterparts. they couldn't even pretend to be welcoming and friendly during my first week. if a trainee was no longer wanted, no need to push them over the edge; just let them go.

i was just looking for a customer-facing role to interact with more people because i work independently at my other role, but wow this company made me remember why i gave up on retail.

The job itself is fairly simple but little to no training is provided outside of product knowledge. You're thrown onto the floor and expected to figure things out. If you're less experienced with something, you won't be coached, instead you'll be moved to a role that has the least amount of impact and have your shifts/hours cut. If it's a slow day you'll likely get sent home early. Some times they sent people home an hour into their shifts, some people got cut on their way to work.

The manager was who made the job incredibly difficult. Inconsistent communication, poor instructions, no feedback, imbalanced chain of command, gossip, and use of demeaning language. It was difficult to work cohesively, feel supported, and perform effectively. Majority of the team constantly hesitated to approach her for feedback and guidance due to a pattern of hostility.

The organization  appears to be  entrenched in a downward spiral, marked by a litany of issues that are eroding morale and stifling its potential for success. Understaffing remains a central issue and concern, exacerbating every challenge we face and casting a dark shadow over our operations.

With excessive turnover rates and a budding toxic workplace culture, the atmosphere has become increasingly negative. Leadership, is a mess. Current leadership  is not providing guidance and support, and seems to be fuelling the flames, actively resisting necessary changes and exacerbating the situation. 

Communication breakdowns have led to hostile relations among staff members, with purposeful miscommunication further exacerbating tensions. Certain channels within the organization actively dismiss fellow members of leadership or engage in poor communication with one another, creating a toxic environment where collaboration and progress are stifled.


Working at Knix initially seemed like a wonderful opportunity, but the atmosphere is extremely competitive and unnecessarily toxic. Many associates, myself included, have long work histories in education, academia, and other retail environments. Despite our different backgrounds, we all agree that Knix is by far the most disorganized and stressful workplace we’ve encountered. Managers set unrealistic expectations for sales associates, often snapping at staff and offering harsh, repetitive feedback while rarely acknowledging our strengths. Management also has a habit of making examples out of associates, especially when head office visits, suddenly acting tougher and more aggressive just to appear in control. Favouritism and microaggressive behaviour are common, and although many associates are students, that fact is seldom respected. The customers are wonderful, and I just wish management showed even a fraction of their kindness.

I love working for Knix because I truly believe, and standby thier products. However having been working retail customer service for many years, I've never experienced such lack of communication within upper management. They are very unorganized, there's a lack of professionalism, poor treatment, . In my time working with Knix Rideau Centre, since store opening in November 2023, I've had 4 different managers,  all in such a short time period. I've never witnessed such  turnover for store managers. The current manager, our 4th, is very junior, often rude, as well as inappropriate with the her team and clients.  There's so much toxicity, causing a very negative atmosphere. I'm sticking around because I love what I do but a change needs to be made for the Rideau team to succeed, and feel comfortable while doing so.

What is the best part of working at the company?
I love the wonderful working environment where everyone is very nice and supportive. The  company also cares for the employee's both physical and mental health, which is highly appreciated.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Honestly I have not experienced any stressful situation since I worked for Knix.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Employee focus is my favourite company value and the work environment is friendly and comfortable.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I work in the store where my key roles are to deliver customer service, train new staff and support store managers in recruiting new sales associates as well as organizing store events.

It was worth applying for, a job a truly learned something worth while. Improved my social skills extensively. There a few holes in management, which does make it extremely difficult to work with one specific team of management. Regardless it’s better than every other job I’ve worked. Understanding and welcoming environment, especially with schedule changes and other personal conflicts. 

Definitely a more intensive retail environment, but with being paid more than minimum it’s worth it compared to most places. It’s definitely tiring with the constant customer building, but as long as you actually put in the work it shouldn’t be too difficult to learn everything. There is a lot of pressure to do well from higher management but at the end of the day it’s just a job. 

My time at Knix can be summarized by mixed messages, a deviation from the mission, and rewarding the loudest voices in the room.  The executive team has lost the plot in terms of what this brand was founded for, to the point that their marketing now feels like purpose-washing. It is a business, yes, but it can only succeed with the buy-in and engagement of its people. Most employees are holding on for the promise of improvement (they’ve been waiting a long time) or are actively looking for a way out. The choices they’ve made to stand behind toxic leadership and prioritize rapid over sustainable revenue growth have been sad and disappointing.

Knix started out great. Super sweet team. But recently, it's gotten much tougher and harsher. I understand it's a "growing company" and we have to work hard for sales, but management and head office will beat you down, they're demeaning, and a lot of the times if you're meeting sales goals, you're still not doing good enough according to them. 

A lot of favouritism and management has made it really hard to like working anymore. Sometimes, the harder you work, the harsher they are, but the people doing the bare minimum get to cruise by. If you can dissociate from those aspects of the job, it would be a great place, but they make it incredibly hard. 

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Sales associate 4 salaries reported	$19.00 per hour
Assistant store manager 4 salaries reported	$46,500 per year
Director 4 salaries reported	$146,250 per year
Merchandiser 3 salaries reported	$83,333 per year
Marketing coordinator 3 salaries reported	$55,000 per year

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