directeur des ventes

représentant commercial

gestionnaire de stock

gérant

concepteur graphique

Newfoundland Chocolate Company

We'll be honest, and start with some genuine perks of working here:

+In retail work, you'll get to meet a lot of kinds of people, especially during tourist seasons. If you're charismatic and enjoy social interaction, it can be quite fun.
+Most everything is made by hand; no oxidized powders or instant ingredients, even in retail/barista settings. Preference is given to locally available ingredients, but not all can be found here.
+For production, you’ll be working with your hands and taught how to properly make chocolates. {It’s more complex than you may think.}
+You get a discount on store products {currently 20%}, making gifts easier to find.
+You'll enjoy your coworkers; most people who work in-store are energetic. You'll know the production/packaging people better working at the Torbay Road location.
+You support a local business by working here.


However, before you apply to this company, here is a summary of things you should know:

–Retail staff can collect tips, but the company will TAKE a portion of digital tips as a "Handling Fee". They know they're not allowed to, but they do. {Not applicable to cash tips.}
–You'll be strung along under the guise of "not enough store hours". You may apply for a “permanent” position, but they really mean seasonal, especially after Christmas, Easter, and the end of summer. {We have witnessed MANY people hired on for holiday seasons, only to have no hours afterwards, and not be warned. Management is fully aware of doing this.}
–Full-timers will be prioritized, to a fault. Part-timers may be cut. As soon as someone can only work part-time, they will be ignored.
–Store managers/supervisors have lost their ability to lead. Upper management are the ones making decisions on pay, schedules, store duties, etc.
–Current upper management {as of June 2024} have ZERO respect or care for those below them, the most important ones they are responsible for. They will ghost you, and not tell you why. Especially for part-timers, you will find yourself with no hours at all, and no answers. Emails will be ignored, calls unanswered, and texts left on read. You’ll be left with nothing but disrespect and ignorance.
–Management will also be unwilling to negotiate pay raises/promotions, instead hiring new people for minimum wage, and hire outside the company {fully new people or nepotism} for anything management related. Cheaper workers will be prioritized, and being promoted is a VERY rare occurrence.
–Some in management will be unpleasant to their workers, talking behind their back or in some cases, directly. There's NO proper Human Resources person to fix this. All issues will be a case of "he said, she said", with preference given to management.
–The benefits of working with this company keep shrinking. Health care was once offered by the company, but has likely been dropped. Employee discounts/allowances have diminished, and store sales incentives have been completely scrapped, despite all locations doing well and meeting {most} monthly goals. There is no incentive to do well, or stay, outside of tips.


If you decide to apply to the Newfoundland Chocolate Company and find work there, here are some tips for survival:

–Get EVERYTHING in writing. Take pictures of your contract/guidelines, and get a physical, dated, signed copy. Mostly use email and text. Ask to record meetings. If denied, refuse the meeting. Anything you do not actually have will be refuted if it benefits you in any way, or will be kept from you.
–Expect to have to talk to people you hardly know about store/work issues. Your store manager/supervisor has no power, and anything can be overwritten by upper management. With no staff representative on that level, you'll be poorly by upper management.
–Work to your wage. If you are paid minimum wage, work to that standard. Don't expect to move up in the company unless you are hired on as management. {Even then, as a small company, they will not have frequent openings on those levels.} The company will prioritize the cheapest workers possible. If you are base level production/shipping/retail sales, don’t expect much more than that.
–Expect extra workloads with little pay increase, if any. {There is EXTREME reluctance to grant raises.} The company doesn't have staff to cover sick calls, so you will likely be called in {if you're favored by management}.
–Track hours and tips. There's been pay discrepancies before.
–If you are scheduled until a certain time, do not work past that. You WILL NOT be paid, or at least heavily discouraged from writing in when you actually left. You need prior permission for overtime pay.
–If you become a shift supervisor/key holder, etc. above base level production/shipping/retail, don't expect to be fairly compensated for the higher workload {because you WILL be asked to take on a bigger workload and responsibility}. Expect to have no real control over your store/schedule/environment.
–If you're there for a long time, don't expect to be fairly compensated or respected for your dedication.
–Speak openly about wages. Management will discourage this, but it's NOT against the law. Your tips also DO NOT factor in to your total wage, and you should not be paid less because you earn tips. {You WILL hear that argument from management. They WILL threaten to take away tips fully, but they KNOW that is what makes the job worth it.}
–If they ever remove tips, LEAVE. See above point.
–If something feels unsafe, refuse the work. Tight spaces {with hot beverages and heavy boxes} are everywhere. Other workplace issues {enraged customers, spoiled goods, water/plumbing issues, heavy carry loads, machine malfunctions} will pop up.
–The turnover rate is fairly high. If you stay, you'll see people come and go, leaving on their own or being laid off. {2023 alone had THREE STORES of staff quit/be terminated over the course of just a few months.}
–You will NOT be TOLD you are being laid off. You will just have ZERO hours when the company decides to let you go. {Especially if you are hired as a permanent-seasonal.} You will have to request an ROE {Record of Employment} because it will not be automatically handed out after the 7-day or 30-day mark {full-time versus part-time workers}.
–If you go a long period of time without work, expect to be LET GO WITHOUT NOTICE. You should be paid “in lieu of notice”, but that is based on the hours you’ve worked in recent weeks and length of employment. Your hours will change so that will become a net zero pay.
–Finally and most importantly; look for OTHER WORK. Do NOT tell anyone you are doing so, as you will drop in priority. Leave as soon as you can. You will find respect someplace else.


In the past, this was an amazing place to work, full of fantastic people and opportunity. Prideful storytellers, pure products, positive workers. The warm and gentle people we remember so fondly have turned to swarming, faceless crowds without compassion for their fellow coworkers.

We want this company to do well. Some of us were here a long time, and at some points in the company’s history, it was heavenly. But, we want to see change, for those still here and those who have been significantly burned as they left. To fix many of these issues, the company should listen to their staff and appoint someone as a representative who provides them a genuine voice, or simply -unionize-. The rampant disrespect, ignorance, and blatant apathy to the workers at the bottom of the ladder is thick. Many of us who are still here are afraid to speak up, as this is our only job that we cannot afford to lose. Yet, the desire to leave has been strongly felt by all of us, either still there or departed.

We admit that current rates of inflation {as of June 2024} and the COVID-19 Pandemic have hit small businesses hard. This is felt at the Newfoundland Chocolate Company in many ways, particularly economically, with high prices of cocoa and the like. We won’t ignore that, we can understand why some financial changes were made in recent years.

Yet, we feel this company has not held themselves to their own values, which cost nothing to uphold. Things like Accountability, Honesty and Integrity. Look in the Torbay Road store and see these values up there by the menu. We want to hold those core values up like a mirror to the company we once loved.

Until the Newfoundland Chocolate Company is able to hold themselves accountable, act with honesty and integrity, and treat the staff that do the most work with the respect they deserve, this review will remain up. Without those at the bottom of the chain, there is no base. Without those that make, package, ship and sell the products, the company has nothing.

So, now we wait for change. We will know when that change happens, and will edit this review accordingly.

Otherwise, do not apply to this company. Your time and effort will be readily valued elsewhere.

This company is not worth working for. The upper management does little to nothing to help the stores in NS. there is very little hope to advance in this company, rather than promote workers they will gradually add more and more to people’s plates without any increase in pay. 

Upper management does not communicate with the NS teams at all. More than that they will flat out disrespect the people working in the NS stores. When people have finally reached their limits and quit management will try to persuade them into staying (usually just with an increase in pay that is negligible when you factor in transportation costs). More than that they once called a meeting on a holiday in which they only taught us basic retail training when everyone in attendance had been there for over a year, and they didn’t actually update us on any company wide changes. 

The pay is minimum wage, which would normally be fine, but when retail associates are the ones making sure that the store opens, closes, cash is balanced, all shifts are covered, there is enough product in store, and the store functions smoothly on a day to day basis it is extremely low. 

The company cares more about customer reviews than employee concerns/reviews. Rather than try to fix the underlying issues mentioned by both previous and current employees the company will only focus on five star reviews. 

Work/life balance is not possible at any level working with the company especially at the retail level. Because we had not had any new hires in months at one point it was the same three people on a constant six day rotation. During which time if someone got sick that often meant the other person would have to work alone. 

The culture this company has is nothing short of toxic. While working there I was anxious, not only did I have to ensure that the store was running properly (which should have been a managers job), I also often was left fearing visits from head office. During visits they would usually want to renovate the entire stores which meant the retail workers would be left doing most of the work while upper management just posed for pictures at the end. Another stress factor while working there was fear of being yelled at- it is extremely worrisome to go to a job where they are constantly changing the regulations (how much to fill cups, how to do returns, allowing customers to have cups of water, serving sizes, etc) and get mad when we are unsure which rules to follow. Even if they are the ones giving mixed messages. Save yourself the time and avoid working here.

My experience working at the Newfoundland Choclate Company was awful. There were some positives, but the negatives definitely outweigh them.
I worked at the Signal Hill cafe for the most part, but also took retail shifts at the Avalon Mall and Duckworth Street. When i got hired I was so excited, it seemed like such a fun atmosphere and I thought it would be a job I could keep for a long while. I was so wrong.
The day to day duties for me were mostly preparing sandwiches, beverages, scooping gelato. It was awesome getting to meet people from all over the world, and chat it up with them. It was also awesome when chocolates couldn't be sold so we could eat them!
Each night we would have to send off a report of our day to the owners, let them know about the weather, our sales, and any other comments we had for the day. Many times there were things that went wrong throughout the day that we would want to send but chose not to. The only time i decided to write about something that went wrong was a day when we didn't receive any bread or chocolate that day, so there were no sandwiches or chocolate for customers to buy. This was labour day, so of course the head office was closed, just like every other location except Signal Hill.
The next day we were told that we are responsible when things go wrong, and that me and my coworker should have hopped in our cars and found bread on our own. That would mean we would have to shut the store down and take our own cars to buy supplies. My coworker questioned this and ended up fired.
There were multiple occasions I watched the owners make staff members cry, there were many nights I left in tears myself. They didn't bother learning your name, even though they would show up almost every day. 
I worked so hard at this job and tried my best everyday just to be made to feel like I was doing a terrible job, underappreciated. 
The only plus side to this job was the awesome friends I made, staff members are great people. Since I left this position every single person I worked with has since quit as well, or has been fired for reasons that are not legitimate. Both managers have also quit. 
All I can say is don't work here, it's not worth it.

I literally keep wondering when this company will be out of business and closing its doors due to the impulsivity, unpreparedness, and bad decision-making of the owners of NCC. They will keep on (or even hire back) employees that are a drain on the company and create chaos and disorganization within the lower structure of the company, while good employees are treated horribly, and definitely not appreciated.

The owners and senior management in Newfoundland constantly left out the stores in Nova Scotia, saying employees in NS didn't work as hard as NFLD and that's NS was struggling. They refused to see that it was because they do not have an adequate production facility in Newfoundland to keep up with demand around Christmas, or the fact that they cannibalized their own business by opening three stores in a 20 minute radius. 

While I worked here I was extremely stressed out, anxious and depressed, a lot of this stemming from being squeezed for labour, recipes, and extreme friendliness by the culture that is created at NCC. I was paid minimum wage to have to produce artisan chocolates, deep clean the kitchen facilities daily, including scrubbing mold in an unventilated area, and to have "above and beyond" customer service, and still the owners were never happy with their employees in Nova Scotia. 

Owners are not suited for this task of running a business, they eschew any good hires they make that can actually help them, and they cling to the "we're a family" notion only when it helps them (aka not having to pay employees for a shift because they guilt tripped them into the "we're a family" notion). I would recommend any other retail job because you still get paid minimum wage and would not be have to deal with the endless nonsense from NCC.

The company is incredibly disorganized and has no structure or standard operating procedures. Head office consistently looks for ways to cut corners instead of operating in an efficient standardized manner. 

 Managers who try their best to provide structure and organization are often not listened to or acknowledged from head office. The owners have completely different visions and do not communicate changes, plans or developments in a timely, effective or professional manner.

Teams in NS are left grasping at straws to fill product spaces on the shelf not due to sales but lack of being sent product to actually sell resulting in a vicious cycle of no sales due to customers not being able to buy the product they’re looking for and then complaints are made from management about no sales.

Management in NL comes in a whirlwind to NS with half planned, poorly executed revamp plans to get sales but end up alienating customers and team members alike in Nova Scotia instead of focusing on what works for the region they continually make the same mistakes.

Expectations of performance and production are extremely high and the pay does not match it. Team members are expected to do a high level of detailed cleaning to adhere to health and safety standards in a food service facility which is great but the expectation to also do that, provide a high level of customer service and produce product all while short staffed in an effort to keep costs low sets up a very unrealistic expectation of all team members.

They would do better to actually recognize and acknowledge teams and individuals who are killing themselves to do a good job because they take pride in their work instead of showing them indifference, disrespect and little incentive if any at all.

This place may have been one of the worst places I have worked.
The people I worked with? Great!
The ability to make chocolate? Great!
The atmosphere, direction, support and general engagement from senior management out of NL? Awful.

They built three stores within 20 mins of each other within a full year of operation and then wondered why the original store (Mic Mac) never made the same amount of sales.

Making chocolate was great but the expectations to do that, provide customer service and be an over the top enthusiastic person providing the "Newfoundland Experience" was too high given that most of us were being provided minimum wage. 

The first year the manager was never there (whether intentioned or not) so eventually the running of the store fell to the team who worked together to make sure we had chocolate and had the things we needed. We didn't have a manager, we managed ourselves.

Senior management from NL often pre-judged team members before getting to know them and on one or more occasions suggested and inferred that we had an "entitled" attitude to expect to be compensated fairly for extra work performed or staying late. If we said no, you were made to feel guilty for not helping out "the family". Visits from head office often resulted in team members being reprimanded for things out of their control (sales numbers) and left some team members in tears and not as engaged as they were before.

For all the hype they spoke of relating to a "Newfoundland Experience" being welcoming, warm, engaging, understanding and family oriented they were not that way with the teams they employed.

Save yourself the stress. You could work a lot of other places for the same wage and less headache.

I would highly recommend avoiding this company. The image that they portray and how the company actually runs are completely different. When I first started at Newfoundland Chocolate Company I was so happy because I loved working for a locally owned company, and the team were extremely friendly and overall nice people. The longer I worked there, I noticed a major divide between the management and employees. Management never really came down on the floor at all and would always be implementing different changes 24/7 that you would have to figure out on your own. On top of that, managers never really got trained and were given way too many tasks for one person to successfully accomplish so they were always coming and going. 

Overall the company has extremely high turnover, they fire people on biased reasons, sometimes without even letting the employee themselves know that they've been let go. There were many instances when employees would just be taken off the schedule without warning, or people would be "laid off" due to medical reasons. 

Working in the food industry, every workplace I've ever worked for has had some form of food safety training and a "see something say something" policy about unsafe work conditions. If you went to your manager about a safety hazard, the majority of the time you would get in trouble for bringing it forward. 

They like to string their employees along, talking about room to grow and move up within the company which is completely untrue. If you do plan on taking a job here, have a backup plan because thinking that you can work here in the long run is impossible.

This business has a lot of room to grow. Being a barista for their Signal Hill location had been lovely, despite its many flaws in management. I enjoyed meeting customers from around the world, and my coworkers were awesome. 

A typical day would include some light duty cleaning, gelato scooping, latte/ hot chocolate making, and conversing with the guests. 

Where to begin with management?

There were times when there were no managers employed for my location, so the staff had to pick up the slack. It was around my first or second shift there, the manager quit on the spot after butting heads with the owners. This was not the last time we would see a manager go for this same reason. 

I have witnessed a long time employee in a position of authority use racial slurs openly in the workplace on multiple occasions.

Training was neglected and inconsistent. 

Scheduling was always a headache. Some weeks I would find myself working 3 hours a day at their Avalon mall location, or 8 hours every day varying between their three locations. I would go without being scheduled any days off for weeks at a time because of poor communication between management at each store. 

My final problem with the company was how I had been treated by an individual in one of the highest positions of authority. Condensation was to be expected when communicating with this person. There were many times I would fight back tears, or go home emotionally drained because of the treatment.

I did love so much of this job, and I do not regret working for them. I certainly hope to see NCC continue to thrive and become better managed in the future.

During my time at NCC, I learned two things. 

One: There is a total and complete disconnect between all levels of the company. Direction is a farce. Whether it is retail, chocolatiers, managers or upper level staff, nobody really knows what anyone else is doing and the phrase "well this person didn't do what they were supposed to" is the cop out for almost everything. It's always someone else's fault. 

Two: Upper management are totally content to use you and throw you away. You are there for a reason and it is not because you are valuable or important to the company. It is because you have something they want, and once you do what they have expected of you, you are gone. Your title does not matter, and your weeks, months or years of service mean nothing. 

The only positive experience I had while working there was the people I met. However, most of them have also been fired or quit, save for one or two.  

If you aren't interested in being insulted, confused on a daily basis, blamed for an immeasurable amount of problems or blindsided, don't work here. Swimming with sharks with an open wound would be more of a positive experience than employment at the Newfoundland Chocolate Company.

What started as a nice job due to the work itself and good coworkers very quickly turned into a nightmare of negativity due to upper leadership. 

The work (making chocolate) was very enjoyable until leadership from NFLD became more involved with day to day operations. Strict and unachievable standards were put into place, and absolutely no training was offered to help meet standards. 

Opportunity for advancement was always made to seem like a possibility, but when attempts were made to have dialogue about it, everything was vague. When opportunities arose, no one was ever deemed qualified enough.

On multiple occasions talks with management lead to employee breakdowns. Crying in the back was fairly common. 

If you ever needed to get in touch with head office for anything, even payroll related issues, it was very difficult and near impossible. It felt like if we needed help from head office, they weren't there. But they were always available to criticize our work.

CEO and upper management put on acts of kindness around customers but are cold and sometimes rude/mean to employees.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Directeur des ventes 2 salaries reported	$38,625 per year
Représentant commercial 2 salaries reported	$18.50 per hour
Gestionnaire de stock 1 salary reported	$21.00 per hour
Gérant 1 salary reported	$18.00 per hour
Concepteur graphique 3 salaries reported	$17.67 per hour

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