team leader

superviseur

nail technician

assistant store manager

department leader

Princess Auto

Management at that store in no way resembled what the corporate office promoted as their vision. The so called Team Leader (TL), was a person of very little prior work experience, who subsequently held that against any others who sought advancement whether or not they had days, months, or years of retail experience. The TL was obviously unable to critically think issues through (as to how to resolve questions, issues, etc.), but was full of 'sayings' which resolved nothing, nor provided room or freedom to work out situations to the benefit of the store, the team members, and ultimately the customers. The TL was very proficient in being critical of others though when dealing with them. The TL was in the habit of gas-lighting team members, by passing and holding onto a judgment (and it only took one), followed by constantly assessing, defining, and holding the associate in contempt no matter the issue. The TL's inability to resolve conflict issues, beginning with the TL's own issues, translated into a very demoralizing atmosphere. It was very disheartening to experience personally and watch other associates lose heart due to the immature manner in which associates were treated. Associates who had been at that store for many years often described the descent of managerial incompetency as being increasingly difficult to encourage them to remain employed there.
The TL promoted an associate to an TLT (team leader in training) who, as an associate disregarded company/store protocols which made it difficult for all other associates to maintain and attain to those very protocols. An associate, who was generally regarded as a good fit by the majority, if not all of the team members, was summarily denied the promotion based on not answering a question to the TL's liking... Wow! get 99.99% of the promotion process right, and be a conscientious worker, but be passed over for one who lacked adequate competency who would then be responsible for 'leading' those under that TLT, to do what they themselves were unwilling to follow.
The TL considered it to be unacceptable to present issues of concern, because the TL deemed that to being 'negative' as opposed to listening, considering and working out resolutions. No manner of ignoring reality and classifying it with a touch phrase which casts dispersion on legitimate concerns contributes to achieving workable resolutions.
Of concern was that in order to attain to the position of store leader, that TL was apparently able to regurgitate the policies and protocols of the corporation, without being able to function in them.
Princess Auto would do well to earnestly understand that when they seek feedback from the store associates, that it is quickly understood if they take serious the information provided by the store associates. Just the act of sending out a survey doesn't make everything better... concrete and reasonable measures would accomplish far more.
Considering the managerial shortages, the associates tried their best and some good professional interactions were able to be formed and prosper, despite the void of ethical, genuine management at the top position. Interestingly enough, catching up with former co-workers who moved on to other employment, the most satisfying thing to observe in them was the transformation of their presence back to how they were before being demoralized by their experiences at that particular Princess Auto Store. I am one of those who landed a far better circumstance, a challenging position, but with the bonus of having exemplary leadership and coworkers. For that, I am grateful.

Ive spent quite some time with a single company for someone my age (Turning 21 this January, will be coming of four years with the company). When I was 17 and just starting out the job was ever so interesting as I had never worked in an environment with friendly and knowledgeable co-workers who were eager to share knowledge with me. 

An average day currently, I come into work and am greeted with a start up meeting with the leader on duty, we briefly discuss the sales figures, expectations, upcoming notes of importance. We are then given our tasks for the day and set out to the sales floor and warehouse environments to complete them.

These range from customer service goals such as selling enough air compressors to make room for new stock, to re designing end caps and shelving to appear more ascetically pleasing to our guests.  

My work is a mixed bag of retail and sales work with physical and fast paced body work. By the end of the day I am typically physically tired but always have more to give.

I have worked all 24 hours of the clock during my time, including nights, early mornings, and weekends.

Ask me in 2012 what I thought of the Job and I would have had nothing but good things to say. However today is a different story. Having always been a temporary full time team member, I never was given an opportunity to advance to a role of leadership. Thus I have paid quiet attention to the the leadership team and the changes that have happened over the years.

It is clear to me that the company lacks organization and ethics in the upper level management sector, and this is bolded by the fact that with the loss of our most recent Store Manager Carl Rhamos being replaced by an external hire instead of giving second in command Steven Switzer a chance to take over due to an outside relationship between the outside hire and out Corporate district manager, who has been with the company for less time then I have. 

As a result, my desire to continue to work and achieve corporate level advancement with the company is now non existent. It is clear once I acquire my business degree that my internal code of ethics and ideals on how to be a leader and how to be a boss will be overlooked and I am not interested in remaining at the store level for a career.

I still work hard and enjoy my day to day work, but I am interested in spreading out and getting my foot in the door with a more like minded but equally interesting and unique corporation. But I am also open to labor intensive entry level. 

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

My Experience at Princess Auto

During my time at Princess Auto, an average day involved putting out stock from the warehouse, assisting customers until closing, allocating products in the warehouse, tagging, and consistently cleaning and organizing aisles to create homes for active products. These tasks were often repetitive but essential to maintaining the store's operations.

This experience has been valuable in learning about Princess Auto's operations and company values. Working here has also helped me grow in my ability to interact with and assist customers effectively.

Management
Management has undergone significant changes, and communication has become inconsistent. A few leaders, particularly those on the night team, stand out as exceptions—they send regular emails and photos to keep everyone informed about the team's progress. Similarly, the warehouse team communicates fairly consistently about the workflow and updates.

However, main store leads often argue over simple tasks, creating unnecessary tension. If you raise a concern about select staff, the issue is often dismissed, and you may be seen as the problem for speaking up. Leadership sometimes exaggerates situations when reporting to the store manager, which undermines trust and accountability. There’s also a trend of promoting individuals who can be easily controlled or micromanaged, rather than those best qualified for the role.

Challenges
One of the most challenging aspects of working here is the lack of communication about role expectations. Leadership frequently changes the responsibilities of positions without informing staff, even though the company has set standards for each department. This inconsistency, combined with insufficient training for new hires, can create unnecessary stress.

Most Enjoyable Part
The best part of working at Princess Auto has been the coworkers. They are supportive, collaborative, and willing to help, even when under pressure from management. The lack of staffing has pushed teams to work closely together, fostering a strong sense of camaraderie. Despite the challenges, the teams consistently accomplish impressive tasks, moving significant amounts of stock and supporting each other.


Typical day looks like this: 

- Arrive at Princess Auto and sit in a longwinded team meeting (these are mandatory; however, TLTs/ATLs/AND the TL often forget to run them for those starting a later shift and are mainly about the figures from the previous day.) 
- Receive break schedule (usually they attempt to allow you a 15 within the first 4 hours of your shift, but unless you're popular with the staff, forget it. Luckily, your peers will happily take your break if they feel that it's too long to wait for their turns. 
- If you ask for more hours, they will schedule you just under the full time mark so that you cannot receive benefits/full time salary. If you ask for less, they will tell you that they have a minimum of 25 hours. 
- If you are a part time worker, then you will work every. single. weekend. They downplay this, assuring you that you will have two days off per week and they *try* to schedule them together. This is never the case and you will not receive any weekends off, you may, however book one off, but you will have to jump through many hoops.
-They will disregard your availability, ignore emails about availability, and schedule you when you've spent 3 weeks reviewing with 3 TLTs, 2 ATLs, and the TL. 
- TLTs and ATLs will hide in their offices/on the floor and refuse to answer pages, even during emergency/potentially threatening situations. This has happened twice in 2 months
- Floor teams will refuse to remove their stock (95s) from the Solutions, leading to a backlog of stock and the cash team spending an extra (unpaid) 30 minutes replacing it. 
- TL will make suggestive comments to the cash team and home office will ignore complaints/emails. 
-You will be forgotten about when it comes to the end of your shift. You will be asked to stay later, you will not be paid, you will have to ask them several times to adjust your pay. 
- You will return home, sore and sick. The fumes, dust, and general disgusting state of the whole store is enough to cause chronic bronchitis. 


This is a terrible store. Do not work for them. The profit sharing isn't even worth it.

I worked part-time at P Auto for 7 years. Good, honest people there for the most part. I'd say that was the best thing about this place. Good company culture too, although I found what was preached often needed more practice. 

Part-time hours were spotty. They offer profit sharing but it's distribution is top-heavy because your cut is based on your wage. If you're on the ground floor like I was, don't expect a lot.

Speaking of wages... in my experience, you started off slightly above minimum wage, and yearly wage increases were very minimal (if you got anything) except to a very small percentage of the staff. It really felt like a popularity contest when those came around. Going above and beyond? Well, you weren't going above and beyond enough compared to (insert name here) so we'll just call it 'average'. 

Some of the Leaders were great. They always tried their best to accommodate everyone and were very helpful and involved themselves in projects instead of just dictating. Some other "Leaders" were terrible though. Micromanagement, overall lack of support and even a few instances of petty shenanigans. One example: I had a TLT that was penning me in for shifts on short notice (day before/day of) without notifying me of the changes. Then, when I didn't show up for these new shifts, I was getting confronted for being a no-show. This ended pretty quickly once I started taking pictures of my schedule to prove what was happening, but I know a couple other co-workers found other jobs because of this. All I can say is that it really depends on who you're dealing with. YMMV.

I left because at the end of the day, I felt it was a job and not a career. I wanted to start a family and that wasn't going to happen with what I was earning by staying there. After looking into advancement within the company I learned that it was highly unlikely to improve my situation, so I moved on to greener pastures. I enjoyed my time at P Auto, but I do not recommend staying there long-term.

Caveat: This review is dated as I left the company in 2017 but it is reflective of my experience while working there at the time.

Typical Day: Starts with team meeting to give you a run-down on how the store is doing. Everyone then goes to their separate sections and cleans, faces isles, and greets customers. Stock is brought down from storage or from warehouse and shelves are filled. Sometimes merchandising is required for fliers but not always. Very easy job and very rewarding as well, hard work is often complimented and co-workers are friendly and always willing to help.

What I learned: How to merchandise for better sale results. How to work in a team environment, more than I'll ever probably need to know about tools, but there is always more to learn about the products that they sell. Minor hydraulics work such as cutting hydraulic hose.

Management: Usually really stressed out for not really any reason at all. You can really tell if you're doing a good job because your section manager will be far less stressed if you are. I've never seen anyone be bad about it though.

Co-workers: Extremely nice and friendly. Very welcoming environment. Always willing to help, whether it be with merchandising tips, product knowledge, or simply just lifting something that's too heavy for one person.

Hardest Part of the Job: Showing customers where things are. Your basic responsibility is your section, but you're expected to know the whole store in case a customer asks you where something is or what it does. Although if you don't know, you can always ask someone in their section where something is or what it's used for.

Most Enjoyable Part of the Job: Interacting with customers. Customers that come in aren't the usual "get in and get out as fast as possible" kind of people, they come to look around, talk to the employees, and they're always willing to teach you something if you don't know.

Welcome to the unique world of Princess Auto, and boy, is it unique.

As a part timer you will be subjected to working odd hours, you are a fill in, this is to be expected in any retail setting. Weekends will no longer be your's, when you want a weekend off you will be told to schedule your activities around the schedule. Make sure any events, such as family birthday parties or the like, are in sync with their work schedule, good luck!!

The profit sharing is an unknown, you will sign an agreement that states after 3 months you are eligible to receive it, one co-worker told me after 9 months he still hadn't seen penny one, beware!!

They preach safe work place practices, yet will stack an 80 pound item on the top shelf ( two high sometimes) and expect you to climb up a ladder to get it down for a customer. This practice is so unsafe it is beyond comprehension, it's just a matter of time until someone gets seriously hurt. Of course if something does happen you have to fill out an incident report....I think they get put in the company's round file. 

They seem to promote incompetence, as long as the incompetent one likes to keep his or her nose brown, that seems the only way to achieve advancement in the company. Also, they don't recognise any external experience, seems unless you've worked there for a very long time, your experience means nothing. 

The exclusion of certain "team members" to things like celebrations, anniversaries and anything free was a regular occurrence for me....didn't feel like any team I've ever been on.    

Overall, if you're a student looking for a just over minimum wage job, then this place isn't a bad fit. But if you are someone looking for a real job where your experience matters, look elsewhere, Co-workers, for the most part, were amazing, great bunch of people working there!!

Management handles problems well usually, especially if mistakes are made, although they are very inconsistent about rules or event promo's creating confusion for the employees. They try to keep a fun environment while still upholding job standards; although sometimes goofing off, especially from certain management, creates mixed messages to the staff or when joking goes too far making some uncomfortable. They have good programs in place for job advancement and a good website for opportunities and many fun contests for prizes for employees. They generally do try and treat their employees well. The schedule though I found was chaotic, but that was mostly limited to part time employees, while full time keep a consistent schedule. Everyone is supposed to have a full weekend, every second weekend off, although I did not get the benefit of that due to cashiers being understaffed, to which they did not make any hasty attempt to fix the staffing problem for months, sometimes not even scheduling any cashiers for the day because we were stretched so thin. To my knowledge even though I have been gone for over a month, they are still not planning on finding a replacement for me and keeping the cashiers understaffed. Although aside from the erratic schedule and being stretched thin for cashiers it was a fun environment with really good team members to work alongside.

Highly recommend you don’t work for this company!   Management is awful, they truly don’t care about you and only care about saving money. Which comes at the cost of your work hours and mental health. They punish you for going to the washroom or leave by cutting your hours prior to leaving and after coming back. Never paid properly, no proper 15 mins breaks as always being asked to come back earlier.  Not enough staffs working ever, meaning you alone do the work of 4-5 people.  The old staffs always get free time standing around chatting on the sales floor.  Management is not supportive, they don't acknowledge you hardly ever and if they do it’s nothing good like writing you up for the most ridiculous reasons which make no sense. All of them come off very condescending and act better than you. The discount isn't even worth using, because you can really only use it on yourself, even if you're living home to support your parents or spouse.  

Coworkers will try to get one up on you by gossiping about you to management to make themselves look good, which ends up getting you written up and management won't even let you defend yourself either.

Managers also like to sit in the office all day. Store manager rarely, if ever, helps the associate or takes their side in a customer dispute.  

This is the worse job i ever had in my life time! 

The team leaders there need trailening, and need to know how to treat others "below" them. I was picked on and treated very badly by my team leader.

As well as my horrible experience working for Princess Auto, the management in the interview promised flexibility and promised that this company was "family oriented". Its not to say the least, atleast for the people who are just team members and cashiers. It was not a fair enviornment at all, I did not feel as if I was working on a team what so ever. I loved my job at first then after I was done being the "new girl" I saw everyones true colors and how the store was really ran.

Having the company promise things in the interview to the employees that are working there or are going to be working there and then when an employee has a conflict or needs time off for family purposes it is not an option. I was told when I was hired that I could work my weekends around so I could be off the same weekend as my boyfriend was (because I just moved here with him and its just him and I) and when I asked after I had got hired I was not aloud to switch my weekends around.

I believe that not the whole company works this way, but this store needs attention. A specific team leader as well, she picked on me and treated me very badly to the point where I could not deal with it anymore and decided to quit.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Team leader 3 salaries reported	$18.00 per hour
Superviseur 1 salary reported	$22.72 per hour
Nail technician 3 salaries reported	$24.00 per hour
Assistant store manager 1 salary reported	$25.74 per hour
Department leader 2 salaries reported	$20.92 per hour

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