If you've ever been curious as to the working conditions and culture within "The worlds largest online bike store" and you didn't see the Dispatches episode where they investigated Sports Direct for reference, then this might make for interesting reading.
700 employees, most on zero hours contracts and barely minimum wage slaving to meet targets they have no control over just so they can be in with a chance of a 1% pay rise in line with inflation while the company turns over £100million a year. The upper management strata (comprising mostly family members and other nepotistic cliques) send emails blaming staff theft, absenteeism, alcohol and drug abuse for poor company performance.
Below is a response to a leaving survey by an employee of CRC who had worked there for seven years. It was sent to every email account in CRC and many in the wider bike industry but as yet it hasn't materialised online as far as I'm aware, it was his intention for this to be seen by as many people as possible. It makes for interesting reading.
CRC exit interview (questionnaire?)Employee Details
Name – D*
Department – Workshop
Job Title – Workshop Technician
Start date – 14th May 2007
Leave Date – 25th April 2014
Job Description and Duties
Q. What did you like most about your current job?
A. I like fixing stuff or customizing things to make them work better, the more interesting side of my job allowed me to do this. Add to that you know that you will be making someone’s day when they get their bike/fork/brake/shock back working better than it ever has before.
Q. What did you like least about your job and why?
A. Building all the shit quality budget or clearance bikes that we always seem to sell even though most of them have inherent faults and end up coming back for warranty issues.
Being pushed towards achieving unrealistic targets, where a job that takes all day only counts as one point towards your daily target as does the job that takes five minutes. Of course if you point this out you get told it’s worked out over the whole year. Then why am I getting pulled for my poor performance for the week? I had completed three complete strip and rebuilds (usually a full day’s work) over the course of two days, but that means I wasn’t achieving my targets.
Q. Were your duties clearly described to you when you took on your role? Have your duties changed?
A. No, my duties were never fully explained to me, we just worked them out as we went along. Extra duties were added as my knowledge, skills and capabilities increased.
Q. Did you feel valued in your role?
A. For the first three or four years, yes. Amongst my team, yes. For the last three years by management or the company as a whole, no.
All we get told these days is we don’t work hard/smart/efficiently enough and we must do better. This company doesn’t value its employees at all, we don’t even get a selection box at Christmas
anymore for * sake.
Q. Did you feel that you had an acceptable workload or were you under or overworked?
A. Workload is completely variable. Some weeks you are completely snowed under, others you are looking for things to do.
This is normal for a workshop environment, it allows you to have clearouts and make improvements to your working area. Can’t do that if you’re on a four to six stat point daily target.
Reason for Leaving
Q. What is your reason for leaving Chain Reaction Cycles?
A. I have many reasons but there was one event that made my mind up. A few months back I was accused of stealing and went through three days, of what was basically an interrogation, once it was proved that I was completely innocent.
There was not even an apology.
Nothing.
Don’t get me wrong. I fully understand the need to follow up on the suspicion that I had stuffed a pair of wheel nuts into my shoe when I was fixing my sock in the warehouse. However, you would think that after being proved innocent and hearing of the sleepless night in fear of losing my job, that the head of HR would have at least have said something to the effect of “sorry you had to go through that”
Nope. Just a blank stare as K waffled on about how good his systems were.
Q. What is the name of the company you are moving to? Can you comment on the remuneration
(deliberate typo, it says that on the form. Sloppy work girls) package?
A. None of your *ing business.
Q. What does your new job involve?
A. See above answer.
Q. In what ways do you consider that the new company and/or job will be better for you?
A. What I do will be recognised and appreciated.
Working Conditions
Q. How would you describe the physical working conditions in your department? Recommendations?
A. Far too hot in summer, the air con we have been asking for for years would help.
Relationship with Line Manager and Colleagues
Q. How would you describe morale in your department?
A. It could not get any lower. There is not one person that wants to work here anymore. We used to have great moral, a real sense of working toward building something great. Not only the largest online bike company, but the best damn workshop in the world. A change of management and all that went to shit. Nobody cares what we do anymore, just that there is a pretty graph of us reaching imaginary targets passed down by managers who've never ridden a bike.
Q. How would you describe your relationship with your colleagues?
A. Excellent, we are a real tight knit team capable of achieving almost anything that is put infront of us.Unexploited potential is everywhere in the workshop.They are the thing I will miss about this place.
Q. How would you describe your working relationship with your line manager?
A. Managers avoid talking to me as much as possible, which is good as I have lost all respect for them recently. They are only out for themselves and seems to be trying to run the workshop into the ground with terrible organization and communication. Not to mention the petty powertripping.
Did your Line manager : always/often/seldom/never
Explain tasks properly – Seldom
Give adequate instructions – never
Give adequate help/advice where required – never
Listen to suggestions – always (but never acted on them)
Show fair treatment – seldom
Provide constructive feedback on your performance – seldom (one monthly review in the last six
months)
How would you rate (if applicable) : v.good, good, average, poor, v.poor, not applicable
Remuneration(again) – na
Loyalty Bonus – average
Flex Time – na
Flexible working policy – na
Canteen – average
Parking – Vpoor
Staff Discount – Poor
Ride to Work – average
Childcare vouchers – na
Healthcare scheme – average
Sick Pay Policy – poor
Communication
Q. How do you feel about the level of communication within your department?
A. It’s non existent, We don’t even get told if our supervisor/line manager (come to think about it I don’t even know what his current title is) is leaving early or has a holiday.
Q. Do you feel that you were kept well informed about what was happening in the company as a whole?
A. We were always the last to know about anything, we find out from other departments before we are told by our management. Some times after the fact, like the prize draw for the personal details form.
Training and Development
Q. How would you rate your induction into the company?
A. I don’t remember, not sure I even had an official induction.
Q. Do you feel that you received adequate training/coaching to perform your role?
A. Nope, we learned everything on the job and from our collegues. External training from suppliers never taught us anything we hadn’t worked out ourselves beforehand. Internal training is comedic.
Q. What is your opinion of career development opportunities within the company?
A. Seems to me that the more you act like a complete the more likely you are to do well in the company. It’s a prerequisite for being a manager (there are a couple of exceptions to this, but not many)
Doing your job well isn’t enough. Just ask M in the wheelroom. He has been waiting three years for a wage review to bring him up to the rate of the other experienced wheelbuilder. Yep, two people doing the same job for different money. Anybody care? Nope. We have been shouting about this so much that HR told us to stop asking about it.
Q. What is your opinion of the CRC recruitment process? Do you believe that employees are given
adequate promotional opportunities?
A. Depends who’s mate or cousin they are when they are brought in and how much arse they can lick once they are here.
Work/Life balance
Q. How would you rate your work/life balance whilst working for the company?
A. Not great, I had to take on a second job because the pay scales are so bad in this company.
Company Reputation
Q. Do you believe that the company has a good reputation as an employer?
A. Please, you don’t even have a good reputation among the employment agencies. The entire cycling community of N. Ireland has been through these doors at some stage, so they all know what a bunch of *s you are. That’s why most of the people now working here couldn’t tell you the simplest things about a bike, Its why we always have shit that no-one wants in stock, wrong descriptions on the website, items in the wrong category etc etc
Q. Would you recommend the company as an employer to others?
A. Yes I would, if it was someone I really didn’t like.
Company Support
Q. Do you feel that the HR department offers enough support to staff in terms of work related issues?
A. No, I feel the HR department is there to support management and not the general operative. I have personally witnessed a situation where HR worked to support the manager in what was an out and out case of discrimination with regard to holiday requests. Greivances against management go unheard. Staff are treated as liars and threatened with their jobs.
Q. Do you think that the CRC HR team is approachable, for example, if you were dealing with personal issues that were affecting your work or you (your*) health?
A. Yes they are approachable, they will smile at you and give you fake sympathy. Then after a family emergency they will reprimand you for that amount of time you have had off due to my children being ill. Well I’m sorry I had to spend all night in hospital when my child took an allergic reaction, and I’m sorry about that time my stepson was in hospital with meningitis and I couldn’t make it to work.
Q. Do you think that all staff are treated fairly in regard to absence, conduct and performance issues?
A. Are you ****ing shitting me? There are different rules per department which are different between sites. Even in the same department people are treated completely differently. There is absolutely no consistency in the application of the code of conduct.
Additional Comments
In two weeks time I would have worked here for seven years.
When I started this was an enthusiastic company driven by people who were into what they were doing,
there was a passion and drive about the place. It was badly organized, often illegal (like the camera that
was put up in the mens toilets, or the spy camera’s that were installed in the workshop) with things always being left to the last minute.
But there was a sense of team, from top to bottom. You were thanked for your effort after a big push.
You felt like what you did mattered.
The last few years, with the inclusion of several external directors, and managers all that has been lost.
This has become a soulless enterprise only interested in squeezing every last penny out of the bike trade it can.
This is a sinking ship, I’m getting off it now, I suggest you all do the same.
Support your local bike shop folks 🙂