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• The bay caused me so much mental distress that i'm now on medication. They coudnt provide the most basic human rights. Management fails to provide adequate oversight for new staff, damaged/defective equipment, deplorable store conditions. support and resources provided were ineffective. no compassion or care for long term staff, NO RAISES!! EVER!! they are condescending and manipulative, no apathy. we literally had our mens and womens bathrooms closed with a deadbolt for months, and for the entirety of my employment our escalators and elevator never functioned. they couldn't even be bothered to provide accessibility to customers never mind staff.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 21 August 2024 by Rater #201 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• The payroll deposits were close to a week late on more than one occasion. There is something wrong with a large company like this if they can not pay their employees on time.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 15 March 2020 by Rater #199 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• 1) Management is out of touch with the employees and reality.
  2) Management love it when you suck up to them.
  3) Some of the management lack managerial and people skills.
  4) Business hours being significantly reduced.
  5) Sales associates being required to multitask in two or more departments due to lack of available staff.
  6) Sales associates working too much for a lot less.
  7) HBC is lost in the retail world and out of touch with the consumers.
  
  Given these points, one begs to ask the question why HBC is still in business. Time to pull the plug...
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  Posted on 10 March 2020 by Rater #198 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• Absolutely the worst work experience ever, because of some managers at Mayfair in Victoria. Customer complained, but it was a complaint about another customer with a rather visible mental disability. It took a lot of my manager time to settle the situation and as a result I was called and let go on the spot. Simply unacceptable procedure, I think. The management confirms its profit only oriented style, with as little as possible understanding of real customers.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 22 October 2018 by Rater #197 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• I'm absolutely miserable. They seemingly refuse to hire more staff and instead toss you around from area to area with no training for said space what so ever to make up for lack of people, or they'll pile 4 people into one department on a low day and leave other departments empty. The pay is god awful, and they never tell you if they changed a shift on the schedule. They pile on these stupid required tests they expect you to do on your own time on this bloody archaic websites with over sized grainy images, HR is absolute trash, and if I even start in the credit card requirement! I'm about one more day of the screeching beep of the register's away from blowing my brains out all over a table of unfolded cashmere sweaters.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 30 September 2017 by Rater #195 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• Human Resources in Waterloo Ontario is very unprofessional. Offered me a job interview but job was for another department and expected me to work in two departments, one that I do not have experience in. They posted a full time position in the ad, but told me it was a temporary position.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 26 April 2017 by Rater #194 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• There is a problem with double standards, some employees can do whatever they want because they are the special one the favorite. Management looks the other way when rules are broken by some employees, and special rules apply to others. Example aux employees complain about not enough hours and get as many or more than full time employees.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 24 February 2017 by Rater #193 | Comments (1) | Flag as inappropriate

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• This company's priority is credit card acquisitions. Employees are expected to produce a couple of credit applications per shift and staff who achieve this are exempted from any other duties, protected by the general manager who encourages them to avoid working hard and being part of the team by telling them the store could not survive without them.
  Hard work might get you a distracted pat on the head but only in the same way as you would do with a dog after it retrieved a ball.
  If you are not afraid of hard work, love being part of a team and have no appetite for running yourself into the ground while the lazy watch you work, this is not the company for you.
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  Posted on 16 November 2016 by Rater #192 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• work schedules do not match with needs of the store. Staff get very little support and moral is extremely low.Special treatment of one staff member over another adds to low moral, lack of trust and bad feeling between staff.Little training is given to new employees and pay is low.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 10 October 2016 by Rater #191 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• The only thing that this company cares about is getting customers on their ridiculously high interest rate credit cards. Management will even stop booking your hours if you do not open enough of them. The store is also not stocked well, which makes it difficult to meet customer needs, and often results in the customers being annoyed and unsatisfied. You're basically being criticized from the management and customers at the same time, all the time, which makes a pleasant moment at this job rare. Overall, I would say that this is a miserable place to work.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 10 September 2016 by Rater #190 | Comments (1) | Flag as inappropriate

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• Worked for bay for over 20years and enjoyed first 10 after that all downhill No respect for long term employees who are passionate about their jobs Management are terrible .No compassion for employees .The new scheduling from the states does not work .People in the ivory towers need to come work the floor and see the level of customer service since they took over schedules .I see frustration on customers faces when they run all over store to find cashier and by the time they get one they are very unhappy I used to go home at night knowing I gave great customer service not anymore !! Changes need to be made .Also have worked in same store for over 20 years and safety issues that have been brought up every time at Health and safety meetings are never addressed Same issues for last 20 years . Store has never been updated since I started .   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 29 June 2016 by Rater #188 | Comments (3) | Flag as inappropriate

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• 1: The company's main goal is to force employees to push, aggressively, credit cards on customers. Often times unsuspecting customers. For a credit card of a company that pays HBC $50 per application. And they encourage deceit to get unsuspecting customers signed up. There are associates who will refer to it as a 'discount card'-telling customers they can get 10% off right there, if they sign up for their 'discount card'. And customers who are at least smart enough to ask if it's a credit card-these employees will dance around that fact-not saying yes, not saying no but just referring to the 'discount card'. Managers know it, senior managers know it. And many customers come back to these specific employees-angry because they've received a credit card in the mail. But it continues to be tolerated because the Bay doesn't care about losing them, just as they don't care about losing customers-the same way they don't care about losing good employees.
  
  2: Queen Street is being taken over by Saks. It's claimed that they're only taking a small portion of the store but the small section is basically just a test and more and more of the entire store will be annexed into Saks. And the Saks people aren't exactly tactful or discreet about this, as the upper executives who are all over the store don't try to conceal it in a building filled with Bay employees that can clearly overhear this talk. Plus it's pretty clear with the sheer numbers of executives from Saks that have been implanted into senior executive positions as well as the 'Asset Protection' (formerly Loss Prevention) area. All of the positions and nomenclature has been shifted to Saks-speak.
  
  3: HR is a joke but I can't blame the company. HR is a joke ANYWHERE you go. The difference in the Bay is that they will put great effort into avoiding you and even persuading you to just let things go: verbal and emotional abuse, bullying and even physical incidents are ignored as much as they can.
  
  4: No recognition of anything whatsoever. That means working there 20 years-you get one of their HBC blankets. Or at least you used to. You work without taking any sick days for years and there is not even a mention of it. You work late, come in on holidays, on your day off to cover someone else... it doesn't matter. They only see as far as that day and when the time comes that you need something, it's not in the interest of the store and you are turned down. It's always the excuse of 'it's what the company needs'.
  
  5: It's the flagship store, the biggest selling space in Canada with hundreds and hundreds of employees. And there's no Christmas party. I'm not talking about an open bar, no admission price Christmas party. I'm talking NO Christmas Party. Because back when there WAS a Christmas Party (that you paid $20-$40 to get into AND was held inside the actual building - usually in the first week of November because they don't lose money on other companies looking to rent the space) they became less profitable. That's right, the last Christmas Party held there made less money than the one before it. So it became 'not worth it' anymore.
  
  6: You're asked to do an availability form which is then ignored and you're regularly and consistently scheduled on days marked as 'not available'. When it is brought up to management, you are told 'We will have to take another look at when you're available and whether you really want to work here' and are then expected to make yourself available for all shifts, all the time. And if you don't, you're still scheduled to work on days you're not available for. And if you have another job-which, let's be honest, most people need because of low rate of pay and a lack of hours from the company-you are told you should either quit the other job, or quit the job at the Bay because they're not in the business of pandering to the needs of part time employees.
  7: Say goodbye to having your own locker. Another example of Saks mandating.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 13 February 2016 by Rater #186 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• Worst work experience ever. I worked there for 2 years as a loss prevention agent (security guard undercover who arrest the shoplifters). I was alone in the store, no support, not enough training. All they want is good performance. They even asked me to let some valuable merchendise easy to steal and watch them hoping to persue (for an extremely high amount) the shoplifters. My superior was a real jerk asking me to do his job while his was watching movies in the office all day and then complain to the regional director that he did not had the time to look for thieves and arrest them has he had too much paperwork to do (I did had the paperwork!) and that i was the one spending time on the floor trying to catch the thieves. No team work and so much backstabbing. Very dissapointed. The associates were all unhappy and stressed of losing their jobs all the time because they where never openning enough credit card account.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 29 December 2015 by Rater #185 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• I worked at the queen street location for almost three years. This company doesn't care about their associates success and or advance placement. All the care about is opening credit cards which is actually not part of an associates job as per the contract. The management is very poor with no recognition to great associates. Hbc has now become the next sears since it attracts customers that want discounts all the time and have worn the clothing and can still return it. This job is a joke. The manager doesn't help in the floor when it's busy. Compared to other places i have worked this is by far the worst.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 15 December 2015 by Rater #184 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• Terrible place to work. No recognition for quality or long time service. If you feel proud to sign up customers for the company credit card, extended warranty plans and enjoy playing juvenile games to meet credit application and warranty quotas then this is the place for you. Floors are never staffed properly and HR does nothing to assist employees in any way. Morale is terrible and pay is ridiculously low.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 12 June 2015 by Rater #179 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• Employment with this company is not recommended. You are better than this. Communication is non-existent. Recognitions is non-existent. Morale is low. If you possess ideals or common sense, keep looking. If you are passionate about your work, this is not the company for you. However, if you are able to talk customers into signing up for credit cards, loyalty programs and parting with email addresses, then do apply. After about a year and a half you may get a 2 percent raise.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 9 May 2015 by Rater #178 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• This company is not even worth one full star. I regret working so hard for 6 years in this company. I intended to write some negative comments but noticed most of them are already mentioned by other employees. So I just say; all of the above.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 21 March 2015 by Rater #176 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• the queen street store is now preparing the pink slips for as many employees as possible. they are using associates not getting enough marks (customers) to sign up for the bay mastercard. you are encouraged to deceive customers by alluding to it being a discount card and skirting the fact that it's actually an almost 30% interest credit card. the store makes $50 for every application. the associates, who bother the customers with the salespitch get zero. and now that saks is taking over the store, a little at a time, the bay are helping them by getting rid of employees by using this tactic. and once saks takes over, any of the bay employees that are left will be laid off so that saks can hire their own. the same thing happened in the store when O&B took over the restaurants. pretty much all former employers, who were promised that they would not lose their jobs, were quickly laid off and replaced with new, minimum wage employees. this is the business model they follow. don't even bother applying here: if you do get hired, you'll be gone in a year   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 23 February 2015 by Rater #175 | Comments (1) | Flag as inappropriate

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• This company is mean and at the end of the day cares little for its employees! Management has high expectations while they sit in their offices chatting and laughing about what they did last night. If you work there for 20+ years it does not matter if you work there for 5+ years it doesn't matter!! Dock to floor is a system that causes I injury and exhaustion! You are also afraid to report injurys because you get yelled at and told it's your fault you got hurt!! Centralized scheduling is unforgiving specially if you have children and are a single parent, if you can't come in then don't work there!! Raises are few and far between and if your lucky you might get 20 cents!! Iv seen people get hurt on the job due to unsafe work conditions and they always view it as the employees fault. They think having a monthy safety meeting about things that are not Inforced by management is enough!! People are bullied and put down on a daily basis by managers and those next in line to be managers because they care little for human emotions and thoughts. This company expects you to be a robot with no thoughts or ideas and deffenetly no feelings. You see co-workers get bullied made fun of and if you stand up for them your next on the list. I hope and pray this company goes down in flames witch is sad cause when it was Canadian owned it wasn't like this. Don't work here unless you want to be miserable!!   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 16 January 2015 by Rater #172 | Comments (1) | Flag as inappropriate

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• I would not recommend working at this company, even at a part-time position. Management evaluates an associate's success based on the amount of credit card applications they open and auto-locates they generate rather than the customer service and sales relationship. The concept of an auto-locate is redundant in itself considering that the customer can do the same exact thing on their personal computer or phone. Also, it feels completely wrong to open a credit card with 30% interest rate..it doesn't come as a surprise that most customers turn that wrong. Often times, management themselves were unsure of the companies policies and rules and when asked how to deal with a customer's demand, they would honour it without a second look. With a measly 10% employee discount (only if you use the HBC credit card), you don't even save anything since the 13% HST is calculated on top of that. Work hours are extremely limited outside of the holiday season, coworkers including myself would be receiving 2 or 3 shifts per month on end. The only positive thing was that it was easy to customize your schedule so it could fit other events in your life but then again that may be due to the scarce amount of hours given out in the first place. I had numerous coworkers who have been with the company for 20 years on end and the only thing they receive after that long of a service was either an HBC gift card or a throw blanket..there's zero recognition and appreciation for the work anybody does. Almost everybody is miserable to work there and I honestly just see it getting much worse in the future. Avoid this company at all costs, there are so many better retail jobs to work at than HBC.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 15 September 2014 by Rater #170 | Comments (1) | Flag as inappropriate

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