Yankee Candle Company - Merriville Indiana Store terrible working conditions, unprofessional staff, paranoid staff Merrilville, Indiana

I was a manager for Yankee Candle from the years 2002-2005 in a state that was probably in the same district of the Merriville store. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that the first name of the district manager's name was Bonnie.

I do agree that everything the person wrote about the Yankee Candle store is true. Trust me its true, and what really is disgusting is that its even worse then what she wrote.

When I first went to work for Yankee Candle, the founder Mike Kittredge was still the CEO. The company was a dream to work for. Everyone was treated so well and with so much respect! The managers above you were kind and supportive. However, when he retired the company changed and became one of the most abusive corporations to work for.

First they came up with "Selling Scents", a program that was designed to increase sales, but quickly became a program used to punish managers and sales associates. We were treated like children in elementary school, putting gold stars, red dots and black dots on the selling scents board.

The district manager was very cruel (and her flying monkey area manager was even worse) as well as very stupid. Her email telling us that we should not let the customers leave without taking all of their money first, just borders on absurd.

Their latest plan for the 4th quarter last year (2007) was to punish store managers and employees by making them stay open after the mall was closed if they didn't meet their Last Year (LY) figures. So there they all sat, store open, mall closed, waiting to sell candles to the customers that were not in the mall because it was closed!

FYI, a votive cost 3 cents to make, and they were selling them for $1.59. Quite a profit there!

Yankee Candle will not change at this point. In fact they've gotten worse. Because they weren't getting enough bad reports from secret shoppers they hired, they've now decided to train their own secret shoppers to ensure they get the negative reports they so desire to use as a means to not give raises and bonuses to.

We were also told not to give the best reviews of our staff so they wouldn't get that high of a raise. Ethical, don't you think?

For every candle, tart, votive, or overpriced car jar they sell, there is a person working for them that they have destroyed. Do you really want to give them your money?

Tsarina1

Grand Rapids, Michigan

I've worked at Yankee Candle for 3 Christmas seasons before being hired on full-time in 2006 and I still am employed by the company. I am sorry to hear that that's the experience you've at with the company - and I honestly believe it is only due to the managers at your store. While they appreciate that you do clock in on-time, if you happen to accidentally clock in early / late, it is EASILY fixable by anyone with a manager position in about 2 minutes. As for the shifts, had Yankee known about the hour-docking, they'd be infuriated. The company itself had asked our own store to increase our normal 10 person stock to 30 during holidays to accomodate everyone to not only have hours, but to give them a rest every few days. A FULL time employee is not allowed to work over 40hrs in any given week - it's against company rules and they frown upon it. As for the holidays / DMs coming it - yes it does get EXTREMELY hectic at YC during the holidays and DM visits, and most managers would like everything perfect for DM visits. However, the conditions your describing are outrageous for any store to be put under. I honestly believe that if you contact the company itself and notify them of the actions taking place in one of their stores, they'll try their best to do something about it as they're a very customer and worker friendly corporation.

Hi. I am currently an employee of Yankee Candle (not in your state) and have been since the holiday season. I understand where you are coming from: the holiday season is BUSY (quite the understatement!). However, I find it odd that your DM came in during that time. The holiday season doesn't quite focus on all of the mandatory selling techniques used throughout the year. She must not have been a very good DM. I can say that I know these conditions are not the case everywhere. Yes, they're picky about the way things are set up, which I found is typical of retail stores. My manager is picky when she needs to be, but is a fun person to work with. I hope your ex-manager realizes the error of her ways and changes her tune fast, or else that store will go belly-up.

As far as the attendance rules, as I was stated, if you punched in anywhere from one minute to 4 minutes late, you were MARKED late, but not docked pay. Any later than that and you were docked. I think it was unfair for your manager to impose those rules on you, because they are highly difficult to obtain (what if someone was ringing on a register and you couldn't punch in til he/she was finished?). Anyway, I hope your next experience is much better than this one!