--- Very long review ---
The first 3 months that I worked there the store director was amazing but his contract ended. When we got a new director, for some reason things started changing in IKEA Canada (so not just our store but all of the management above that) and they kept cutting everywhere, which led to employees being overworked, including the part-timers. Let me just say this, we constantly had 3 or more department managers who had to leave because of burnout and since I stopped working there in June (we're now at the beginning of March) all of the staff in the department I used to work in, which was roughly 18 people, is gone because they couldn't endure the terrible management's decisions and the work conditions that kept getting worse and worse while we never got compensated. We went from having an EXTREMELY pleasant environment to work in, even though there are a lot of customers (hey, it's IKEA) to being constantly pressured to do more while getting rid of all the fun things we had one by one (salaries went up way slower than they used to, managers were on edge because of the higher-ups and unavoidably had to start watching employees more to make sure we weren't having fun on the job and only on breaks). I could've recommended working for IKEA 4 years ago because the job was alright and my colleagues were the main reason why we all managed to have fun even when we had days with over 15,000 customers walking in and dealing with the aftermath of having so many pe
Working with customers was (almost) always one of the best parts of the job, even with the few bad apples you'd get. And you do end up learning a few things about working the job. You meet some great people who feel unified because of the cultural aspect of the job. Lastly, you make money...
However, management was the biggest pain in the behind. Favoritism, neglect, selective memory, non-stop excuses, false assumptions about your work behavior, borderline-authoritarian rules, unwillingness to hear and/or heed the opinions/concerns/suggestions of the department, clashing of different orders/tasks from different managers, and emotional/professional manipulation are just SOME of the things you'll experience from the managers in this store. It made the job extremely stressful to say the least.
I often worked by myself, even on busy days, in spite of the fact that the job required a minimum of two people for the tasks to be done efficiently and properly. Many people were no-shows or called in sick to avoid the work, and while I couldn't blame them because of the work conditions, it made my life that much harder. It was a battle just to stay employed in spite of the rather lousy work conditions for the department. Anxiety was a growing concern for me as I would always dread the shifts where I'd have to put up with the more negative aspects of the job, which was more often than not.
No appreciation was given for my near-flawless attendance record, even with the odd late ar
Points négatifsThe MANAGERS!, constant battle for hours, unnecessary stress, faulty equipment, no-shows all the time, scatterbrained shifts
4,0
Facilities Officer | Calgary, AB | 23 oct. 2013
Generally an interesting company to work for with continuous interact with the sales, operations and design departments; enabling smooth operations.
Plan and review daily requirements, which included requests for maintenance or new works to be carried out, programmed preventive maintenance, assisting in projects, attending to contractors and service providers. Ensuring that the store is a safe place for customers and staff alike. Attending to all emergencies relating to the facilities. Daily inspection of store and both indoor and outdoors. Ensuring that janitors maintain washrooms to a high standard and all areas to be cleaned throughout the day. AS GOOD AS NEW concept.
This type of work has taught me to be proactive and be prepared to attend to any emergencies. This ensures minimum or no lost of time to the operations and also to maintain a safe working/customer environment at all times.
Continuously in close contact with management to ensure that all is in order. Co-workers are also our clients, so a good relationship is fostered through mutual respect and a electronic request system is in place enhance this. This allow for all parties to track progress of requests. Job can be challenging (hard) with with multiple requests/competing priorities but continuous and clear updates on progress helps put things at ease. Good communications is essential for this job and we are provided with the proper communication tools/programs to ensure this occurs.
Enjoyable part of the jobs is being able to complete routine works with other competing requests and being able to solve problems both through own initiatives or thr
Points positifsSubsidised lunches, 15% discount all all items purchased.
Points négatifsHaving to work every Saturday for the last nine years eventually took a toll on my family life.
1,0
Receiving Associate | Calgary, AB | 18 sept. 2016
Horrid place to work! Depressing environment.
When I started here I was 110% enthusiastic in making it work. By the end I was broken down faster than their furniture and I only lasted a little longer than 6 months.
Myself and an other guy were hired at same time and he just quit without notice in less than three months.
They preach Ikea propaganda they don't back up or stand behind. You will have every employee as your boss knit picking and watching your every move.
Most all employees in area I worked were emotionless Zombies with chips on their shoulders. Very clicky group of miserable acting people not happy with their job. Every morning I heard screaming and yelling profanity at each from drivers on the dock.
Jump start meetings every morning that are useless dribble with useless information on how many trailers you have to work that day. After a while you will just hear blah blah blah. Wasted time and brain numbing verbal garbage from power tripping employees who like to hear themselves talk.
Be prepared for a workout and to start sweating profusely for 5 hours of your shift because they turn the Air conditioning off until the store opens at 10. I hated being drenched and hot working in sweat drenched clothes lifting heavy product.
I hope you like working in the dark because they also dim the lights to save pennies on the dollar until store opens at 10. Go figure that products are put in wrong places by employees who can't see product codes in the dark.
You will have many bosses and who one hand
Points positifsFree pop when available
Points négatifsPhoney uncaring management
4,0
Sales Lead | Richmond, BC | 25 nov. 2015
Opening the shop in the morning, following up with replenishment staff and rectifying any issues with stock, good flow, tasks for staff daily.
Typical Day:
Making sure the shop is ready to greet the customer each day.
Organizing tasks according to priorities for the day.
Finding solutions to goods flow issues in the mornings and making adjustments during peak times, i.e. Sales Events.
Taking over tasks where needed to make things flow smoothly.
Helping coworkers with questions and finding solutions.
What I learned:
Learning to be proactive in a very fast moving environment that changed daily.
I learned that a happy team is more productive.
Clear communication is key to a successful team.
I learned about merchandising and sales steering according to Profit margin ratios and availability of goods.
Customer service and trust building with your customer. Meeting their needs and only promising what you know you can fulfill.
Egos have no place in a team environment. It is about the business and not about an individual's needs but making sure that everyone feels they are making a contribution in some way.
Management:
My Management team works hard to provide the staff with the support needed to run the shop at the highest level possible.
They try to support work/life balance as much as possible.
Coworkers:
The most amazing group of hardworking people I know.
All focused on a common goal.
Positive and dedicated.
Hardest Part of the Job:
Not being able to control everything.
Being proactive all the time is hard when things change so quickly.
Most Enjoyable Part of the J
Sales Representative | Coquitlam, BC | 22 juin 2020
It's fun until...
I am a former IKEA coworker who has been in the company just over 10 years. I've worked as a cashier and sales (market hall & showroom). Over the years, I've seen the stages of changes. And I must say, unfortunately, the spirit of the store is going lower and lower.
At the beginning of my IKEA journey, the management has been great - they were understanding and somewhat informative. The store keeps you up to date how the store is. But being as a cashier 4 years, due to retail environment, it was difficult to have a work-life balance. But one thing I must say is the cash dept is really close to one and another. The cashier family culture was top notch - i miss that dearly.
For the rest of the years as sales, you learn a lot of skills such as how behind the scene is, how to deal with customer situations - the people skills. Sales coworkers who are on the floor with other depts are mostly good and very helpful to one another. Unfortunately, managements are favoritism. I was given hopes to advancement within the dept, but none has happened over the year; hence, more and more coworkers has left the company. As such, my motivation to work has declined more and more over the years.
I would say overall, it is a great company to start - great benefits, great people, great food. IKEA is a great stepping stone to start your job as retail and may branch off to somewhere else (IKEA looks great on resume). But in a long run, I would say current management has a lot of damage co
Points positifs$4 lunch, great people, great benefit
Points négatifsno work-life balance, management needs to be improved
3,0
Cashier | Toronto, ON | 26 févr. 2013
Difficult place to work, always understaffed
Although the culture and values are outlined clearly in the coworkers handbook and signage is prevalent through every store, it is questionable if these values were seen through in a practical fashion.
Typically, a day at work required an intense work pace, as the customer service and cash departments were always very busy, but economical staffing schedules made for many an unpleasant customer experience, while making the employees feel the pressure to work quickly and serve as many customers as possible.
Management always talked about improving work methods to be more proficient. This was a part of the culture at Ikea, but the reality was constant striving to cut overhead costs and increase profits simultaneously. This manifested itself in constant managerial pressure from the very top down. Job advancement takes a long time, years in many cases, such as was my personal experience, and expectations were very demanding once you got into any position of authority.
Coworkers were generally pleasant and hardworking; a testament to Ikeas thorough hiring practices, but because of the strain of the work absenteeism and unwillingness to take on new tasks plagued the staff at the coworker level.
The hardest part of the job was trying to schedule properly, have enough coworkers available for flexibility, and still run my department fluidly.
The most enjoyable part of the job was getting a paycheque.
Points positifsdiscounted lunches, christmas gifts, good people hired.
Points négatifshigh pressure demanding work with little reward for those who worked hard.
2,0
Receiving Manager | Winnipeg, MB | 10 sept. 2013
Good work, messy managment.
I was a support manager for the warehouse at Ikea and I enjoyed it. BUT it came as a surprise I wasn't aware of being a manager for a few months and never really got management training on the side. I had the training to use equipment to teach other employees and little training on how to use the trailer programs on the computer I more or less taught my self through manuals there. It was a new store and I expected it to be hectic and I was patient. Even put in lots of OT 12 hour days. In the end I got canned for a small issue of letting a trainee drive on his own around others for a hour on a forklift which is how I was trained. But they didn't fire me on the spot they needed me there they kept me for a month and out of the blue they let me go I had no clue and it really messed things up for me. I hope management is a lot better I hear one of my old friends there moved up and we trained together as managers so I'm glad to see him moving up even though he din't really want to. As goes their Culture, they have a "strong" one and it really got to me saying they look out for their employees and so on and at first it was great I got to go to Vancouver for a month all expenses payed. But then they really dint care about us warehouse people we were like the dogs of the company. Always pressuring us to work very long hours and never getting rewards.and when they dropped me like a bag of bricks that shows that the company is kinda slimy.
Points positifscheap staff luches
Points négatifsMessy managment
2,0
Cook | Burlington, ON | 19 avr. 2019
Kitchen is the worst
I worked in the kitchen at the Burlington location. I accepted my employment offer on the promise that I would be working with the head office individual in charge of menus and healthy living choices (i have a nutrition background). However, all I ever got was a run around... never met the woman. I worked in the kitchen, learned every job from cashier, to dishwasher, to cook, staff side, bistro, marketplace, and even cleaning the ice cream machine which NOBODY else knew how to do except the woman who trained me and was leaving. Considering I had the most experience of all staff, including managers, on how everything worked and knowledge in every food related environment and it wasn't looking like I would be working alongside head office anytime soon, I applied for a supervisors position. I was passed up for the opportunity and then expected to train the individual they did give the position to. I quit on the spot. Everyone I met while working there told me the kitchen was the worst spot to work, but if you could get out of it the other positions throughout IKEA are great... unfortunately I couldn't deal with being taken advantage of long enough to find out for myself whether or not that was true.
Sales Representative | North York, ON | 22 nov. 2018
Long days, low pay
It's a retail job, so expect to work evenings and weekends and have your hours spread all over the place. Managers will constantly call/text you and beg you to come to work for extra shifts to cover for people that either quit or called in sick just because they wanted a day off.
Hourly rates are extremely low and guaranteed to keep you living in poverty. Yearly raises are a joke at just a few extra cents an hour, and that's assuming that you qualify for a raise. Even managers get paid a low salary unless they make it into the elite "steering team".
Opportunities for advancement are limited and by the time a position gets posted, the management team will usually have a candidate in mind anyway.
Top level managers like to brag about how much they enjoy their vacations and adventures around the world and will post pictures and silly comments on the employee boards and internal email messages sent to all low pay coworkers who can barely afford to feed their families.
The company offers a yearly bonus awarded to all employees assuming that the store meets its goals. Unfortunately the goals set by the head office are so unrealistic that we didn't get a bonus for 2 years in a row now.
Points positifsCo workers
Points négatifsExtremely low pay. Rude customers. No work/life balance.
Questions et réponses au sujet de l'entreprise IKEA
Quels sont les horaires de travail chez IKEA?
Posée le 19 mai 2017
On weekends and evening
Réponse du 16 sept. 2019
Morning Evening and Night Anytime
Réponse du 27 févr. 2019
Quelles sont les étapes du processus de recrutement chez IKEA?
Posée le 13 avr. 2018
Comfortable and no tricky question. Most of the questions would be situational questions to see how to you solve the problem. just be you and honest. Also, make sure you know their values and give have some thoughts on those.
Réponse du 4 juill. 2020
It was great, from the reception to the interviewer. Once you get your interview, you are pretty much hired. Just make sure you are being honest about what your schedule and what you are confident with. Good luck!
Réponse du 14 juin 2020
Que choisiseriez-vous d'améliorer chez IKEA?
Posée le 16 nov. 2018
I would love to work as a team and with everyones ideas would have make an excellent atmosphere where clients feels comfortable and do not hesitate to approach us...
Réponse du 6 janv. 2020
If I was in charge, I will work with my co-worker as a team to enhance the company productivity, and to provide good customer services.
Réponse du 20 oct. 2019
Combien d’heures en moyenne travaillez-vous par semaine chez IKEA?
Posée le 23 oct. 2018
As a manager, I worked 9 hours a day on average.
Others work exactly 8, some work 10.
Depends how involved you want to be and if you are able to accomplish what needs to be done in time.
