The Student Room Group

WH Smith!

Was just wondering if anyone works/has worked for them? Any info on hourly pay/what it's like etc?
I know one close to where I live which has lots of vacancies so am considering applying for part-time work.. but don't really want to if it's kind of rubbish!
Any info/thoughts would be appreciated :smile:

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Reply 1
Hiya,

I nearly worked for them lol, so can answer most of your questions!

I applied to work in WHSmith Travel Retail (its branches in airports) because I live near an airport and applied for several jobs at same time.

Couldn't say what it is like as I never actually worked there, had the interview, offered the job and then declined it due to MUCH better one lol but can say they pay about £5 (thats the airport branches though) so probably £4+? normal branches. The hours they offered me were very basic, just 8 hours a weekend!

Other than that, I know they make you take a medical, or they ask you for medical history which I found a bit weird.

Good luck anyway!
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 2
I have worked, and still am currently working for WH Smith.

Have been there since September '05, so will be happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Pay varies depending on the store. Larger stores have larger budgets so tend to be able to offer large salaries/pay rates, depending on the number of staff they employ.

Because i work in a relatively small store, all the part-timers get the same wage depending on position and age.

Sales assistants at 16-18 get £4.81 an hour - that's the minimum WH Smith have to pay you due to policy.

Same position at 18+ is £5.13 per hour.

With me working in such a small store, the jobs are varied, and extra responsibilities are given, but usually revolve around what most tasks would be in any store, which is stock replenishment, serving customers on a till, tidying up etc.

Sometimes you may be required to help with promotions and things, but as i say it depends on size of store, which area you are working in etc.

From a personal opinion, the job has served me well these last few years. The pay is average, the hours limited in my case due to tighter store budgets, and sometimes it can be boring, but you get to meet a variety of people, and it looks good on your CV.

Any more questions feel free.
Reply 3
Erm whats their take on workers with little ( or none) retail expereience? And how did you apply for the postion, i mean i maybe its me but as far as i can remember, ive never seen them advertised an avilable postion, did you just hand your cv into or a store or something?

Thanks
Reply 4
This was my first job - i had little retail experience. It tends to be the people that show confidence in the interview that gets the jobs.

I handed my CV and a letter in, but now they dont do that anymore, i think they advertise for people when a position is available, and they will give you an application form to fill in.

Best bet is to go into your nearest store and ask for the manager, and see if there are any jobs going.
Manning
Erm whats their take on workers with little ( or none) retail expereience? And how did you apply for the postion, i mean i maybe its me but as far as i can remember, ive never seen them advertised an avilable postion, did you just hand your cv into or a store or something?

Thanks

just been looking on their site for vacancies and it says to fill out this form and send it to your local branch

http://www.whsmithcareers.co.uk/careers/WHSStoreApplication.pdf
Reply 6
I know this is an old topic but in case any one searching in the future reads this I just thought I'd put my input in. I have worked at British Bookshop and Stationers which has become a chain of WH Smiths. Since we have been WH Smith our store now has no overtime. So if we work over time we get basic pay rate rather than time and a half. Whether this applies to all stores I have no idea. I am 17 years of age and I am paid £4.55 an hour which in my personal opinion is terrible. I only work sundays 10-4 but since being WH Smith I have been asked to do a lot of over time when I only signed up for a 6 hour job I find myself doing at least 15 hours extra a month. The store I work at currently has 6 members of staff but only 6 months ago we had 12. This Christmas we didn't hire any christmas staff therefore leading to me and two other colleagues my age working the whole of the christmas holidays. When we changed over to WH Smith they made our Assistant Manager and Supervisor redundant and since then no other sale assistants have been hired to replace. I am now currently looking for another job. I don't know if its just me having a bad experience but I do think the pay is better else where.
I literally made an account to also have my input on this.

I was also in the fire of British Bookshops converting to WH Smiths and it ruined my job.

Like the post above, my manager was moved to a different store and demoted to a lower job with less pay. The staff count went from about 12 to 7 and we struggle to get things done because we are usually bound to the tills. Pay is crap and the new managers don't understand what they're doing, especially turning up hungover and sitting in offices all day "working" (on Facebook, on phone to friends - seen many times when walking in).

Many combination of things got better, like technology but a lot of things are just diabolical. We are told to turn off heaters to save money and keep both doors open (it was colder in-side the shop, many customers & even we complained and were ignored,). Among other things such as being told to do things to "bend the rules" to make the managers look good, we run out of essential things like bags, stock stickers & stock in certain areas so we can get higher up the 'sales list' on sweets and chocolate on the Till Point Conversation stock, which is wrong and we get all the abuse for it on the till from customers. I think this is the majority of Sussex Stationer stores.


Like above, we also were forced to do overtime and told to work on days we are not contracted to (Some of us had Uni & College work to crack on with, others had 2nd jobs to do, children) I think if your going to work for WH Smiths, work for a bigger branch where you have more freedom, don't work for an ex-BBS store.
Reply 8
I've applied for about 40 vacancies at WHSmith over the past few months. Have retail experience, every application rejected. Think im done trying with them.
Reply 9
I applied for a job at an airport branch, I got the job within 48 hours of my interview. Which was very awkward as the airport was closed so I was sat alone with two employers.

I agreed to start the work that weekend, which was only 4 hours long (training?) and I quit straight away after those 4 hours. I was thrown straight into tills. The manager did not even help me on working the tills. And was embarassed a numerous amount of times from not knowing what to do. 30 minutes on till work and I was left alone entirely on the shop floor with around a queue of 20 people. The person at the front wanted cigarettes and due to my age was unable to sell them. I had to leave the till, so the shop floor actually had no workers on it. Went int the staff room to see all the colleagues eating lunch while I was working my ass off on the tills. I asked for help and the manager rolled his eyes at me before stumbling out the staff room to help me. I wasn't allowed a drink or even to sit down, my back was killing me! For the last 30 mins of my shift, a co worker was meant to show me how to unpackage items and set prices for them. Which he replied "I can't really be bothered" I was shocked and was left to stand around for 30 minutes while he just talked about irrelevant random crap. I wasn't even paid for the time that I worked there. And the wage is utter crap! £4.28 an hour. WON'T MISS YOU WHSMITH. :biggrin:
Reply 10
Original post by Crazydave1
I applied for a job at an airport branch, I got the job within 48 hours of my interview. Which was very awkward as the airport was closed so I was sat alone with two employers.

I agreed to start the work that weekend, which was only 4 hours long (training?) and I quit straight away after those 4 hours. I was thrown straight into tills. The manager did not even help me on working the tills. And was embarassed a numerous amount of times from not knowing what to do. 30 minutes on till work and I was left alone entirely on the shop floor with around a queue of 20 people. The person at the front wanted cigarettes and due to my age was unable to sell them. I had to leave the till, so the shop floor actually had no workers on it. Went int the staff room to see all the colleagues eating lunch while I was working my ass off on the tills. I asked for help and the manager rolled his eyes at me before stumbling out the staff room to help me. I wasn't allowed a drink or even to sit down, my back was killing me! For the last 30 mins of my shift, a co worker was meant to show me how to unpackage items and set prices for them. Which he replied "I can't really be bothered" I was shocked and was left to stand around for 30 minutes while he just talked about irrelevant random crap. I wasn't even paid for the time that I worked there. And the wage is utter crap! £4.28 an hour. WON'T MISS YOU WHSMITH. :biggrin:


Well, at the end of the day it's a paid job. Job is meant to be easy, there are people who work even harder for a crap pay.
Original post by ForgetMe
Well, at the end of the day it's a paid job. Job is meant to be easy, there are people who work even harder for a crap pay.


You haven't worked there clearly.

Thing is, I'd be fine working there if they didnt make the the employees annoy our customers at tills it's become a joke where the customers now ridicule us for offering so much crap at the tillpoint. stamps, chocolate, bags, vouchers it takes forever to get rid of a queue and there's been so many times where customers walk out because of how stupid it is

really does knock your confidence being laughed at by the general public on a daily basis.
Reply 12
Original post by JustToSay
You haven't worked there clearly.

Thing is, I'd be fine working there if they didnt make the the employees annoy our customers at tills it's become a joke where the customers now ridicule us for offering so much crap at the tillpoint. stamps, chocolate, bags, vouchers it takes forever to get rid of a queue and there's been so many times where customers walk out because of how stupid it is

really does knock your confidence being laughed at by the general public on a daily basis.


But if no one would do the job, then who would? Someone has to do it..
Original post by ForgetMe
But if no one would do the job, then who would? Someone has to do it..


No I completely agree with you, but it's still ridiculous how they treat their staff in comparison to other highstreet stores who do just fine, if not better without the ridicule.
I don't work for them anymore (and I'm quite sad about it now) but I was once a supervisor/news assistant at WHSmith (I've worked at 2 branches), and it was my first real job from 16 years old (I worked at Smiths until I was at least 20?). I started as just an ordinary Weekend worker and just never left; my contracts/shifts and roles changed. I loved working with the company. The pay wasn't amazing, but it wasn't incredibly rubbish either. Usually the people working in there are nice, I've only met 2 people in the 2 branches I worked in I wasn't particularly fond of. I also loved getting the discount on books!

I think it's about £5+ an hour? It may have changed since I left 1 year ago (I hate my local Smiths for not having vacancies, I really miss working at that store :frown: !)

Then again the first store I worked at was a small branch. The second was in Preston, and they are run completely differently. The smaller store was a relaxed working environment and everyone had interlinked jobs and nobody had a set job, we all shared jobs, whereas Preston's was incredibly militant and you did your job, and your job only haha :biggrin:

I can't believe so many people have had such bad experiences with the company. I never had problems. When I was asked to do over-time, it was always well in advance, I was never forced to do different hours unless I okayed it, and if I had a problem, I just let the manager know (but then again, I had an amazing manager, he was brilliant, I was upset when he moved back to the Warrington branch). I was always paid on-time and correctly, too. Maybe I was lucky and just worked at some of the better branches?

The only thing I didn't like, was the stuff we have to ask customers at the till point: "Can I interest you in a £1 Dairy Milk bar or £1 Galaxy at all today?" "Would you like a 1p bag?" "Do you need stamps with that card?" etc. But it's because of the management needing to sell more items each week.

I remember when I started I only did 6 hours on a Saturday, then I did all weekend full days, and then when I went on a gap year, I got a full-time contract and did 30 hours a week? You always have something to do, which I like, and it's not too difficult a job at all. Even when I was a Supervisor I didn't find anything too taxing... except when some staff made mistakes and I'd have to rectify them, but it's all learning :smile: (It changed again when I moved to Preston and I only did all-day Sunday).

To be honest, out of all the jobs I have had, it's been the best so far. It's also one of the better companies to work for. The one I'm at now... well, it needs sorting out, but I'm not at liberty to divulge. It's not too bad, but it does make me miss WHSmiths!
(edited 10 years ago)
Reply 15
This is my second week working for WHSmith and I absolutely hate it. There is so much to remember whilst serving the customers. What makes it worse is the blatant rudeness of the customers. Not all the customers but a minority who get some what offended if you offer them vouchers or a free daily mail. My manager had a go at my today which wasn't nice. Keeping in mind that it's my 6th shift. I'm bound to make mistakes. I already hate it so much but i need the money.
Reply 16
Original post by Lov2Laugh
This is my second week working for WHSmith and I absolutely hate it. There is so much to remember whilst serving the customers. What makes it worse is the blatant rudeness of the customers. Not all the customers but a minority who get some what offended if you offer them vouchers or a free daily mail. My manager had a go at my today which wasn't nice. Keeping in mind that it's my 6th shift. I'm bound to make mistakes. I already hate it so much but i need the money.


I worked there for a whole year and the best day of the job was the one where I walked out of there for the last time which was something I dreamed of for a long time. It was literally the worst job I've ever had. Aweful pay, aweful policies and the slave masters at head office treat all their employees like machine parts. No wonder every WHSmith employee I see looks depressed.
Original post by Lov2Laugh
This is my second week working for WHSmith and I absolutely hate it. There is so much to remember whilst serving the customers. What makes it worse is the blatant rudeness of the customers. Not all the customers but a minority who get some what offended if you offer them vouchers or a free daily mail. My manager had a go at my today which wasn't nice. Keeping in mind that it's my 6th shift. I'm bound to make mistakes. I already hate it so much but i need the money.


I know exactly how you feel. That whole Daily Mail giveaway bull****. We have to sell like 250 in a day and especially where I work, people hate the Daily Mail and get frustrated when you ask if they'd like a copy.

What's even more bull**** is you can't say it's free, you have to say it's 60p, and we'll take 60p off your shopping. At this point the customer looks at you and says "so it's free then?" and they look at you like you're stupid.

Only thing that keeps me going is knowing my colleagues all have the same opinion.
Reply 18
hello excuse me I`m 15 and i am going to be 16 in November. Is it possible for me to work there during the summer holidays and how much on average would i get paid for working throughout the whole summer
Reply 19
Could I work for them I'm 13

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