Avantages
The discount & most of the co-workers.
Inconvénients
Favoritism: some full-timers will literally gush over their favorite part-timers yet not even speak to others. It's okay to not be best buds with everybody but the blatant "cold shoulder" is juvenile and unprofessional. Micro-managing: whether from management or full-timers. Stop, ask, listen - before you assume, correct & get on your high horse. Give your staff some credit and try to move beyond justifying your title and salary simply by looking for "fault" and mistakes. If you believe the "employees first" culture, you would realize positive reinforcement works much better than negative. Fairness in pay and recognition: our store had a list of "awards" it gives at each all-store meeting. It's a joke! There are a handful of people who are almost always on the list becomes they almost always do the same job for which they are "awarded" - wow, shocking that they would win - with the most obvious of these being the main Elfa person. Also, though discussing salary is a "no-no" at this company, it's no secret. Usually, it slips out because somebody is excited to be making decent pay in retail....but then it's discovered that the pay is uneven. At our store, there are new hires making almost as much - within a few cents - as people here for more than a year. Huh??? And, there's no pay differential for the part timers who climb ladders, unload the truck and/or do the physically demanding stuff vs. those who only mostly work the sales floor, register, and of course, Elfa. The Elfa thing might be fair if we all had been given a chance to design and then had our performance rated. As it is, in our store, Elfa and other "desirable" trainings beyond the basics are done more on who the sales trainer likes vs. who is a good fit - to the point of training people who don't want to do Elfa while overlooking those who do & would be capable. Yeah, employees first! Lead by example: full timers gossip, stand around and chat, hide out in the office, come in with bad attitudes, play favorites and all manner of things part timers get critiqued for - it needs to stop! There is most definitely an "us vs. them" vibe to part-time and full-time and between Elfa and non-Elfa employees. Regular part-timers who do the grunt work don't feel highly appreciated. Full-time and management, not all but some, act as if they are superior, but the truth is many of the part-timers have as much or more work experience and education. It would be nice for the leadership to recognize this, appreciate it and celebrate it - this is a good thing to have in your staff - vs. treating the part-timers as kids who've never worked. Hours: I completely agree with the hiring of seasonal and more part-time people that somebody else mentioned. Ask your existing people first - especially during the annual Elfa sale and around Christmas, many of us would take on more hours for those few months. Reviews: ridiculous, goals are pointless and never get revisited during the 11 months between reviews & part-timers should be able to give feedback "up" as well. This is such an archaic, paper and time-wasting method that you use simply to justify the "blanket" pay increases and to try to make it look like you have a handle on your staff. Here's an idea: actually spend time with staffers on a regular basis and pay attention to what they really do & not just what your favorite people do.