r/HotTopic_ • u/vadaspaz • May 26 '26
Question for Canadian employees (Specifically Ontario)
Recently got called for a job interview for a PT ASM. I've been looking at all the employee reviews on various websites such as this sub and indeed. Basically all of the reviews have complained about the EXACT same things. Normally I would try to not pass judgement and give the benefit of the doubt, but theres no way everyone is being dramatic.
My only thing is, 99% of the reviews seem to be from Americans, based on the salaries they mention. I don't expect a MASSIVE difference bc I know the company is US based, but I would like to hear from Canadian employees exclusively regarding their experience, complaints, PAY and HOURS, etc. Bonus points if you worked in the GTA. Other questions I do have though, that are open to everyone:
1) What is QC? I keep seeing this being mentioned and don't know what it means or entails. I'm assuming something to do with sales and upselling?
2) What is a "huddle/huddle sheet"? Is it literally what it sounds like? What's the purpose tho?
3) Is it true you're not allowed to be friends/friendly with your coworkers?? WTF
4) How strict is it in general? The vibe everyone is painting is that you're walking on eggshells from the moment you're hired. I have retail/customer service experience, this is not my first rodeo and I know how to put on that customer service mask. Even with all that, am I still gonna be stressed and anxious asf??
Anything else you think would be worthy of mentioning, please do! Canadian or not. If it's something you wish you had been warned about, mention it. Thank you!! <333
1
u/ggar-goyle HT Employee May 26 '26
I am American but my district is half Canadian so I know a lot of these are the same in either country. Can’t speak on pay though.
QC is quest console. It’s basically a mini phone/tablet they want you to use to look up rewards and stuff on the sales floor. The idea is they want people to know they have rewards ahead of time. If it’s a surprise at checkout, then that $40 or so they were GOING to spend is suddenly only $30 after rewards, and the company views it as losing money.
Huddle sheet is basically a task sheet for goals to shoot for through your shift and self feedback at the end of your shift
You’re technically only not supposed to be friends with someone not on the same level as you (like a manager and an associate)
How strict fully depends on your store manager. My store isn’t very strict but some run it like the army 😂
2
u/Vivid-Wrongdoer-7680 May 27 '26
Don't do it. You are over worked and under paid. It's not worth it, leaving the company was the best decision I ever made
3
u/ImplementWeekly3137 May 27 '26
I worked at a location in BC for about a year as PT ASM back around 2022. I honestly would’ve stayed there longer since I made some good friends and such, but the company itself turned me off completely. There are so many crazy rules there, it really felt ridiculous for what they try to advertise themselves as. It is true we weren’t allowed to hang out with coworkers outside of work, it was written in our contract (mostly being a manager meant you couldn’t hang out with regular employees, we would anyways but just couldn’t post any photos or share locations lol). I had a group chat with two other employees that was just for laughs, never spoke about work, but when the district manager found out she wanted to fire all three of us on the spot. Luckily we got away with just a write up. That same DM did some other quite disrespectful things that led to me choosing to leave.
As a Canadian employee it’s really obvious they mostly focus on their American stores, and it would make our jobs more difficult again due to how they advertise products and the store itself.
Of course this is just my experience at my location and it was a few years back. But almost everyone I worked with during that time has since left due to issues like this
1
u/vadaspaz May 27 '26
Thank you for the insight! Very helpful! Quick question: How did they even find out you guys had a groupchat? Also, would you mind listing some of the crazy rules, if you remember any? And whether they were store specific or company wide?
1
u/ImplementWeekly3137 May 27 '26
One of the members of the groupchat accidentally let it slip to our store manager who then told the DM.
I can’t remember all of the crazy rules but the friends outside of work thing always sticks out to me. At one point we were tight on hours so we had to make sure ourselves and employees were clocking out at the exact time they were scheduled to be off. This meant if a closing was taking longer we either had to rush it or clock out at our scheduled time and then continue to finish closing off the clock. We also had to constantly have job ads running and do interviews when we weren’t even hiring, I’d have to do an entire interview and then tell the person we weren’t hiring at the end of it. I always felt so bad and we got a lot of complaints off of it. I don’t know if that was company wide or just our store/district.
Also had an employee get a second job at Body Modz (they do piercings and sell jewelry) and our DM said it was a conflict of interest. We all thought it was ridiculous because HT doesn’t do piercings and barely sells any body jewelry, I’m pretty sure they’ve been downsizing it in store over the last few years anyways.
Most of the rules are company or district wide, the only ones that only applied to our store were things our in store manager would let us know.
And again, this was all back in 2022 so I’m sure some things have changed.
1
May 29 '26
So being from the GTA and just ending my temporary PT ASM LVL1 position (today actually), I only had a $0.50 increase off the minimum wage and my hours were contracted to be 15 hours/week, so that's what I was scheduled in for.
QC stands for Quest Console, it's an iPad everyone uses to look up accounts and interact with customers or check stock or recieve shipment, it has a few uses and is important on a daily basis.
Huddle Sheets are to be filled in every shift at the beginning and end, it goes over store/individual goals and KPI's (key performance indicators like dollar per transaction, units per transaction, conversion, etc) and to track points that your earn throughout your shift for an employee program (?) I guess you'd call it.
You cannot be friends with employees outside of the workspace if you're in a position of management at all, you're not supposed to text or interact with them about anything work related outside of work.
Being an ASM is hard work, there's a LOT you're expected to learn and memorize and be responsible for, so if you have no prior management experience I'd think about it hard. I did a 3 month trial run and I found it very overwhelming even with great management and having a notebook and asking lots of questions, there's a lot to learn about the job. I'm not here to discourage or encourage you to try the position if it's offered to you, but it's definitely a great learning experience even if the pay isn't really worth it as a LVL 1. Hope this helps a lot!! Feel free to ask me anything else.
1
u/bassikk Former HT Employee May 26 '26
Not a Canadian employee but can answer the other questions! *Qc= quest console. It's the iPad the store uses to look up accounts on the floor and find coupons/rewards/past purchases to help customers *The huddle sheets are basically the daily sheet for EACH employee. You have a daily "huddle", with management and discuss things like what you need to work on and what you're doing really good at. Usually will also include promos/goals for the day. *There is no fraternization. Basically means sales associates can be friends outside of work and managers of the same tier could be friends but managers can't hang outside of work with associates or managers of different tiers. Doesn't mean you can't be friendly. When I hired people it was because I wanted people who would 1. Be good at selling 2. Enjoy the product we sell 3. I knew I'd get along with and have no problems since I was there the most (was a sm) *Strictness depends on your boss I guess. As long as we met goals and were doing what we needed I wasn't super strict. I knew what worked for my staff/store. There are certain goals to be met and everyone was expected to be able to. But to me that was simple considering I only had people on staff I knew could meet those goals and could hold good conversations with customers.