Working for Games Workshop - My Experience
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2018
- Here is my tale from working at Games Workshop from when I joined as a Retail Assistant to when I finished up working as a Manager.
Names of people and places have been changed aside from Nottingham itself.
If you are thinking about getting involved then have a look, I go through the ups and downs of working being there and what to expect :) - Ігри
youtube algorithm a bit strange ... this video is 2 years old , still watched it
I got this in my promoted YT videos just today after having posted here over a year ago and then I see all these new posts from 2-4 days ago; did someone mention this video in a different YT video and suddenly we got an influx of people commenting and vexing their angst towards GW ?
same here, just saw this really interesting vid. very interesting!
🙋same!
Yes why now.
Same, the UA-cam gods work in mysterious ways
I was fired from my job in Bugmans bar for speaking to another department about a job opening I had previous experience in. There are some vindictive bastards at this company.
Rookie mistake. When your targets are based on the year before, you only slightly outperform. Never ever crush your targets. Just makes it harder the next year.
"Behind my back"... as an ex staff member, that is a phrase that brings back memories. They remember EVERYTHING too. Everything gets stored up and used against you when the worm turns. It can be a super toxic environment if you make a wrong move.
My first experience in a GW wasn't a pleasant one. I visited during the height of the pandemic. The store is about 40 min drive way out of my way. So I decided to place a small order online and have it shipped to the store to have an excuse to go in. As soon as I walk in, I tell the dude I'm here to pick up an order. And that I wanted to look around as it was my first time there. Same dude grabs my box and throws it at me. Asking why I ordered that... That he had those items in store. Threw me off guard but played it cool and asked if I could look around anyway. He said no, and I couldn't touch anything
😂 bruh. I walked out and have been buying from any place other than GW.
Should have looked around anyway
Strange. The man must have been having a bad week.
@@herculeholmes504 He was probably one of those managers who got hammered on by the top and by the management peers.
From the video it looks like you get hammered on if you don't sell certain amount of sets every week, and he did technically lost that sale to the webshop.
It's getting to the stage where you have to walk around in the public with a hidden USB 19 hour recording device because people have become so toxic and neurotic. I would have walked out of the store, never come back and exposed him.
If you order online and get it delivered to the store it doesn't count as a sale for them. They prefer you to order inside the store or buy it off the shelf.
Sometimes it’s best not to know how the sausage is made
But how is a sausage made?
@@CrayonMuncher1234 they squeeze extra pig bits through a sausage shaped sieve
@@typhoonfox6478 the sleeve is the intestine of the pig. And it is delicious.
@@JvdK very delicious
No, there is a caveat, best not find out how the sausage is made in a cheaper way. It wasn't as bad when it was a qualty sausage, but now the are using cheaper material and the sausage is now full of poison and metal shavings.
I have always felt pressured to buy stuff and never really assisted when I went to Games Workshops in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I had a project I was doing and wanted a paint match so brought in a toy figure (not Warhammer) and asked if the staff could help me paint match as I really like GW paints. He looked at it and said he doesn't help if it's not Warhammer related and went and was helping someone else. This happened a few times and I finally gave up. I know my little paint pot isn't a huge sale but I'm a customer. I used to play Warhammer but when my kid was interested I said we can just use what I already have or find on Ebay. I won't give GW stores my business anymore.
Man I was so lucky with the games workshop manager I had in my local store. I think he got fired because he never stuck to the big corporate rules. His last day was a sad one
Oh wow. yeah I hear stories like this a lot. There was a petition by customers in the store saying the didn't want another manager after I told them just why I wanted to leave. But yeah, nice gesture but no chance of changing anything. I think if anything stuff like that just made my name mud at HQ tbh. I think it still is for the sheer amount of annoyed calls I'd make about a lack of support and strange rules :/
I've not played for years but the one at my local.store was great talking 2004ish. Loved going used to stay all day after school on Mondays made loads of friends and considering store was tiny and he still let us all hang about was sweet. Pretty sure he got sacked or moved on and the Mondays stopped
This hits home on so many levels. I could write a book on the shit area managers did and got away with during my time at GW. The best one was being told I had to paint two 1000 point armies for a box to take around to schools to show kids what we do. I had to do this all in my own time, turns out after a few months of finishing this task I inquired with head office how the school armies were were going down. My area manager lied and got me to paint two armies for himself and his friend. He finally got sacked for stealing and selling stock on. Had a lovely phone call from him saying he was going to come and get me. lol
Amazing video, mate. Great insight, seems the upper management needs a retrain. I have to give it too you, with some of stuff that you went through, I wouldn't of been able to hold my tongue.
Chapter Master Valrak thank you! A few bad cooks spoil the broth I guess.
I hope I didn't go too far with what I said but to be honest I toned a lot of this down. Other things happened but I have too much respect for the company and the 90 percent of amazing staff that work there to go over it.
Mine also is not an isolated case at all. Still, at least they didn't ruin Grey Knights.
Oh wait.
@@northernexile Seems like nothing has changed since I worked there in the 90's, but I try to focus on the good memories and great games had. the only thing I miss before the scale change / primaris killed the hobby for me is the days of £30 per kilo for plastics on mail order those were the golden days.
I'm the same. I'm very out spoken & that's what gets me into trouble at times. I would have been sacked ages ago. You've got to stand up for yourself at times & take no crap. You find that in most work places, there's certain cliques, I was shunned in my last place.
Öqq
I worked for Games Workshop as a manager 20 years ago and it seems nothing has changed, shame because there were some great times and it could have been a wonderful career.
The company has taken a LOT for granted and have managed to hang on basically thanks to committed players and the fact they are sitting on some fertile intellectual property. The company seems to act entitled to their successes and eventually they are going to run out of goodwill and/or another IP will strike a chord.
there are indeed lots of room for improvements where new IP could snatch customers
The shops used to be ace back in the 80's. The staff were generally metal heads, the manager sat cross legged on the counter long dark hair and beard and introduced himself to a child as the till pixie :-) ). Also could play games in store the whole day and wargame group on Sunday.
Yeah, holidays were such a blast. I'd go into my store in Oxford for entire days too. Just playing, painting, hanging out, making friends, was a special and unique experience.
If I was in your shoes when that trainer decided to talk to you like that about your girl friend, I'd have pointed out that you asked two senior people if it was ok, that you didn't appreciate his tone, that this was a public bar and she can go where she chooses and that further more, if he didn't get out of your face within the next thirty seconds you would have put a formal complaint in against him.
That was insane to me. It's a public place, he can do whatever he wants. I used to have a manager like this, who claimed that you 'weren't at work to make friends or chat'. When she left, our efficiency doubled.
easier said than done unfortunately. Especially when the toxicity is only gradually increasing
@@TheKazzerscout exactly the same thing here "I don't want people here to be friends"
After the battle, everybody is a general.
You seem like an awesome store manager. Their loss.
@Madden Emmett fuck off
@@Grumbledookvid wow, now the fucking fake bots even talk to each other. What a time to be alive. -_-
This makes sense to me. Games Workshop for many years seemed to have an air of low key contempt.
I think that the low key contempt trickles down from management downwards from regional managers to shop managers to customers.
I’m very glad the store here in Dublin doesn’t assault you to buy a bunch of stuff. They just give you Space to play and answer questions
As far as I am aware the stores that do this do well, but don't rake in absurd amounts. Which probably tells you what head office thinks of them. I always held stores like this in high esteem because they run the store in a fantastic way AND keep people off their backs, top notch. I've actually only been to the Dublin store once and got stomped by Imperial Guard. But I highly recommend it.
They have a nice one in cork city too
Lol they certainly used to back in the early 2000s
@@northernexile id disagree one of the best stores in Australia. Had a great player comunity making people want to stay in the stores. Made them spend more just because they played more
Same here in belfast
I wouldn't have got any further than when your manager first shouted at you. He'd have been picking sprues out of his arse for a week.
I feel like I experienced a manager like your old one for the first time recently. I went to a gw in town to buy some paints, it was my first time back in years. The guy didn't want to talk at all, just began taking things off the shelf and trying to get me to buy it. I asked about the new primaris stuff on the shelves I'd not seen before. He spoke down to me and just seemed to want me out of the shop asap. I wasn't just going in for like 2 pots. I'd spent almost £50.
I don't feel so guilty about buying online anymore.
Voieux the dry humping is rather irritating I know. Hence me not doing it :/
I applied for a Retail Assistant job 2 months ago and the guy on the phone (I think we both know who it is) really wasn't interested in the passion I have for the hobby or my ability to speak to people which I think pretty good at, it's all about numbers and your ability to sell. Hence why you experience so many staff working at the GW stores as anti social dickheads a lot of the time, because they don't take into account your social skills. Someone who sells > Someone who is passionate and helps.
The reason for this is they dont want fans working for them. If you dont care about what the company does you'll be a ues man do do what they want
as an ex-staff member of one of the London Stores, I know all too well the back Stabbing that goes on and the BS upselling to NEW players Forcing us to Ignore people who I know were Guaranteed Money Like my roommate Who was Deep into Necrons and had just got paid and wanted to Drop 400 on a new army and I had to Ignore him for like 45 mins only to see 1 Bloody Necromancer that was like 4.95 but he did wait like a Good chap that he was but even he was getting pissed and when I told my Manager this is BS policy we are cutting off our Nose to save our face and then I got a Write-up.
This sounds so familiar, I get the same from former staffers all the time. It’s madness.
I still remember my introductory game in my local store at age 11. The staff were relaxed and not pushy at all. By the time I was 15 the store had been taken over by pushy upsellers and I stated buying independent online. Now 13 years on from that I still don't go in based on that bad reputation it had.
Sounds like a cult, not a company
Corporate culture is often very cult-like. Can't have culture without cult.
Hehe you should read the Infantry Mans Primer they hand you when you start working.... it is.
@@schmidtcj They give you what? Sounds like a company bible or something.... care to elaborate? Sounds as interesting as it is terrifying.
I know this amazing manager in the only store in my homecity, he is very friendly, listens to ideas, tells you his own, you can have conversations about other topics outside the hobby, helps you out, has no problem saying if something is wrong with the company, so after listening to this i can't imagine what he has to go through at times. Thanks for the information, it's appreciated
Thanks for opening up, from my experience this is a very English phenomenon. I moved to another country and the problems evaporated, but ive not worked in standard corporate places. Also working in an industry which relies on passion and low wages, for me its brewing, you're expected to give everything and then a bit more for the privilege. Its tragic really that modern workplaces are such hives of one-upmanship, but if you chastise constantly people will attempt to avoid the lash anyway they can.
I hope the teaching works out!
Man, thanks for sharing your story, you seem to be an awesome lad and anyone should feel lucky to have you as one of their retail team members. I feel bad for great people working the stores, but horrible sales management is the exact reason I don't go to GW stores. Even I, as a customer, feel like I have to meet KPIs when I step feet in one of the official stores.
I enjoyed this. I guess there are reasons why people keep work and hobbies separate. Thanks for sharing.
This is like, the most interesting vid ever and I have no idea why I listened all the way through
When I was a kid I got mostly left alone when in GW, when I started to work and buy my own boxes I started to get more harassed as time went by to the point when I entered the store I use to have to say “I’m not buying today” and I’ll get left alone. Skip forward 8 years and I’m friendly with the new manager and we just talk whenever we go in and doesn’t try to sale me anything and it makes me buy more.
that's what happened to me as well. I thought it was magical place back in the red shirt days. now I hate having to go into one, as I know they're gonna make me feel bad for not wanting the thing they recommend me. It's more or less impossible to just buy the thing you want, they will pry for info and try and sell you more shit, 100%.
Great video, it happens in all walks of life, my goal as an engineer was to work on a cruise ship and I managed to get the chance for this but after ten months working with a poisonous team of negativity and back stabbing it turned it into a nightmare where I would hide to avoid people because I was feeling down. Good insight into this and good luck for the future
Unprofessional Hobbyist that sucks man. Its so much worse when it's your dream job too. This video helped me a lot though. I hope things go well for you!
I work in recruitment, albeit in the construction industry. I'm very familiar with this kind of environment. I must say, I could feel every step in your story.
Interesting stuff! Very insightful. The store team can make or break a store. I'm sure I wouldn't have got into the hobby if it wasn't for the 2-3 main guys who ran my local store at the time. No pushing product relentlessly and encouraged us to come in and paint and play whenever we could as long as there was one or two tables free to teach the full newbies. Thursday games night (when shops were open extra late) was epic with big double table narrative games where everyone got a squad to play and was run by one of the guys who was just mental. Had the whole store screaming Waaagggghhh as loud as we could to try and get security to come investigate or passing shoppers to stick their heads in. Even as kids where we had limited hobby budget they welcomed us in and sure enough we spent heaps and are life long hobbyists.
Thank you for sharing. I hope you've managed to find a career that makes you feel valued and happy.
I briefly worked in the Croydon store as a teenager, left in disgust when they discontinued all their roleplaying games and turned white dwarf into a brochure (early nineties). Head office repeatedly told us off for not playing the GW metal bands in store, and i once got the hairdryer for playing an old game with a customer (it was what he asked to play - and he bought one!)
Sad to hear that GW isn't different from the rest of the retail industry. I truly believe only the most narcissistic psychopaths have the endurance to make it to upper management, and they always seem to get too involved with the day to day and end up forcing talented people out unnecessarily. You seem like a genuine guy who cared about the hobby and the business overall, and it's unfortunate to hear how a couple of idiots and a terrible corporate sales culture just ground you down.
Damn, i must be lucky, the only GW store near me has 1 employee, whos also the owner, and he's very casual. Usually more just wants to talk about the games and kitbash ideas. Literally once told me to buy a cheaper set than what I wanted because it had more little bits i could use for kitbashing
Same with me just the one guy in Warrington, he can be a little pushy sometimes, but I can normally have a alright chat with him
This video is 2 years old and just popped up in my suggested. Well done youtube.
Thank u for sharing this. I find really nice when people share them work experience. Especially when we are talking about companies like this one.
Remember when we used to go Liverpool store every weekend. Things change a lot when we go into the adult world. I had my dream and career destroyed by the hands of Lidl upper management being promised pay rises and promotions as Store Manager. At the age of 20 this made me very bitter.
Peninsula Painting Projects I remember that! Yeah they really did a number on you.
Liverpool GW is still really good, I went in there the other day for some ink and they were really sound.
I was in the hobby from around the early to mid 90's in my younger years and the staff in my local store were fantastic. Every Saturday I would go down there with my £5 pocket money and buy some paints or new minis (£5 for two metal Terminator Captains - no chance getting them that cheap these days) so I got to know the staff because I was a regular. Nick, the manager, was always a good laugh and gave me the nickname "Smiler" as I apparently looked naturally grumpy!
One time I was in there he pulled me aside and asked me if I wanted some good deals, which of course I did, so he took me out the back and showed me a pile of stuff he was told to chuck out and said I could choose whatever I wanted for £1 each. Blood Bowl 3rd Edition was out the next week so there was a 2nd Edition box there, and true to his word, he sold it to me for a quid! I can't remember what else I bought and I never thought about it at the time, but if it was getting thrown out then the money obviously went into his pocket and not the store, but we both won so it was all good.
This particular shop was tiny and on a side road on the edge of the town centre so no-one would ever see it or go there unless you already knew where it was. It was in an old building with an inn-like small sign sticking out from the building too, and while other stores i'd gone to in other cities all had the big red frontage and massive "GAMES WORKSHOP" signs above them, this one never changed (it might've been a listed building?).
Some time in around 2003 I wanted to dip my toe back into the hobby so I went down to the shop and discovered that it had moved to a space in a shopping arcade not far away because it was obviously better for footfall. It now had the red frontage, massive sign and the shop itself was about ten times the size of the previous one with a huge downstairs area for people to play games in. None of the staff I used to know were there any more and the staff were sat around a painting area, obviously with friends of theirs, uttering expletives ever other word. (i'm no shrinking violet and could make a sailor blush with my language, but not in a work environment) One of them spotted me after i'd been browsing for a few minutes and literally jogged over to me, as the shop was so big and the painting area was at the far end of the shop, and started to bombard me with questions and trying to sell me stuff. This particular staff member fit the stereotype of a customer exactly - long hair, overweight, big scraggly beard and had a stench about them so terrible that even Lord Nurgle would've been on the verge of throwing up. After doing my absolute best to not vomit I managed to get him away from me. A few minutes later another staff member came out from the back (thankfully smelling much fresher) and proceeded to do the same thing!
The shop later moved to other premises on the edge of the town centre again, and then later moved into the middle of the town centre just off the high street leading into another shopping arcade so they must be making a bundle to pay for the costs of premises there. After my last experience I haven't been into a GW shop since though.
(the most surprising thing during my visit was that a model I bought for £25 in the mid 90's was then £50!)
I did randomly bump into Nick one day a few years later when I ended up sat next to him in a pub. I asked him why he left and, paraphrasing, he said that it became too corporate and didn't want to deal with all of the bullshit behind the scenes.
Im pretty sure I have the exact same experience. I'm sure that some time in the 2000's they swapped their model to the hardcore sales side and I just dropped out. I don't know if you can remember but waaaaaay back their website had a massive community section dedicated to painting, building and of converting. They dropped it in favour of making every part of the website about hard-line BUY THIS PRODUCT. They would release box sets with 0 discount over buying the components individually and the most egregious of all would be the Apocalypse boxes which would at times be more expensive than buying the individual components.
you used to be able to buy a metal 2k point army for about 70 quid, or a 1k ork army as they were so cheap in points. These were the original army boxes, and you actually got an army in them.
Very interesting experience. Thanks for sharing, I am sure it wasn't easy. Its very vital to hear how a hobby company is nothing different from a vaccum cleaner store. But also you make your hobby your profession and thrive on it. It's probably hard to step away because you are so invested. More people should hear about this.
Such an interesting snapshot of the experience and to be fair those were the really dark years of GW as well. I worked as a red shirt and eventually acting manager in the early 2000s and, other than a regional manager with small man syndrome, didn't see these levels of toxicity or cliques. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I know 5 people who've worked for them and they've all said that they're awful to work for. They've never looked back.
My most positive memory of GW is the opening of the Liverpool Bold Street store (decades ago) where I met some of the big names in the original company- one of whom sold me Chainsaw Warrior for £1
That was a good store! One of the guys there even gave me his copy of RuneQuest Basic when they'd run out on the shelf. The penny didn't quite drop til I'd left that's what he'd done. A legend. Thank you, I have it still.
That was my first store back in the mid 80s they had a store security guy who looked liked a hells angel biker and had a bullwhip on his belt 😆
This whole workplace dynamic situation rings true with me. I’m in higher end automotive retail and we too seen to acquire a useless middle management class that just hampers business and it’s growth. Just amazing, thanks for the honest content it’s really refreshing to hear honest talk on reality of working for you dream company. I should do the same one day.
I didn't realize how fortunate I was to have the Games Workshop that I have. The place has great staff that are super friendly and create a nice atmosphere, and it just feels nice to go in there. Even though it's cheaper and easier to buy models off amazon, it feels good to visit the store in person and talk with people. i remember 3 years ago when i first discovered the hobby, the manager took young me outside and showed me how to properly prime my brand new devilfish, and i guess i took that moment for granted. watching this series of videos has kinda made me feel bad about not visiting more, mainly due to my laziness and unwillingness to paint, but from now on ill try to support the guys as best i can. i love my store now.
This was so interesting, thanks for taking the time.
I remember when I was first into Warhammer as a teen, it seemed like a great atmosphere and like a dream job. But one day I heard a manager giving an assistant a bollocking and it was a big wake up call about how I saw the place, that’s being overdramatic but it was the first time I saw through the “facade”.
Currently watching this for research in making my business plan for my final interview here in the states. Thank you so much for this!
Thank you mate!
GW was always going to end up like this the minute it became incorporated. When everything is boiled down to producing value for the shareholders, things like fan loyalty and growing the brand organically will always lose out to making a quick penny.
This was an amazing video to watch. As someone who hung out almost exclusively in the championship store in Brisbane, Australia, I wanted to work there so bad when I got a bit older. In retrospect it was weird that I was so young and sometimes it crosses into being a bit of a babysitting thing (which is awful), but everyone at that store literally helped shape my future social life and some of my other interests. They were awesome guys who put up with me being an idiot kid way too much, but they seemed to love it too.
Ive just got back into the hobby and had absolutely no clue what i was looking for when i went into my local Warhammer shop (Boston, UK). The manager was so lovely and really helped me out finding what i might be interested in with this new Sigmar lore. Didnt feel pressured into buying anything at all.
Great insight video.
I can relate to the manager stuff, I worked for Direct Line Group and I had a manager who would bring the whole team down because her life wasn't going well, projecting on us basically for call targets and timings. So happy I left and now chasing my physiotherapy degree. You learn from shitty jobs but its a tough one.
I worked at a gw as an assistant for almost 3 years, I had a near perfect record and I even ran 2 stores for several months while they were looking for new managers... They would even call me and ask for me to cover stores all over the area if a manager couldn't find coverage for the day. But when I applied for the permanent positions I got passed over for new people. They didn't even give me the store I had been working at when the manager left, even though I got a recommendation from the previous manager, they hired a guy from out of state to come and work the store.
Dont get me wrong, the new guy is great, but it killed me that I was passed up.
I will always appreciate the time I worked there, but I have no idea what goes through their heads when it comes to hiring managers.
This is very interesting insight. As someone living in South America, where the pricing is different, and there are no physical GW stores (we order from partnered FLGS) I've always had a very "idealized" view of the GW stores (I mean, I know it's still retail and no retail store is perfect), and while I know the experience as a customer is different than a worker's it's still sad to hear how awful some of the people up the chain can be for an industry that is supposed to bring joy and excitement.
Johnny Leyenda to be fair maybe it’s unfair of me to hold GW to a higher standard than other hellish retail working environments...but yeah. Disappointing.
Thank you for the video. I have my 2nd interview tomorrow, this really helped.
Hope it goes well! Did you get any news?
the fact they had a reaction like that when you explained to them why you were doing what you did at your store (with also profit backing up your decision) is just sad and really makes it sound like they have no idea what their target demographic is like.
They've had that issue for as long as I've been involved in the hobby. I don't think I'll ever go into a GW shop because of this. Happy to play in private and order cheaper on-line.
This really reminds me and sounds like how gamestop is run I was there for a year and a half and the draining, passive aggressive attitudes are a core part of it. Especially preying on people's passions. The hanging and getting to know customers was also what kept me around for a while
i love the honest way you describe sales
Fascinating vid man. Its good to hear your experience and how it compares with mine. The GW 101 days were fun tho eh? meeting everyone and seeing all the departments. :) cheers fella
Wow mr North , the contrast between old & new northcast!, love your work
I love both of our local stores, ones an official and ones a general gaming hobby shop, and both are fantastic. Very friendly staff, never really pushy. The general gaming stores funny that it's opposite in many ways. The first time I went in I got the "can i help you find something" and it was pretty clear i knew what i was looking for and pretty hobby savvy. Since then all the employees see me come in, nod and let me run free. They always answer any questions I have as well as they can, and are generally pretty excited about the hobby. *US stores in the midwest*
from being a customer for around 18 years, being close friends with severla sales assistants and managers alike in GW. This video doesn't surprise me one bit. Really did enjoy the video though :)
Nice thanks man :) I actually thought I would get shouted down a lot...but it seems to be the opposite even people who still work for GW have messaged saying they liked it. Which is cool :)
@@northernexile no worries dude. i think for a lot of people its nice to get a peek behind the curtain of an otherwise giant blank brick wall of a company
Glad to hear the Scottish guys gave a good account of themselves, you're welcome up here mate. Also as someone who practices employment law god your story makes me boak. Some people are just a jobsworth.
Thanks for sharing your story. Really interesting
Nice video mate, and i can relate...:) I worked also as a Warhammer store as a manager (not UK) and have experienced loads of the same stuff. When i got the job, it was a dream come true (as a 40k player) and i´ve have had a good career in retail and i´ve been a ruthless salesman in the past. I was immediately told (first day), that do not sell for the sake of selling, hook the customer. I thought, ok, well let´s do as they wish (i should have trusted my own gut and just SELL) and also, on the very first day, was asked which one of the employees there (because i was taking one position) i want to fire. I thought that was odd, but said, that i must follow them a week, to see them perform and at that point, the trainer suggested one person and gave his reasons. I said still, i have to give them a fair chance and i´ll monitor them for a week (i think this was the first mistake i made). When i got to the end of the week, i saw both of them on the same level, but the other had a newborn baby and the other was like 19-year old, so i decided to keep the chap with the baby (common sense, right? Wrong, mistake n.2, cos that was the guy, who the trainer was trying to get rid of). I had an AWESOME crew. That i liked about the job and the shop and the customers. Everything GW related, was shit. I learned, that the previous manager had just worked there for few months and i thought, that´s odd (again), but didn´t give it much thought (until later). Two weeks in and i was off to Nottingham for training and i had a blast. I actually knew no one, so i asked some of the English guys, if i could tag along and they were really nice, but wondered, where´s the previous manager, what happened to her and i was like, dunno (but i would later on). Training was a bit nit picking, but i had worked in an Apple Store previously, so i was custom to nit picking, again emphasis was on hooking the customers and then comes the sales (again should have just sold the f outta every mom&dad coming to buy something for their kid, but was trusting the GW...a mistake on my part). Got back to the store, started to get the store itself in shape, decided to have gaming nights (our slow grow build your new army from 500p --> was going great, all of us too started new armies and had a league going) , few other ideas and things were running smoothly. In the hindsight i realized, i was never proper taught the systems via internet (my crew showed basically all, not the trainer), which hindered my ability to track most of the stuff, but i was tracking the money and the Christmas was good. Another time trainer comes to train me and asked, why do i still have that chap with the baby, isn´t he a bad person and a salesperson and i started to feel, something personal grudge from that trainer to the chap and i thought, it was SO PETTY. I had NEVER, in any sales positions, seen that kind of witch hunt against a person. No indications of any kind, that they thought i was doing a bad job, they told me once, that cash deposit was light a few Euros. I told them, that in my country, the bank charges to bring in cash, so fe. if i had 250€ to deposit, they would not get 250€, but 250 minus the expenses. Next training in UK arrived, and i didn´t get my flight tickets and i called them, "there must be a mistake, we´ll email you the new one´s". Week earlier, my friend asked, if GW was opening another shop, cos they applied for a store manager (warning sign, didn´t see it) and i said, "Hmmm, dunno, maybe". Phone rings, this douche bag from the office let´s me go via phone, no proper reason given. Then i realized, that the previous manager was let go the same way i was now AND two NEXT managers were let go the similar way.
That company (as you said too) need drones for their stores. No independent thought is good (altough as you said, ask forgiveness later policy applied here too, but was not appreciated). I also hated the fact, that i had the company email on my phone few days after the let go and i saw the manager (from another store who came to keep that store going) STEALING MY IDEAS, that i had presented, but never got around to execute.
I´m now in a MUCH BETTER working place, but that whole experience was devastating. It is awful to be fired, but getting fired without given THE REASON, is a mind fuck. I kept second guessing myself for months and it really bugged the hell out of me.
And the chap with the baby, he acted as an interim store manager for a while, until that douche bag trainer finally ousted him and the chap had me there present, when they held a HEARING in the store backroom about the situation. I had to hold my mouth shut because of my friend (we´ve become friends, one good aspect of this shit show), but it was obvious. That trainer finally (after 2 years of witch hunt) got his wish and my friend was now unemployed.
So all and all, beware what you wish for, it might not be what you expect. I do most of my shopping online or via smaller retailer, but sometimes visit the shop. I think they have now found their manager, but as i have chatted him, he´s pushed working while sick/extra hours etc., so you really need no other life, when you give your soul to the GW ;).
RESEDAPRIME Wow what a read. A lot of this seems very familiar.
Was your trainer from the UK? And did he have a beard? I won’t go into any more detail and please don’t name names xD was just wondering as I’ve had a similar experience. I had a customer who had autism so acted out a little bit, nothing major he just acted like a Jack the Lad but you could tell it was a lack of confidence thing, everyone liked him.
My trainer hated him. Every time he was in the store he would nit pick what he was doing and tell me he was a bad customer, poison, get rid. I explained about the autism and he said that was awful but still...business comes first. Yeah...
That grudge was completely out of nowhere, I think he just had no patience for the autism and it really bugged him. I didn’t get rid of the customer, he was a nice lad. Eventually my trainer transferred me to someone else as I started to push back against him culling certain customers and shutting down my gaming nights that were earning money because I should have been focusing on new customers...which I was but oh well.
This was the same guy who chewed me out in front of people for the girlfriend thing...nasty piece of work. He seemed SO cool when I first met him too.
@@northernexile No, he was from other European country :). and funnily enough was also laughing at some customers in the backroom, because, we know, us gamers can be "a tad exentric" ;). And seeing, what the GW business is all about at the moment, few years back, they said" Churning out new products all the time is not our business model", makes me laugh now-a-dayz :) :) :)
Holy fuck. Now I don't feel bad at all for not going to their stores. I only order from another shop that isn't run by gw and is less expensive. The experience I had in the gw shop was just annoying. Was a small one, I did not get any help and so I had to get my info online and also order online. Apparently gw goes the same way Wotc goes with magic the gathering. What a shame. I just started in 2020 and I love the hobby but I really dislike how gw runs their business...
@@alexanderh2715 Exactly my point too, supporting LGC´s all the way now, especially in these pandemic times
Do they literally train you guys to be on your back as soon as you enter the store? I always hate that..... They do.... (edit) ffs
Exactly why I stopped going in and started buying from independents online
No I doubt they do. This guy more or less confirmed they don't. So many people don't understand retail
@@funoff3207 they deffinately do as for a long time (less so now) it was like this in every store I went in to, and as I travelled for work, I made a point of checking out different stores, but they harrasment you receieved walking in to a store drove me away from GW. Independant retailers are cheaper, ebay is cheaper, and you dont get harrassed.
I think it depends in germany the few stores I went and also in amsterdam they dont do that.
They absolutely do. However, some managers do have lines they don't want their staff to cross. The manager of my local GW sacked an employee for coercing a customer to buy a lot of product with money that was meant for their rent.
Epic story man, really enjoyed your insights
I worked at GW for a while in the Bristol store. The team there were great, the manager who took over was a good guy, fair and level headed. (Although we didn’t agree on everything) it never felt like hard work. Usually an element of fun to anything you did. You’d get the odd person trying to out knowledge you and the odd person taking the piss but generally the customers were a good group. As a retail management job, if you get to a big store the pay can be pretty good for the size of your team. I worked at Sainsbury’s as a manager and earned not much more looking after 70+ people! The hours are better than food retail stores. As a part time job it doesn’t get much better.
I will second this, if you get the right store...its an amazing, amazing job if you are backed by the right people. Managers in larger stores tended to have experiences like this, working in good smaller stores as staff members before being given a larger store to run. Other managers who work in smaller stores are often isolated, overworked and often overlooked however which is a real shame. I saw some people who were larger store owners were good guys, a few others seemed to be openly hostile and snarky to anyone from a smaller store wanting advice. Its a company with a wide mix, but I'd avoid running smaller stores that are under-performing when you get there, as you will be blamed for the failing store even if it was failing years before you arrived and is actually getting better.
Don't mind me, just found the channel a bit ago. Good listening while I'm at work.
Why do they allow competition stores to sell everything at a 20% discount, ive never understood it. I once asked in a GW store and they got all weird and basically refused to answer the question.
I was told to never talk about it as its a company decision. I have no problem at all with trade accounts, they generate a LOT of income. But they should be a minimum distance away from actual GW branded stores that can't sell at a discount. There was a situation in another GW where they had a great relationship with a trade account a few doors down, GW would sell the into kit after the trade account sent the new customer to GW for an introduction. Then the store and trade account would share the customer, advising they go to between them for the best deals. These types of situations however were rare, almost unheard of. But they did happen.
Most of the difficult questions I like to ask when I feel like trolling a store is met with corporate BS comment #53
Retailers are much more reliable than private customers. They also promote GW games and have game days, tournamnets, homepages with activity etc.
I retails som (not games) and the producers want us to do more. Always. Giving us PR materials, some longer credit etc . The retailer is offering 20% as they get clearly above 20% then...
@@northernexile In my City we have the GW and two independant stores one with an Online store and there are cool with each other. they basicly have to communicate because UPS messes up the delivery and they get Packages for the other store :) And our Manager gets stuff for himself that GW does not sell from them. They also worked together to get Gerard Boom for a workshop in town( Gerard is the guy behind Shifting Lands and makes tools for Hard Foam Terrain) and attended it.
The same Independant Store btw quite recendtly cut off the Buisness relationship with GW Corporate because they were dicks. Ethan before that they sold before that mostly the side systems of GW and replaced the Paints with Scalecolor this Summer. Which for me is was great because I started moving my Paints to that range anyway.
@@TheOrksebozz I know a few stores now have severed ties with GW around my area too. I wonder if something is afoot...
I don't know whether to feel disappointed that this crap goes on in seemingly all working environments or relieved that it's not just happening to me... it sounds like you have a far longer fuse than I, mate. Great video: fascinating to have on in the background.
Never has a company had such a dedicated fan base and employees ruined buy corporate decisions
Nintendo spring to mind
@@tomh2572 its a similar fall from grace , but i feel GW will always be the worst fall unlike video game companies or movies that went south GW has 30 plus years of lore built and parents passing it on to children , all got trashed very quickly and the fan base is far more loyal considering how much we spend
Wow a very interesting insight on hobby and how it works on the inside! Sadly my store has a very biased manager who doesn’t let any horus heresy matches and models be used. In anything. Alas some people are like that.
Putting aside my rant fantastic video, and please keep producing quality content!
Yeah I get why they don't allow full Forge World armies or super heavies...but no Horus Heresy? That you sell in the store in Prospero and Calth box sets? Come on, man.
That's an awesome insight on the company !
I'm seriously considering applying soon for either Retail or Art department :)
But i know that with my current skills there's bound to be three dozen better Artists applying for the same spot , so i might as well have a backup plan already . And my local store here had the best Staff i've ever known in a GW store !
Awesome! Are they looking for staff?
@@northernexile Yep , starting around September for the " new " Year , and there's possibility of new Stores opening next year . We only have 5 or so in the whole Country right now ( granted , Belgium isn't big , but still ... )
@@Tomcat_Coyote ive been informed under the table while at notts they "rarely if ever hire externally" for creative roles they prefer to hire internally and this is the case for all roles.
Really interesting video, thanks for this.
To be honest, it's pretty much what I expected. I've also gone into places feeling like I've got the best job in the world, then the ruthless corporate side of it comes in. I find it's more often than not the amazing colleagues and customers who keep you going and remind you why you do the job, but I can totally relate to what you said about weeks not sleeping because of stress/not being able to unwind.
I've not worked at GW nor would I want to, despite being into the hobby like yourself and the other commenters here. I'm pretty much done with retail in general and if I ever have to look at a sales target set by someone other than myself I'd not be at all happy. I guess GW especially is the type of job you dream of doing as a kid going in there and as an older teen/young adult but as soon as you go through that kind of position you soon realise what it is at the end of the day. I'm absolutely not the person for the job myself and props to you for having the resilience to do it as long as you did.
Good to hear you acknowledge the negative feelings and let's face it, the bitterness that comes with an experience like this - but how you've understood how it's natural and are/have overcome it. Again, I totally relate.
But yeah, really informative and interesting listen. It'd be good if there were more honest reviews on various companies across the UK, and the world for that matter that is in-depth like this and wide-spread for people to listen to.
I hope it works out for you with what you're doing now and later on. Guess it's all learning experience and life for us all at the end of the day. :)
It certainly is a life experience and I don't regret being there at all :) As I've said I have had other people come to me who work at GW and share some amazing times at their stores, mostly though they are staff members who are working under a great manager who was given time to work with a store. Most others are not unfortunately. Thanks for the reply! I totally agree with what you said.
Having worked for GW myself I can confirm most all of this and I am in the USA and it was not any different here. For me it was a double edge sword because the company had already planned on closing the store I got hired to work in and so they never hired or promoted any one to manager for our store. They put nothing into us since they knew ahead of time it would be closing but they had a lease to fulfill so they had to keep it open for a while. This also meant that they really kind of didn't bother with us very much honestly. we got away with a lot more things than other stores would have but honestly we did good and they actually ended up extending the least a few months longer to go into the holidays and then right after the new year we did an auction for everything in the store just before the store closed. People were getting entire beginner army box sets for like 25 bucks etc. it was a fun day. At that point I had already left to company because of similar issues as what you mentioned here. Plus the flat out lies they kept telling us all about not closing the store. I was fortunate in that I did not NEED the job at the time I left. Others in that store were not so fortunate. About half of us has other income that was way more then GW paid but the other half were struggling.
When I first started in the hobby my dream job was to work for them, now it’s been years and I’ve learnt and seen what they do and how they act. I love the hobby, making models but I hate the company now
After listening to this I’m so glad I’d never worked for them
Most bosses take credit and proceed to shit on you when they think they look bad
Really interesting, thank you for sharing your story
I haven't been to this store much since quarantine. Maybe once to pick up a box of warriors I'd ordered, but the games workshop in springfield, Virginia, the town center store, is by far my favorite place to play and shop. Wonderful employees, great community, and they dont harangue you to buy new models and they regularly hold narrative campaign leagues for not only their main games, but stuff like necromunda, blood bowl, titanicus, and even the hobbit game!
I've also had a bad GW experience in a store that wont be named. I went in looking to buy a stormsurge from this store I dont frequent because of the distance. He kept asking a bunch of questions about what main gun I would put on the stormsurge, which I though was odd. He really recommended the blast cannon and not the pulse driver. Whatever, I wanted the blast cannon anyways, I liked its profile more. Later on, when I started building the stormsurge, I found out why he recommended the blast cannon and not the pulse driver. The pulse driver was fucking missing. He sold me an incomplete box for full fucking price. I should have went back and got a refund, or a complete box but I guess I didn't have the social charge to go back to a store I didnt care about to cause a fuss. Let this be a lesson; if the box isnt plastic wrapped, ask to see the sprues.
When I say "he" I mean the manager of the unnamed store.
Watching from 5 years in the future wanted to start from the beginning of the epic journey
To anyone who wonders why GW would have a problem with stores catering more to players than sales all I will say, years late but still. Is that stores that cater too much to players that don't buy from them gain nothing. If your patrons aren't afraid to spend money then it's a totally different thing. We all know how many people bring their own food and drink into a hobby shop even if they sell food and drinks there. If you play you should buy or at least donate something. Maybe start a club that plays at their stores and pays a small tribute to the store for being so accessible. Like if you wanted GW to purchase locations that have more player space you should focus more of your purchases and play time into a brick and mortar store. No buying online for cheaper then just coming into their shop with new models to play with is pretty insulting to the owner who actually knows you and is providing you more than a service.
Oh yeah I felt this one. That happened to me a lot, like I would intro people into the hobby, plan their armies, introduce them to the lore, show them cool UA-cam channels to watch stuff on, allow them to use store bits to practice with. I ask if they want anything that day and they say no and offer some excuse, birthday soon, payday soon, the usual. They walk in a few weeks later with a fully undercoated army and demand to play on the tables...an army for which the store space saw not a penny of despite being their go-to place for the hobby.
This happened dozens of times to me. I had a great core of customers though so it was not that bad.
My local GW manager had Some kind of weird vendetta against me and my friend. We didnt work there, we were customers, teenagers, but customers.
He pulled us unto the office on 3/4 separate occasions and dressed us down as shop lifters, rifled through our army boxes and any bags we had.
Never found anything that wasn’t rightfully ours, and wouldn’t have done as we never touched a thing. But yeah, bit of a strange fruit who killed my interest for GW.
same thing happened to me and my brother made us stop the hobbie at a young age and forces us to by thing we weren't sure to be in to it yet but the staff made us uninterested in it
April 2021, not sure why it was recomeneded today, but watched the whole thing. Sorry you had the experience you did, the bit about taking initiative and getting crapped on.. It resonates
think because he did a follow up to it recently.
Great video, emotional and what you have said really resinates with me. My experience was very different. I worked as a store grunt about 25 years ago and my Manager was a total legend. We had lots of fun, smashed targets and to this day was one of the most amazing experiences of my life (from someone thats had a lot of amazing life experiences). Some of the stuff you said at the beginning about upsetting is a very big thing even back then. The second manager that took over was a Dooch "Company Man" so I left. Still love the hobby tho.
The penny dropped when you said that you had a girlfriend "Hmmmm... does not compute. Must act like a twat" Control freak.
Have subbed and looking forward to watching more of your videos.
Good Luck and All The Best Brother.
Thank you for telling this story! Gave some really good insights into why all my Gamesworkshop store experiences have been so bad... I've only been in a few stores a few times over the years since I live a long distance from any GW shop. But every time there has been some weird or even rude sellers, who quite frankly got me uninterested in buying anything from them.
If they treat their employes this way it's not that strange that the sellers I've meet have been kind of strange.
No problem! Most of it is honestly from pressure from on high, a lot of guys working for GW are diamonds. Not all.
@@northernexile I'm in Spain and we have 4 or 5 GW (one of them Warhammer World) in the capital (3 of the shops are in the center) and one shop manager at a GW store was so rude to me when he told me that he didn't have something in stock and then I pointed it out to him on his shelves, I honestly felt like punching that fool; the way he slighted me when I found the item on his shelf and then he turned his back on me and ignored me after trying to sell me other stuff I didn't want; so I decided not to go there ever again. I went to a different GW shop and the store manager got pissy with me because his card reader wouldn't work and he had to restart it and I was showing the patience of a saint. To be honest I am absolutely pissed off with it and will only go into those shops if there's an emergency and I need something. There is one GW shop in my area in Spain where the guy is a sound guy and gets my orders in because I don't want to rely on post which isn't tracked with a signature for recipient.
@@davedogge2280 I'm sorry to hear that! Are they local Spanish folks or English? Could be either as GW farms a lot of jobs to British folks.
@@northernexile they're local Spanish people. If you look at the stock on their shelves some of it is ancient and you cannot get it off ebay for love or money; that's mainly the only reason I went into those GW shops i.e. to buy rarities.. My feeling is that the guys running the GW shops here in Spain are a law unto themselves and that UK headquarters have maybe decided to run them at a loss or break even mostly because they provide a means by which they can hook the local kids and adults in their local area - a sort of hands on advertising vehicle. The city in Spain I am in has more GW shops than any UK town or city ! I'm not being overly sensitive and I am actually Spanish even though I have had a British upbringing so I know the culture and I know when someone is being abrasive towards me in Spain and believe you me the managers in those stores can turn into twats towards you on a whim if they so choose and they think that there is absolutely no recourse. The third party stores in the city I live in Spain which stock GW items are better with staff that don't tend to go off on you if they're feeling bad that day although there was a problem with one guy in one of those stores who was lets just say a weirdo that was abrasive towards customers when the boss wasn't in and he was fired, I got angry replies from him when I asked simple questions and once he growled 'are you going to buy that ?' as it approached 10 minutes to closing time etc. I prefer buying online to be honest !!! But in all fairness my experiences in Spanish Warhammer shops GW or otherwise have been 97% decent, it's just that 3% when something bad happens, it just puts you off for life. That GW shop anniversary wasn't offering bugger all either when I went in on the day of their anniversary.
always seems like the good staff get filtered out and leave and the bad staff stay for years.
This is 99% of workplaces my dude
5:30 huh that's funny. My local gamesworkshop has been closed for about year during the pandemic. I looked inside and it's filled with a bunch of new stuff
Applied for a couple positions back in the 1990s, trade sales in Mexico (I wasn't bilingual but they did conduct an interview over the phone) and a retail (red shirt) at a store (The Block at Orange, in Orange county CA USA). Actually brought my toolbox of Eldar and showed off my conversions and the guy didn't give a crap, so confirmed that they don't give a crap about your hobby.
Yep, getting "tackled" at the old GW LA Battle Bunker (which was in, you guessed it, in Westminster in Orange county, CA USA) was really annoying, especially since I was an Eldar and Skaven player and they're hawking Space Marines at me. I briefly worked at a Nissan dealership and we sold used and some of the tactics/sales pitches that GW used made us look like Cub Scouts. They had a great gaming area and had a bunch of great games of Blood Bowl, Battlefleet Gothic and Mordheim, though.
That "trainer" sounds like a douchebag.
Had a manager in the late 90's who was ex army who took his Sargent/ veteran Sargent status far too seriously.
Emma left because of how toxic the warhammer tv channel was towards her, then Duncan left and formed his own painting channel. If that isn’t proof that somethings sour in that company I don’t know what is
Thanks so much for sharing this
My first experience as a noob going into a GW store was that the store couldn't be bothered to do an introductory game for me and a friend but would follow us around the store to recommend product, pushing space marines and stormcast alike.
A visit at a later time ended in me asking question regarding rules and performance on the table and no one could answer. I order 3rd party and avoid all stores after that lol.
Insightful vid in general, social circles in workplaces are fucked and I've managed to glide by avoiding the worst of it in my work.
Just found your channel. I’m a FLGS owner and my experience with GW has been very similar!
This experience will make you a better teacher. But unfortunately there are people like this in every industry....
You should've named and shamed the idiots. Might've helped weeded them out from the company if they bring bad press to the company name due to their actions.
Amen. the trainer sounds like hes doing more harm to GW than anything
Well it's the internet so people would have sent him death threats and then thered be a lawsuit against Exile.
Nothing good comes out of it. The internet is sick
This is some what like my 12 month working for GW in Australia. There were plenty of toxic people, but others have become good friends. I’m no sales man (hence only 12 months) but I know people management and GW needs a review of their culture.
Ive been very tempted to go work at GW for a while now, but this insight has made me reconsider. I'll likely still give it a go but ill certainly be on the look out for those red flags. Chances are i'll get fired quickly as i'd not take that shit from upper management
They are after company people, and to be fair why wouldn't they be? And how can you not know if you don't try? :) As I said its an amazing place to work if you actually get the support you're promised.
@@northernexile I've tried a fair few times fella.
I've seen people I've gotten into the game get jobs up at HQ and I didnt even get a sniff of an interview.
I've watched a mate of mine get promoted across the company with no experience of the rolls they are in.
And i know it sounds shit but I get theres a bit of favoritism going on, given how they were dating a manager then got promoted and they broke up.
You will likely have met them at Nottingham.
sauce force This sounds about right, I think I may know who you mean.
It could be you come across as too independent and normal, I know that sounds weird but they want a smiling, overly enthusiastic person. I put on that act for them, people who go in there with an honest outlook tend not to get the job. I’m just surmising though.
I worked for a GW in America many many years ago. The culture with the North American team was pretty much exactly the same. My feelings mirror yours in a lot of ways.