I worked in River Island for a whole year and I would DEFINITELY NOT recommend it whatsoever. I worked in the Cardiff store in St Davids. Managers (mainly the higher up managers) were extremely rude on shifts. I came onto shift the one day and two of the managers stood on shop floor at the front of the store in front of customers and other staff and made me cry. They shouted at me for not taking overtime on a certain day and made out that I was lying that I had agreed to do it. I started to cry and they told me to carry on sorting shoes. I went to the back stock room and told a manager I trusted and cried to her out the back, the one manager that made me cry then came and told me that it wasn't just me and that they expect all staff to pick up extra shifts during the sale period. Two other managers that I walked past looked at me crying and turned a blind eye. I continued to cry on shop floor and the one manager that made me cry at the beginning of my shift pulled me to the very front of the store and told me to stop crying because "nobody died" and that she did not agree with me saying no to overtime because I was meeting a friend that evening and said that my priorities should be with River Island, even though I had also made these arrangements beforehand and they expected me to cancel on my friend. I didn't do this and after that I went home crying my eyes out wishing I had quit on that shift. My mum was absolutely disgusted with how they treated me and wanted to complain but I thought that would make my shifts awkward and even worse so this is the first time I am telling this story now that I have quit. On shift, managers would be rude, handing you rubbish they find on the floor and demand you to put it in the bins with no please or thank you, they would favour other staff and get you to do the worst jobs, there was constant bitching and snide comments done about staff that I sometimes over hear. They bully you into overtime and say that you must pick up overtime, and even have suggested of "getting rid of" the staff that "aren't pulling their weight" and "shipping out the bad" because of this, this was said right in front of me and another member of staff at the time, to suggest that they were talking about us. I have spoken to other members of staff and the majority feel exactly the same and are fed up of being treated like this, it is mostly the quiet ones who aren't gobby and feel too scared to stand up for themselves, like me. I would have loved to speak with head office about this and especially about the incident I spoke about at the start, but was too afraid that the managers would make my working life even worse. I really would NOT recommend working there or even buying from the shop, the amount fo clothing that comes back because of rips and bits falling off is insane, the quality is terrible and the prices are a rip off. Go shop somewhere where they treat their staff well because this shop does not deserve to even be open.