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Just curious if there are any Games Workshop staff or ex-employees here on Dakka, thank you for your interest !

I'm Ben Lee and i used to work at the Games Workshop at Park Royal Mall in West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Here's a photo of me at the GW in Park Royal mall, i'm writing up an Army List to play 40K against my opponent Chris Chivers who is from England !

@Mad Dok Grotsnik,

Didn't you use to rule the domain of a Games Workshop at one point?

I did indeed. And in fact at three points!

Tunbridge Wells 2001-2003, 2004-2005, and 2009-2010. All Key Time, with some full time when running Epsom for a month and the (sadly failed) management course.

Miss the discount to this day. Not that Key Timers get that nowadays.

I used to run a GW store in Olney, MD. Worked there for about a year. Fun job, but the pay was terrible and I wasn't really allowed to make any decisions.

Ran a store in Ventura, CA here in the US. That was during the fire an employee to keep the others on their toes era. Don't really miss anything but the discount and some of my buddies I worked there with.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I did indeed. And in fact at three points!

Tunbridge Wells 2001-2003, 2004-2005, and 2009-2010. All Key Time, with some full time when running Epsom for a month and the (sadly failed) management course.

You failed their management course?

Was it an 'attitude' thing?

Nope. Incompetence thing.

But wasn't that in the whole "Attitude Trumps All" GW era?

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Nope. Incompetence thing.

As in, you weren't incompetent enough?

I worked at the Opry Mills location from 2002-04. Worked there barely two days a week for the discount. 60% off and the "Bits by the Pound" deal paid me very well! I mainly painted the stores armies and vacuumed up at close.

When they sent the biggest dill weed I'd ever met into management training I put in my notice. My last day I bought a stack of boxes taller than myself and ended up pulling my own bits order at GD the following weekend in Baltimore. That was fun!

2001 until the great key timer purge of 2005.

Watford (holidays) and Birmingham (uni), then Watford as a 2nd job for the first 2 years after graduating.

Guest appearances at Shrewsbury, Solihull, Hemel Hempstead and Enfield.

I clearly remember how Geoff was the manager of Vancouver's first GW in Gastown until he was let go because he was also a writer for White Wolf Publisher and i remember Vampire the Masquerade and Werewolf stuff back then lol.

Darren was such a angry young punk who would ride a skateboard into work with Fraser Slack and they were great painters; then the next thing i heard Darren was an Area Manager for GW.

My favourite times were hanging out with Trent McCaffery and playing Magic the Gathering in Gastown,

Then when the GW Park Royal store opened and they had a Quebecois guy as manager i think his name was Dave ? I worked there with Dan Christian and tall Paul and that girl Leah...

We would hang out with Metrotown guys like Kelly Kim, Shiaun, Dan Miner, oh man those were the glory days eh After i left Craig Fleming worked there.

Now i only really see Mike at Hammertime Hobbies when i come into town as my parents still live on the North Shore

However i still remember Jason Dyer the outrider as i did volunteer at the GT up at UBC, i still have paperwork from Andrew Sinclair thanking me for running the Warhammer Fantasy Battle table "Aaargh thar be zombies!"

One of the biggest bonuses of working for GW was as SlaveToDorkness mentioned, the discount and the ability to purchase cheap metal by weight !!!!

One of these days us ex-GW and GW staff should have a meet, i live in Penticton BC but would love to make it out for a Trumpeter Wargamers Salute convention

Take care and may the Emperor protect,

Ben Lee

I was an on-call here in the US for about a year and a half. . . however, after my location went through a few managers in the span of 2 years. . . yeah, F that noise, I put my notice in. Especially when the last 2 quit for exactly the same fething reason.

Being a grad student studying business, it's almost impossible to miss all the things the company is doing "wrong".

Myself and a co-worker Rob Eastman developed a stock of red shirts as we would conveniently "forget" to wear the one we were given to work...

Otherwise it wasn't too bad as I joined GW with artistic endeavours and not to run a business...

I used to work for the Bank of Montreal and became a stock broker even before I worked for GW so i understand sales targets and such but i didn't give a damn, GW didn't pay me enough to push sales of core product and such

I was being paid 12 bucks an hour Canadian to paint miniatures for store armies, and when someone came in, young or old, i would jump up and ask them to roll some dice and play a quick game!

I worked for GW as a full time employee for less than three months...mostly I built and painted terrain or helped move and set up a store. The discount was amazing and the only reason I took the job in the first place. Met some folks there I still game with and other are friends I keep in touch with still, twenty years later.

Cheers,

CB

I ran the Columbus, Ohio store for a bit less than a year when it opened this past November. I had fun and met some cool new wargamers.

 MegaDave wrote:
I ran the Columbus, Ohio store for a bit less than a year when it opened this past November. I had fun and met some cool new wargamers.

You ran it. Great! What happened? Just curious.

Hah, nothing crazy. Got an offer at the Children's Hospital I previously worked at and went back to work for them. I found the GW job to be pretty boring after the first month or so.

 Tannhauser42 wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Nope. Incompetence thing.

As in, you weren't incompetent enough?

They must save the incompetent managers for the USA (or England, I suppose); all the ones I've known have been stand-up gents.

GW managers need attitude in the first place. Knowledge of the GW games is not necessary (maybe to a certain extent). The game, painting, and modeling(?) can be learned to a certain degree which may suffice for the standard customer.

I used to work the Santa Anita, CA store back in the day.

 wuestenfux wrote:
GW managers need attitude in the first place. Knowledge of the GW games is not necessary (maybe to a certain extent). The game, painting, and modeling(?) can be learned to a certain degree which may suffice for the standard customer.

This is pretty accurate. Weirdly, GW has historically hired for it's manager or store operator spots based almost entirely on enthusiasm. Sales ability or actual retail experience helps, but what they really wanted to see was enthusiasm. The interview process was pretty weird. "As you can see from my resume, I've worked retail sales for 13 years, including managing 18 locations at one point." "Good, good. I'm going to need you to Waaagh now. Do you know what that means?" Seriously, I think the Waaagh was the deciding factor, not the experience. It was a group interview. They hired the five loudest people.

 Kriswall wrote:

 wuestenfux wrote:
GW managers need attitude in the first place. Knowledge of the GW games is not necessary (maybe to a certain extent). The game, painting, and modeling(?) can be learned to a certain degree which may suffice for the standard customer.

This is pretty accurate. Weirdly, GW has historically hired for it's manager or store operator spots based almost entirely on enthusiasm. Sales ability or actual retail experience helps, but what they really wanted to see was enthusiasm. The interview process was pretty weird. "As you can see from my resume, I've worked retail sales for 13 years, including managing 18 locations at one point." "Good, good. I'm going to need you to Waaagh now. Do you know what that means?" Seriously, I think the Waaagh was the deciding factor, not the experience. It was a group interview. They hired the five loudest people.

I've heard through the grape vine that while hiring a new manager for my local GW, someone with that resume (12+ years retail/managing experience) was turned down because while they mentioned sales and ability to reach targets, this person did not mention "Recruiting" even once. . . The shops are increasingly becoming solely about recruitment and "feth the vets" that its no small wonder that the one I went to regularly is going through managers so quickly.

I can see it now..

GW: We want you to really focus on recruiting new players.
New Employee: No problem! Can do boss!

Six months later..

GW: Your revenue is down year on year.
New Employee: But I've concentrated on recruitment, almost three quarters of my sales are new business.
GW: You're fired.

Meanwhile, somewhere else in GW land..
GW: Your main priority is to keep growing the store income.
New Employee: No problem! Can do boss!

Six months later..
GW: "Why are your new player numbers in the toilet?"
New Employee: "Well the store isn't in a very populous area, so I found it more productive to focus on existing customers. I've managed to cultivate a really strong community of players that are even more invested in our product, they buy everything they can from me and even try and recruit their friends. My sales are up nearly 30%.
GW: You're fired.

Let's just say that one of those is more accurate than you'd think

I worked in the Nottingham store for a bit inbetween moving to the city and doing my teacher training. Used to go to whw on occasion to help out with various events. Managed to seriously annoy John Blanche twice, first time by trying to sell him a ticket to Warhammefest. "Do you know who I am?"

I just came back from a visit to Vancouver BC Canada, where I stopped in at the Highgate Village store in Burnaby BC

Captain Brown check this out ... I ran into Kelly Kim and his son, for whom he was buying a new easy build Space Marine Dreadnought

Did you ever work with Craig Fleming or Paul Kasasian ?

 Private Benjamin wrote:
I just came back from a visit to Vancouver BC Canada, where I stopped in at the Highgate Village store in Burnaby BC

Captain Brown check this out ... I ran into Kelly Kim and his son, for whom he was buying a new easy build Space Marine Dreadnought

Did you ever work with Craig Fleming or Paul Kasasian ?

Private Benjamin,

No, I was only an employee for 3 months, so I did not know Craig or Paul. However Owen (the manager there) was hired to replace me as the full tim staffer and he still is working for GW.

Cheers,

CB

I worked in the Seattle area for almost 2 years. 2003-2005? I could very easily be off.

Worked at Supermall/Auburn while it was still inside, then up to Alderwood Mall/Lynnwood when everyone up there quit. Ended up at the Bunker/Factoria before leaving on good terms.

Fun job and learned quite a few hobby skills while there. Made quite a few friends who I’m still in touch with.

 MegaDave wrote:
I ran the Columbus, Ohio store for a bit less than a year when it opened this past November. I had fun and met some cool new wargamers.

Small world, I was there with my mom when I came up to visit from Florida. We bought some screamers and rippers. She was in the other night for 500th anniversary model and she was disappointed that someone else was running the store. Good luck in your future endeavors!