Pros
The majority of my time at Pandora was spent at a franchised location - this was wonderful. Once the company switched to O&O, the perks consisted of a competitive pay raise, and very generous PTO/Sick Leave/Personal Time for FT. You even get your birthday off with pay. They also offered a bonus structure for each level of employee. The employee discount is also likely unmatched in retail, especially for jewelry.
Cons
I noticed an immediate lack of organization between various corporate segments when it comes to store needs. It seems people were constantly out of office, or had temps filling positions, which slowed down getting store support. For example, I had two employees on staff that went without pay for two pay periods due to a lack of action from corporate, as well as missing bonuses for months because no one with corporate could figure out who was responsible for adding our store members to an excel sheet for payout.
There were also ongoing issues with system/payroll access for multiple employees that took weeks to resolve.
The company is also very micromanaged by regional managers. Many of the sales techniques/conversations that are taught are created by office members who seem to lack experience in the actual retail sales portion of the business - they don't translate well in store but are pressed on stores anyway.
As a manager, I was shocked at how many 3rd party systems Pandora uses. For a global leader in jewelry, I would think they would spend the money to have a single streamlined hub for support. By that I mean there were 2 different websites for in-store repair tickets, a website for payroll, two websites for ordering materials, and multiple websites for other store support depending on the needs. This lead to a lack of fluidity and constant miscommunication. It was also frustrating navigating 12 or more separate applications on a day to day basis given the demand of the role.
In hiring, they wanted an unrealistic amount of employees on staff while offering each only 5-10 hours/week. I faced scrutiny when pushing back about adding on to a fully staffed store when my girls were already struggling with getting hours. Its worth noting that we were also above goal every month - I had a wonderful staff but I lost many due to the greed of upper management which lead to a constant turnover in staff.
My final issue was with the "DEI" approach. It was corny and forced. I was also asked to not read my religious texts/pray during my unpaid lunch, which was not on the floor or with other employees. This is not equal or inclusive when other lifestyles were being supported in daily corporate emails, to the extent that bonuses/gift cards were paid out for those participating.