Pros
Learn customer service skills, shipment, and floorset. The slight possibility of growth.
Cons
No water with you on the sales floor! But you’re expected to talk to the customers a lot, so dehydration happens a lot. They say you can go to the backroom for a sip whenever but that’s not true, there are too many demands from the customers and too many tasks for that to be realistically possible. You need a doctor’s note for any accommodations but they don’t provide health insurance so, as most associates are part time, most associates can’t afford a doctor to get a doctor’s note. Personal cell phones are not allowed to be on our person at any time. The pay is bad, just like any retail business. The raises do not keep up with inflation; not even remotely. So if there’s an emergency and you can’t go back for your personal belongings, you’ve essentially lost a $1000+ piece of technology that everyone needs to survive. Growth heavily depends on favoritism. District managers often prefer to hire out of network or district rather than hire in house (there are plenty of people willing and able to learn and grow that get overlooked and ignored), but then scratch their heads when those out of network hires have a hard time transitioning. There are too many hoops to jump through for a chance at a promotion. There’s a Learning Development Program, which is essentially a waste of time meant to keep the ambitious busy. There’s are some temporary assignment positions (TAP) that are that: temporary. Like “acting manager” most of those people don’t even get promoted to the actual managerial role. They simply get demoted back to associate and a candidate out of network gets hired for the actual position. The culture and values only represent how we’re expected to treat the customers, not how the company will treat us. I feel as much “better together” with the higher ups in my district as I would feel working with an incompetent coworker. I see how un “DEI” the company is when the management staff and those given *real* promotions tend to be NOT diverse hires. We have to “Love the Customer” but they are allowed to be horrible in return with few consequences. This job with all its nonsensical rules inspires no “Passion with a purpose.” Not even the big stores that earn the business more money than smaller stores have good hours. The company doesn’t give stores enough hours but expects a skeleton crew of 4 to get through 40 boxes of shipment in 5 hours. They also expect a skeleton crew to complete huge floorsets that change the entire store within two 5 hour shifts. This brand isn’t just a bra store. There are 5 main collections, a room dedicated to each. They expect 4 people to do the work of 8 or 10, and sell to that capacity as well; completely unrealistic and leads to burnout very quickly. Working here is a revolving door.