Do not let the family atomosphere or Christian environment fool you. This is how they suck you in. You have an amazing interview with your DM who tells you how great it is to work for a company that gives back and places high values in world class customer service. They tell you how you get to be your own 'business owner' through your visual merchandising skills and execution. Do not buy into this like I did. My mama warned me, and oh how I wish I had listened. Horrible, horrible absolute worst experience I've ever had in my professional career. There is no work life balance. The 45 hr minimal work week is a JOKE. I regularly put in 60 hours, and 72+ during the holidays, Windows, Mark downs, floor sets, or when executive visits are coming. (So about every other week) I cannot stress enough how little executives value their managers. In a meeting with all store managers and DMs present, the CEO PROMISED a better work life balance. This was a lie. Come January, all store hours were cut so drastically there wasn't enough coverage to have 2 people on the floor while the doors were open. All salaried managers were expected to pick up the slack that month. If you're salaried, then you can forget ever having a day off. It rarely happens. Your day off consists of calls from the store, your dm, a conference call or two, recruiting, interviewing candidates, emails, and probably going in for Mark-downs because well, let's face it, you're free labor. The quality of the clothing is awful and mark up is embarrassingly high. I've stopped funneling money into this company because even with my discount, the quality isn't worth it. The buyers have no clue what they're doing because half of them have never held this type of role before. We constantly receive an excessive amount of nearly identical styles and are expected to sell thru. Most of the corporate team is severely inexperienced, and as a result mistakes are made regularly and stores and salaried managers suffer the consequences. Don't even get me started on allocations. Merchandise is sent blindly. Florida stores can't sell coats in the winter any better than the Ohio stores can sell swim in the winter.
There is NO training. I was left alone on opening day; brand new, never trained, untrained team and no managers. This is no exaggeration, my team didn't even know how to use the registers! I was expected to run, train and staff a brand new store with no knowledge of the business or its practices BY MYSELF. Hours into opening day I was tossed the store keys and told good luck.
Corporate sets unreal expectations with very little labor to accomplish the tasks and when it's not done, or not done perfectly, you get chastised.
Seriously people, don't drink the kool-aid. You're better off settling in with a local cult than being employeed here. Run away. run fast, and run far.
