I've previously left reviews here - and in reading some of the 4 and 5 star rated reviews, I can't help but wonder if LBrands home office is drafting some of these glowing reviews that are skimp on content, but 110% full of praise.
Sales, and sales, and more sales. Yes, it's retail, so sales matter - but so do customer, and in turn, employee culture and experiences. The district I work in placed in the TOP 5 in performance for 2017 (I think we wound up #2 in the company) - but before we could even absorb that and celebrate, we were already being berated and incessantly reminded our 2018 had kicked off slower than last year. I mean...#2 in the COMPANY - how about home office give us an "atta boy" before passive aggressively (and in some instances, not so passive) reminding us how sluggish initial 2018 sales have been? Instead, all stores within the district were given a photocopy of the same, lame certificate/award with a pre-fabricated, general recorded message from a home office exec - pretty disingenuous in my opinion.
The daily/weekly/monthly harping of 1) conversion 2) sales and 3) hours continues, but now has been ratcheted up a notch or two with the inclusion of "schedule, schedule, schedule" - meaning we're to form weekly schedules based on individual sales associate/manager sales performances. LBrands is HUGE on "earning" your payroll hours, despite dips in traffic patterns, weather, etc.. If your position is a keyholder/manager or above, you're expected to be in the store alone, sometimes for 5+ hours, tied to what's known as "single coverage". LBrands does this to save payroll hours, yet it seems that going to the restroom, say nothing of taking actual breaks, is negated and forgotten. In a 6-8 hour shift, by law, you're entitled to at least one 15 minute paid break, and one 30 minute unpaid meal period. That's difficult to do when you're alone in the store. How is this legal, and safe? LBrands is so desperate to earn/save payroll hours by store, they skirt around breaks by giving store management teams the option to account for (in the payroll system) paid management breaks, which we're asked to do, whether we took 5 minutes to sit down, or 30. I refuse to account for breaks I do not receive. Essentially, the grossly under-trained associates are to watch the store/floor while you, a keyholder or above, seeks 10 minutes to sit down, and you code your time as a "paid break". This is beyond inconvenient and tough...it's unethical. LBrands loves to make stores aware of their short-comings with sales, to make store level staff aware of them not "earning their keep". Yet, there's so many variables to consider that affect traffic and sales. I cannot remember the last time I took a full 30 minute uninterrupted rest period at work.
Speaking of under-trained associates, recently I took it upon myself to created a sales associate (not management) training binder. I did this to counter the horrid lack of training new-hire associates receive upon starting with the BBW. I was shocked to learn that beyond a few online training videos, associates aren't really guided through a hands-on/live training road-map within the store. It's sort of just "little here, little there" with no forms, guides, checklists, etc.. I realized what a huge problem this is when I recently worked with a few newer employees who stated they'd yet to be trained on certain core facets (registers, closing procedures, etc.). LBrands home office has PLENTIFUL training for sales floor and customer interaction training (of course, cause sales are what matters), with little else in store operations, stock, etc.. So, I drafted an outline of how an all-encompassing training and onboarding program should look. I'm not paid nearly enough to do this, and since the store manager seemed ok with how home office has historically handled associate onboarding, I took it upon myself.
Again, so long as sales result, so many other facets fall through the cracks.
