Pros
I made some incredible friendships with some amazing women. Many of the reviews state that compensation is great, but rest assured, the pay is not worth the mental abuse that you put up with when employed by this brand.
Cons
When I joined the Altar'd State brand 3 years ago, I quickly fell in love with the values, culture, and mission of the organization. Loved the Executive Leadership Team and my District Leaders. I enjoyed working with guests, the beautiful store environment, and leading and developing my team. While the standards to be successful were high, I felt like if you worked hard and were committed, you were set up for success. As a store and team, we achieved every goal set before us. My store ranked extremely high on the GPTW survey, Top 10 on the monthly Healthcheck, Passed every Internal Audit, Top ranked on Secret Shops, and more... We consistently exceeded all expectations and worked hard to create an environment for internal and external guests that was unparalleled to any other store or brand. Having said that, the culture has rapidly deteriorated over the last 18 months. While my team continued to meet and exceed goals, the Executive Leadership (including the CEO) became intolerable. Expectations went from being manageable to being unattainable. Perfection is expected in every aspect of business. The brand has gone from a culture of learning and engagement to one of stress and intimidation. If business dips for any reason or if you are late delivering on a deadline, you will be ridiculed. If you ask questions in an effort to understand, you are told to stop being negative. Personal attacks (being told that you don't care enough) became the norm. Mandatory Weekly Friday calls, hosted by the CEO, went one of two ways. Some were extremely motivating, others were gripe sessions about "Entitled Women" or "Entitled Americans" or, better yet, personal attacks on specific Store Leaders or Leader Teams. Often times, As a Store Leader, I spent my Friday doing "damage control " with my Assistants and Brand Reps that were subjected to his hate speech. In my 20+ years of retail, I have never been made to feel so incredibly defeated until I joined this organization. All because I asked a question about our candidate screening process. After that, I was made a target on a weekly All Store Call. A grown man (the CEO) made a conscious decision that he would publicly ridicule a dedicated Store Leader that has given years of her life to grow the Altar'd State brand. One month I was being asked to promote by the VPs, the next, I was resigning because of the abuse that they were subjecting me to. I have held off for months on writing my review because of the retaliation that I know will follow, but I can not remain silenced any longer. While the mission of Altar'd State remains true (#1 giveback company in the world), the method to accomplish lacks human decency.
