It had its moments. - Manager DSW Employee Review

DSW was a great place to work at one time. However a lot has changed. More often than not, depending on the store, you can get overwhelmed with the amount of work/tasks that needs to be completed (especially freight/shipment and merchandising). There's little reward if any for all the hard work. I hear more complaints from managers than I hear about enjoyment of the job on a weekly basis. I have also never heard the words "I enjoy coming to work at DSW" and I get the feeling people have grown comfortable and learn to deal with the issues in their own way. There's a revolving door of managers about every two or so years (both upper management and store level). Due to the lack of managers in the stores, when one person decides to leave for whatever reason, there is not an effective succession plan in place to replace managers. It's like a never ending issue that will never be resolved. In fact some managers leave after a month or decide to go on leave and never come back. Upper management says there's enough managers, but being in the trenches of a store on a daily basis gives you a completely different perspective, especially when you have a bare minimum management staff. Expect overtime and frequent schedule changes which can ruin your weekend plans or appointments. Plus, some management members have been in their positions for 4-7 years without any potential for growth opportunities. The biggest take-a-way from a manager's perspective is that it is hard to find people you can trust in DSW (from store management to upper management).