Pros
Talented peers: The best part of the job was working with passionate, creative people doing their best despite being under-resourced and constantly redirected, under valued, manipulated, and belittled. Autonomy (sometimes): If you're proactive and self-sufficient, you can take initiative and try to create impact — but you’ll often be doing it without support, direction, or buy-in so it goes nowhere. Multi-brand exposure: Working across brands offers insight into the complexities of managing a legacy retail service business, for better or worse.
Cons
Zero strategy or vision: Business decisions are made based on gut feelings and short-term panic rather than data, brand positioning, or long-term goals. It was clear from the inside why the company was financially unstable — they constantly threw out free services, promos, and discounts hoping something would stick, but never paused to ask why. Reactive leadership: Everything feels like a fire drill. No roadmap, no measurable KPIs, no consistency. Projects would get greenlit then pulled halfway through. Initiatives were abandoned as quickly as they were launched. Disconnected executives: Senior leadership lacks insight into the actual customer journey and employee experience. Many major decisions were made in isolation or via external consultants with no involvement from the people who understand the day-to-day realities. Extremely broken internal systems: Cross-department collaboration is almost nonexistent. Communication is poor, accountability is lacking, and everything requires navigating unnecessary red tape. Overworked, undervalued marketing team: Despite being asked to do high-level creative work across multiple brands, marketing is treated as a last-minute add-on rather than a strategic partner. There’s very little investment in tools, staffing, or growth. Cultural instability: There’s a revolving door of leadership and high turnover at every level. This creates a culture of fear, inconsistency, and burnout. Team morale suffers when you’re constantly rebuilding trust with random people and teammates every few months.
