Pros
The doors aren't going to close due to the size of the company. When you have personal things going on, depending on your manager, they can be pretty accommodating unlike a lot of places.
Cons
I've dedicated over a decade of my life. Missed events in life I will never get back. At one time the company culture, people I worked for and with were the best. I could never imagine leaving. Now I struggle to go in each day because of the level of stress. Regional managers do not respect personal time off sending threatening messages through text regardless of your schedule. There is zero support in hiring. In fact may managers have had to pay for their own indeed ads to try to get people because of out of touch payroll expectations combined with no support. I work in an outdoor location and temperatures and humidity reach very unsafe levels, yet we are expected to prop our doors open often leading to temperatures 90 degrees plus in store. If we don't have them open (people from corporate watch cameras and send out compliance reports, disregarding weather or any other impact.) At one time it was very much a people first business. Now it seems we are last. Constant turnover, lack of support in filling positions, insane micromanagement, unattainable sales goals which make it impossible to bonus. They overcomplicate everything. Currently there is a push on an AI coach that basically tells us we suck. We don't have the ability to make interactions personalized anymore and to exhibit personality and our own selling skills. They want us to be cookie cutter dimming our own skills and personalities. Our flame is constantly snuffed out by upper management. Everything is about compliance. There has been a shift to weekend payroll being stacked too much. My location gets very busy during the summer doing what most stores do in an entire week, in one day. Yet my decade plus of experience isn't good enough to know my unique trends of my location. Instead I am short staffed during the weekend. Being told weekend hours have to be scheduled, even if that means that I have to come in at 6am when the store opens at 11 and still work eight hours or more on the floor. Just so they can show a certain amount of hours were used on the weekend. Manager workload is insane and no support is provided. You hire someone good, and they yank them out of your store to put them somewhere else, leaving you short staffed and stressed. Then get no support in filling the position . Our job posts on company website get very few candidates. I am burnt out. These past few years have been nothing but turnover, increased pressure. The last 2-3 years our company has transformed and is no longer recognizable. A place I used to love and feel at home, now has me panicking when my phone goes off. Because it's either someone calling off or my boss telling me something else I didn't do to their expectations. For years I was the top manager in the region. I was everyone's go to. I trained all new managers entering our region. I interviewed for promotions and was in many programs to grow. But those programs are designed to provide a false sense of support and growth opportunities that just aren't here. It's all about politics and I speak truth. I honestly don't know how our regional managers do their jobs either. I know I have complained about the regional managers communication, but the insane pressure is on them too. They rarely get a day off. I rarely get a day completely away from work. Training for new hires is not sufficient for the amount of things we have to manage. Leave it to corporate to take a fun, productive family/friend work environment and turn it into bootcamp..They always want more more more. We sell sunglasses, but it feels like rocket science. When Giorgio Pradi was moved to be the president of sunglass hut brazil, the heart of this company stopped beating. I cannot express how much I used to love this job. And now it makes it hard to get out of bed every day. I'm burnt out with no end in sight. And so burnt out I don't have energy to look for something else. They pay you just enough to keep you there. I'm someone with over 3 decades in the industry, and my experience and what I bring to the table are completely ignored. We're supposed to be entrepreneurial, but have zero ability to make decisions. They can spend money on forcing AI down our throats, or payroll to pay people to spy on us through remote cameras. Yet fire hazards, important repairs in the store are left unattended for years. The only time they take action is when they think they are going to get sued. Because they are such a large company and an easy target, they usually end up settling with a lot of people. But greed is the only thing this company is run on now. The culture is dead. We've lost about half of our regional managers. I have maybe two mangers that are still here and have been here as long as me. They hang on waiting on retirement. I wanted to do the same. I thought I would retire from here. I have a pension which they haven't offered in almost 15 years, which makes it hard for me to leave. I almost feel like they don't want experience, longevity, etc and may be trying to push those of us out making a little more due to years of service, or that have benefits they don't want to pay like pensions. Overall 6-7 years ago I would have given this company a 9/10. Now, 3/10 at most. If you can deal with extreme stress, big brother constantly watching, being forced into their leadership style and set yours aside, and no authority in your own store, this would be the place for you. That's just not me. They've changed so much, and not for the better. Dr Ziff (the founder)would be so ashamed of what we have become.