Pros
- Regardless of whether or not they like their job, many employees respect the brand and are proud/feel lucky to work here. - Very ethical company with clear values that performs a lot of good around the world. - Great and progressive benefits but very hard to get them. - Incredible discount. Likely no other company has such a generous discount and extremely low priced items for employees. Many employees stay only for the discount or specifically return for it. - Promotions seemingly become easy to get once you get an 'in' to the manager/director seats. - Very friendly, approachable, and cooperative senior staff. Even the chief executives are accessible and approachable. - Very many perks and relationships with other companies, meaning lots of corporate discounts. - Very aesthetically driven and cohesive branding strategy. - If working on the retail side, customers can be very pleasant and the retail experiences or 'nightmares' aren't much of a worry. People feel lucky just to shop there and behave unless they're problem customers. - The name and status leads to many interesting and artistic experiences - creative types thrive. - Strong woman and LGBT presence. - Decent mix of younger and older employees. - Extremely friendly corporate staff and many employees with impressive history. - There is always some sort of training or event, and the majority of events are catered. - Beautiful shops, locations, and corporate offices. - No hesitation to offer overtime and they aren't strict about working hours.
Cons
- Very political in every sense of the word. Hiring seems to be decided on connections and most successful employees are affluent. - No such thing as getting a foot in the door - the company is very resistant to give people a chance to develop skills and expects everyone to be fully trained from the start. - People can get fired at any time, and managers are more focused on saving themselves than developing their teams. - Depends too heavily on "seasonal" and contract employees. Seasonal and temporary workers can be there for years and work with no benefits, paid time off, and no feeling of job security. Headcount is the most important thing and real talent management is honestly non-existent. - VERY high pay disparity between employee levels. Managers and higher level employees pull in exorbitant amounts of money while lower level employees can barely scrape by. Some high level or long tenure salespeople, however, do get paid very well. - Aggressive and stressful sales strategy focused on quantity over quality. -There always seems to be a revolving-door position or department somewhere and steps aren't taken to address it. - Managers and directors are very fair-weather. Everyone is very nice but rarely deliver frank news and everyone seems to be afraid to deliver honest answers. There is always a push to focus on the good and ignore the bad. The illusion of grandeur wears off very quickly. - Non-stop meetings that often don't get anything done. - Extremely top-heavy and political company. Everyone seems to be either a manager, director or a vice president. Sometimes there are managers without a direct team to manage with nebulous job titles. Sometimes managers are a department of one or two. - Employees are rarely developed upon and promoted unless they are in high leadership roles. Making lateral or cross-departmental moves can be impossible or take years to achieve. - The name and luxury attracts unsavory, demanding, and toxic personalities that end up being catty and political employees. This is especially bad in the retail locations.