Ross Stores reviews

Buying Organization: - Racist within the organization and racist to vendors and agents - Your experience at the company is DEPENDENT on the mood and personality and working style of your Buyer/ VP. If you get someone that doesn't match you, you're SOL. - You're working at least 10 hours a day at a pace that requires 110% of effort out of you everyday because the teams are so understaffed - Your manager's subjective feedback determines your performance. Yet, only sales and margin determine your manager's performance. See the disconnect here? They are empowered to not give a _ about you. - They will move you around under different buyers and different areas without notice, without consideration, without asking. -Super high turnover, you will make friends but they will leave - What you do and the skills you learn is super niche and the longer you stay, the harder it is to leave the retail/merchandising industry -Management is shady and they will hide things that don't even need to be hidden - Poor handling of the George Floyd/BLM movement. Only acknowledged that looting of stores happened in the first 3 days of occurrence - If you come into the organization requiring different methods of training, they will not provide that for you. They will expect you to fit a mold and if you do not fit it, they will force it out of you or you will feel like you need to leave.

The company culture is inconsistent at best. As a whole, the company lacks strong cultural values and operates in different ways based on the team or function. The culture in the field-facing corporate support functions (the lens through which this review is being written) is especially poor. Too much bureaucracy and lack of trust in employees (even the top performers). Executives at the VP and SVP-level insisted on reviewing and weighing in on everything, making it impossible build strong decision quality in lower-level leaders, move quickly, or introduce new ways of getting work done. There is no room to make mistakes and learn from them because every move you make (even sending an email to a VP or above) is reviewed and scrutinized by at least one person. The lack of trust in employees, even top performers, is stifling, leaving them frustrated with their, leaders, teammates, and the company as a whole, all of which fosters a dog-eat-dog way of working together. I understand that being fiscally conservative is part of the Ross-way, but never allowing your employees to stretch and learn for fear of making a mistake will never breed a culture strong, independent employees that are proud to work for Ross. This culture of negativity permeates into how recognition and promotions are handled. One may receive a great annual review, but promotion continues to be an invisible moving target, especially for those that want to innovate, elevate, and challenge "the way we've always done it." Favoritism is noted and the number of disgruntled employees that are too scared to speak up for fear of retaliation is growing, as is the turnover rate. Unfortunately, VP and above leaders perpetuate this cycle with a lack of compassion or interest in fostering a healthy, collaborative team environment. It's truly a shame because so many talented and passionate (and compassionate) people roll through this company. Unfortunately, these attitudes aren't welcomed and when these great employees and leaders move on, the story becomes "they just weren't the right fit" instead of looking introspectively to understand the root of the issue is poor leadership.