The Buckle reviews

I was hired with the promise that I was a "manager in training." This was a lie. I was not commission-based, and the other employees were, which lead to a negative team environment bc "if I'm not commission I shouldn't take sales." Yet I was evaluated on how much in sales I brought in. Store employees were financially poor, and this translated to a bad team environment bc the buckle does not pay their employees enough. Employees are forced to act like sharks toward customers-- their job literally depends on this (otherwise you are doing a "bad" job, and you will be berated for LITERALLY giving customers personal space to shop). The turnover is insane, even for retail-- management turnover is embarrassingly bad, too. It is a vicious environment. I was constantly watched and critiqued, and I mean for literally my entire8-hour shift--imagine how that would feel. I was told I was doing a bad job (though my sales were comparable to if not better than all other employees), and was offered a lower commission-based position in my evaluation meeting. I was verbally assaulted and demeaned to the point that I started to cry in this meeting. To make it even worse, this meeting was held in the office with the door open; an employee was standing 5 feet outside of the door, and any other employees who walked by easily heard what was being said. This was inappropriate to discuss in front of other employees, and violates ethical standards. I walked out and never went back.

Please do not read the following and think I am a terrible employee. I have and do grow our departments, make consistent above average numbers, and am a Team Leader. I am sharing what I have experienced during my time here with Buckle. I just hope to provide some insight on how things work. Pay - Very inconsistent paychecks. 3% commission + a very small base pay makes it incredibly difficult to make decent earnings. On slow days (i.e. Mon-Thur) you have to work hard for usually nothing, but then Fri-Sat you have to really work harder than ever to sell and make money. $1000 sold is $33 in your paycheck. If you were going to work part-time, definitely do it around the holidays. You can make upwards of $10-$15/hr if you work hard. During all other months other than Nov. and Dec. the average pay is minimal to $8/hr. Keep this in mind, if you ever don't work a weekend, your pay is screwed almost regardless of the circumstances. Here is the breakdown on pay. ___________________________________________________________________________ Sales per hour = Net sales/hours worked. 3% of sales/hr sales + base pay You have a base pay of $4.50/hr. You sell a net total of $4000 and work 40 hours this week. Your sales/hr thus is 100/hr. Figure in your 3% commission, you earn $3.00 per hour plus your $4.50 base pay. You just worked insanely hard for minimum wage. Keep in mind, $4000 is nearly 60 pairs of Buckle's BKE brand denim, which is the core product. Also, returns decrease your net sales. But with these numbers used in the example, you have made $300 for the week without taxes. __________________________________________________________________________ Scheduling - Extremely inconsistent. Part-time scheduling is solely based on your performance and numbers. If you make good numbers, of course they will give you more hours because you will make them more money. With more hours though, you have to sell about $150/hr to make any sort of money over minimum wage. If you are part time and the sales are down, your hours will get cut. Regardless of full time or part time, if sales are down you will have your hours cut. So if you like the work, another part-time job is recommended if you have bills. Scheduling can be pretty biased at times too. If you are disliked, you can be scheduled down. Coaching - Buckle is great with their management. They are excited to be a part of the company and are eager to get to know you. But when it comes to coaching, almost all of my experiences have been harsh and critical. I have been a sales associate and a team leader. I love how you can grow at Buckle, but it can be very misleading. I worked very hard to get to be a Team Leader, and once I got there, it was like I was being 'coached' every 2 minutes for doing something wrong. There was no pleasing the manager! This coaching was usually '"If you can't do this, how can I trust you to run my store?" or "So-and-so told me this, and I can't have you doing that as a Leader. There isn't any room for error as one of my Leaders." Everything else is along those lines all the time, every time. Honest reason why I continue to work there is the love of the people and the fun times that we CAN have every once and a while. Also, there have been numerous times where myself and others have done amazing in either sales for the day or just projects, and get nothing but criticism in return. If you get to be a Leader here, you will end up micro-manged; at least with my experiences there was never really any trust for any of us Leaders. Teammate circulation - During my entire time working here, we have gone through 4 complete teams. That's in a year and a half. So the drop rate is pretty good. I warn you, if you ever hear ANYTHING along the lines of "...and does it really make sense for..." from your manager, then you might as well find another job; they are trying to 'coach' you off the team. Trust me, I have seen 30+ people be 'coached' off of our team.