Von Maur reviews

outdated dress code, lots of silly and unnecessary rules, can't drink water at work station, uncommunicative management, poor organization/delineation of departments and their work, minimal ability to move up

My experience of working for Von Maur had its ups and downs. I started at a skilled, entry-level position. Meaning my education and training was taken into account upon my hire. I had management experience in another sector, retail experience and two degrees. I started out on just over $10/hour as an hourly associate. I was managed by managers who have never had a job outside of Von Maur and possess degrees in things like “visual merchandising” (literally dressing mannequins for store displays or laying out handbags in a case) or “merchandise management” (aka learning how to read a budget report without budget management skills). They have no actual business knowledge, education or experiences. In many cases these managers were educated for 6-8 weeks on a store floor selling in a specific department, then worked for 6-8 weeks as an hourly department manager (scheduler who watches employees and reports to executive managers) then sometimes worked for another few weeks as a floor manager before becoming a buyer, store manager or senior level executive in the .com. This leads to a culture of green under-30’s managers who cover each other’s inadequacies at any cost and are highly defensive of their flawed decision-making skills. Managers are encouraged to tattle on each other and report all flaws, errors or slip ups of direct reports to senior management. When errors are uncovered the responsible individual is belittled and called into the manager’s office to be told off rather than encouraged to fix and learn from the mistake. At every turn you are questioned as an hourly or salaried associate and rarely are you trusted to do your job without micromanaging and hypermagement. The only time this is not the case is when you are assigned a task your manager is incapable to carrying out herself. In that instance you are given no tools, assistance or pathway to success. You are expected to “figure it out” or fail. Failure at VM means you will be belittled by management looked over for promotion and often bullied into “stepping down” from your role into one that is deemed inferior and demeaning by management. There is no room for failure. That is not to say VM has an high standard, thus an intolerance for substandard work. I mean to say there’s no way to succeed unless you make “friends” or ally yourself with the rule makers and say absolutely nothing critical of those in leadership or their decisions. You must whole-heartedly follow their lead and leave nothing questioned or criticized. If you value the weight of your own opinion and expertise you need not apply at VM. If you are “liked” by your manager or someone in senior management there is nothing you cannot get away with. Until the day they no longer like you, then like queen bees, management swarms around you and puts pressure on every inch of your performance until you either break or slip up. If you criticize any decision made by management they get personally mad at you and threaten your job. Recently, a candidate for a management-tracked job was found to not be suitable for the promotion she was seeking. As a result she’s been involuntarily down-graded to a clerical job that wasn’t even an opening in her store. It’s a position they created, never posted and down-graded her into, she wasn’t offered any other option. You are not allowed to speak with your manager’s supervisor in order to express concern at your manager’s performance. I was once very upset about a directive my manager had given me so I attempted to speak with my manager’s supervisor, she directed me back to my manager with the issue, then told my manager what we had discussed. My manager then called me into her office where she was visibly mad, told me off and would not allow me input into the conversation. When she had finished expressing her opinion she let me know she didn’t expect I would be “trying to go over her head” in future. It was very clear to me there would be pay back if I tried to blow the whistle on her sketchy decision-making process going forward. Rules and expectations are a continually moving target at VM. One minute you cannot step into a management role unless you came from the exec training program or had other experience. The next moment they’re hiring a manager who has only had one entry-level job with VM before managing a large department. I understood from day one that VM was a tightly controlled workplace with strict rules but I had no idea how negative this culture could be. You are not allowed to have anything personal at your desk, not a photo, pet rock, drawing your child made, cell phone or water bottle. At first I was ok with this but I realized how prison-like the culture really was. You’re encouraged to report on your coworkers, “loss prevention” aka security is always the eye in the sky. They watched how frequently we took our eyes off our work and how frequently we talked to our coworkers, which coworkers we talked to etc. If we took an extra two minutes at break, if we clocked in before we took our handbags to our lockers etc. If we were chewing gum etc. It was so much worse than being in school. As a result coworkers feel infantilized and act like children. There are stress tantrums, lashings out, blow ups because people want to be trusted to do their jobs and not watched and reprimanded like children. They also want to occasionally laugh with their coworkers and relax in a moment of levity. Working for Von Maur is like life: cruel, hard and short. Managers are not properly trained. If you ask your manager for additional training outside of VM you are immediately told no and belittled for not being the whole package from the start.