Pleasant, Encouraging Retail Experience
Pros
For a retail job, this is top of the line. You get all holidays off and even get paid for them after one year on the job. Their hours are normal 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. with no crazy early or late hours. I love that Tess auto schedules three weeks ahead of time. That way you have time ahead to trade days with co-workers if something comes up. You don't get last minute phone calls to fill in shifts, because they post unfilled shifts on a bulletin board. If you pick up another shift, you get paid over-time if you go over 80 hours in two weeks. The store is uncluttered, open and airy, you can see the whole floor at a glance, restrooms are huge, clean and elegant. You get to put out your own new merchandise in your own department. Training is one whole week, with a couple days on the floor working with your department manager, before they throw you out there on your own. Commission is awesome, but it can get a little competitive. For the most part, everyone is taught to work as a team. Upper Management has been very responsive and has an open door policy. If there are ever any department manager or co-worker disputes, Store Mgr. and HR Mgr. call meetings with Floor Mgr. and Dept. Mgr. until they are resolved. Even though upper management are mostly young college graduates and they do promote fairly quickly, all managers have worked on the floor and know what has worked for them. If you want an office job where you have weekends off, and you want a more flexible schedule, this may not be your cup of tea, but for a retail establishment, I appreciate the higher standards and higher dress code. This is a boutique kind of store, many of the customers do purchase higher end merchandise, and you get to develop a closer relationship with your customers as you have time to actually show them merchandise out on the floor and get other sizes for them in the fitting room. I've found that the more you communicate with upper management, and your team of co-workers and dept. manager, the better off you are. I love, love, love our customers! They are so much fun! Having worked at another retail establishment for 3 years where I never was able to get a full-time job, I am pleased as punch to have been at Von Maur full-time for the past 8 months. I would have been here 3 years ago if only I'd known what a great place to work this is!
Cons
When upper management trains what they call "the Von Maur way," department managers can be slow to catch on to the new methods of training. Sometimes department managers can be territorial, and micro-manage your whole day, when they could be more responsive to encouraging you to follow the new methods of training. New managers are in touch with upper management in the company, and they seem very responsive to new employees, to new methods of suggestive selling, and are very fair to new employees who come in off the street and have worked in other types of retail establishments. Sometimes department managers have a hard time being flexible and listening to upper management.
