Where do I start. It was a horrible experience from beginning to end.
Decjuba prides themselves in being a "women-run" company, and they refuse to hire males in-store. However, there are males in the company - but only in high-earning executive roles - a horribly contradictory way to run a business and "empower" women by allowing only women in the lowest-earning positions.
The upper management has little idea of what actually goes in the store: my manager was totally incompetent, as well as a blatant bully toward me and the rest of the staff, who never stuck around more than a few months due to her toxic behaviour. Upper management would visit almost every week and hang out in the tiny back room, and yet when faced with a complaint about our abusive manager, they apparently had no clue that had been going on in-store, as they hadn't been able to get a true feel for the store's dynamic.
The list of complaints goes on. It's against company policy to let employees sit down while working (except on your breaks), so myself and the other young employees would end up suffering from aching backs and feet, despite only being in their early twenties.
Decjuba has close to no opportunities for promotions or pay rises, no matter how long you commit to the role. Unless you go full-time and get into management, they will pay you minimum wage, there is no room for negotiation. Even the girls in assistant management (that I knew) were getting just a few dollars above minimum wage; hardly a promotion at all.
Overall, this company has a massively high-turnover, which is indicative of the poor care taken to retain employees and the overall toxic culture. I am aware that Head Office was recently scratching their heads over why there has been massive rates of resignation in NZ, and their solution was, "Do we need to do more training on company values to get these employees to stay?". It just goes to show how disconnected they are from what really goes on in-store.
