Pros
Discount is 40% unless you’re a store manager or above. Seasonally you get 50% off one of each brand item. Stores are beautiful spaces to work in. Nice people do get hired there but they usually don’t last because they either get so worn down that they quit or they become cold.
Cons
Clothes styles are about 1 year late to all the trends. Company is a revolving door of teens and girls in their 20s. I had a workplace injury and it was not taken seriously at all and the managers gave me a big fuss about wanting to see a doctor. They were passive aggressive when I took time off to see a WSIB doctor. When they realized it was an injury that would get worse without medical attention, HR suddenly stepped in and acted like they had always cared from the beginning. I later found out the managers were gossiping about me being “distracted” and that my injury “didn’t seem that bad” and they believed my intention was to have an excuse to miss shifts. Higher discounts have to be negotiated. I was the only manager in the store that did not have the opportunity to be eligible for the voucher discount (70% off), and they make it very hard for you to get one. Trying to negotiate for it during performance reviews did not get me anywhere. You basically have to cry on your hands and knees for them to listen to you. Culture at my store happened to be biased and the majority of the time it was white women getting promotions. Culture in general has a guideline that is supposed to help with toxicity but it becomes a mindset of “we are the best and we do things the best way” so there isn’t very much room for creativity. Due to how their work codes measure productivity, no matter what role you are in you will be worked to the bone unless you are a favoured employee. Those who do not happen to fall into that category are expected to be “productive” every second you are clocked in. There’s pressure to take no breaks, not even to go to the bathroom, because it can slow down the amount of shipment units unpacked per hour or reduce the amount of sales you have per hour. Your performance metrics determine how often you get scheduled - if you don’t move fast and you don’t sell at least $400 an hour, good luck getting shifts. Non-selling shifts were openly called non-productive hours, which was discouraging to those breaking their backs doing physical labour often overnight or beginning at 6am in the morning. Workload keeps increasing but support is remaining the same or decreasing - everyone left at the company is just being spread thinner and thinner. If you are full time you are eligible for benefits no matter what level you work at, but they’re pretty expensive for not much in return. Other companies offer better benefits at reduced cost. Style advisors are encouraged to text clientele on their personal phones and try to sell them stuff/build their cart outside of their regularly scheduled hours (because if you are on the sales floor you are not supposed to be on your phone and picking up clients from the sales floor) so Style Advisors end up doing a lot of extra free labour. Jen Wong is the face and CEO but founder Brian Hill is still very much involved and despite having a title change years ago, in the employee directory Jen Wong still reports to Brian Hill who is at the top of the company. Promises of growth are empty unless you are favoured and you stick around complaining long enough. Discounts can’t be shared with anyone else.