Horrible working environment. Went there at a manager level. During the 10 weeks I spent there I was at 3 stores in which the common feeling was of fed-up staff that couldn’t wait to leave. The high staff turnover is proof of the sorry conditions they are under. At least 20 people from these 3 stores left the Company while I was there.
I found Hugo Boss’ treatment of their staff unnecessarily harsh and over demanding, in which the micro-management made them feel as if they were being observed all the time. They were.
Being a German company one can only wonder where they got that from.
-This company is obsessed with UPT. This KPI isn’t used to track the performance of the employee but used as a stick to hit them at every opportunity. Such is the sick emphasis on UPT, that floor staff is willing to miss on personal commission by putting 1 item sales under an undefined number on the till, so that they keep their UPT high and avoid being harassed by their line manager.
The haste for keeping a high UPT is translated into dirty tricks by store management, like only allowing employees to make staff purchases of 2+ items, to turn away customers looking to return items using silly excuses/lies such as: “items must be returned to the store it was originally bought from” or “we can’t do refunds today because the system is down”.
Every week’s conference call includes a section of determining which employees must be put into a Performance Improvement Plan or else, as having a UPT of less than 2 is “completely unacceptable”.
The unnecessary pressure staff is put under makes a common occurrence to find employees crying and breaking down due to stress.
-Stores constantly under staffed, so be prepared to do 10-12 days on a row.
-Rotas and days off changed with little or no notice.
-Bare minimum legal holidays entitlement. These don’t roll over to next year. So use it or lose it. Bear in mind that there are many restrictions on when and how long anyone can be off. And I’m not talking about sale/busy periods.
-Salaries are rock bottom low. Probably the lowest I’ve known from a Premium/Luxury brand.
-No sick pay
-No company maternity leave. Only government statuary maternity pay
-Bare minimum pension contribution by the Company (2%), your salary sacrifice is 3%.
For thriving in this company, you need to be the kind of person that will not see staff as people but as a commodity; the kind that thinks that harshness and ruthlessness are signals of good management and leadership. That kind of outdated management that
some parts of the industry have moved on from long time ago.
If you aren’t that kind of person already, it is definitely someone you don’t want to become.
