Great Ideas, Horrible Practice - Educator lululemon Employee Review

Unfortunately, the pros do not outweigh the cons; though I never had a problem dealing with employees at my level, once you moved up to the next rung there were serious issues. There's no accountability in terms of what the key leaders or assistant managers might be doing that you have a problem with (very "who watches the watchmen" sort of deal). Like many have said here, most - if not all - of your managers are in their mid-20s and it shows. They tout work-life balance as something that they strive for, but honestly, if you're not showing your face and making your presence known/chumming it with upper management, you will be cast aside. Many people felt that hours were given based on preferential treatment, and not on actual needs as displayed by the employees. Compensation, though higher than the average rate, was still very little, and with such volatility in how many hours you might be receiving, it was often stressful not knowing how much income you might actually be receiving. Furthermore, they expected you to often come much earlier than your shift, which is understandable; however, receiving negative "feedback" for arriving not early enough by their standards was difficult to comprehend, especially when many people could not sustain a living simply by working at Lululemon, and required other forms of employment to maintain an adequate standard of living. Power plays were definitely a thing here, and that might come from the fact that management was just a couple years older than the average educator. This became especially apparent when after working under various managers; because no one was in charge of the managers, often working under one of their shifts meant that you would do things their way, which often undermined the work of another manager. But it didn't matter, because there was no one there to hold them accountable for their actions. Innovation, like the work-life balance, was constantly encouraged, so long as you didn't annoy anyone in management. Finally, as many other have said here, management constantly doled out what they termed "feedback", which more often than not felt like a way for them to undermine your work and/or paint you as a bad employee. If there was something that they didn't particularly like that you did, they would make sure to make a note of it so that other managers could see your "shortcomings". In the end, there was not much wiggle room for the creativity that they talked about so freely; it was often best to put your head down, make few suggestions, and do the task at hand (or, if the store was empty and there was nothing to do, pretend that you were doing something). This is all unfortunate, because although I did enjoy my time there as a whole, it became very apparent that unless I wasn't completely willing to bow down to the culture and drink the Lulu Kool-Aid, then I would forever be considered an outsider.