Pure Romance Reviews

3.2

45% would recommend to a friend

(215 total reviews)

Chris Cicchinelli

56% approve of CEO

45% positive business outlook

Pure Romance has an employee rating of 3.2 out of 5 stars, based on 215 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Pure Romance employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Retail and wholesale industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

215 reviews
1.0
4 Sept 2015

Stay far, far away.

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Downtown, cool idea for a company (if executed correctly) free plates, forks and spoons for lunch.

Cons

It hurts to see all these Consultants coming to this company's defense. It should be illegal for businesses like this to exist. The founder, President and (most except for the CFO) executives are incredibly oppressive, abusive and degrading. I'm not sure who has it worse, the Corporate employees who are treated terribly to their faces or the Consultants who are smiled at and praised in person, but then trampled all over behind the scenes. The company has lost over 40% of its employees in the past year, this is a huge indication that something is terribly wrong. Just recently, two employees quit on the same day. The following day there was a staff meeting in which the President asked what he can do to make people happy. Someone suggested recognition. He laughed in their face and remarked 'What, like a certificate? Get real.' It was so bizarre to watch him refuse and laugh at our suggestions. He does not care that he is driving the company into the ground by disrespecting everyone that works for him. The bartenders-turned-executives have been promoted to the level of incompetence (particularly those in the creative department) and have no business being in the position they are in, but will will not and can not ever leave because outside of this company, they have no real skill set and would never find anything comparable. The company is quickly falling apart.

1.0
3 Dec 2014

Just Keep Swimming

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Most employees are nice, normal people. You can make friends with other employees here easily. If you're in the right department, your manager will go to bat for you. The benefits are pretty good.

Cons

Upper management leaves a lot to be desired. It's difficult to manage a company that began as family run and then try to shift to a corporate feel. Procedures seem to apply to only certain people and not to everyone. There are noticeable favorites. There is a tone of excitement among some managers and higher ups when projects go badly. You will be met with smug smiles and frequently reminded that you are incompetent. There is no point in defending yourself because nobody is listening and quite frankly, they do not care. It will be the equivalent of a parental scolding and being grounded for bringing home a bad report card. You will feel awful about it and it will come up again and again in the future. Your job duties may be changed or some even taken away. If a project does go well, expect no recognition or approval of any kind. It will simply never be discussed again. People from other departments will also be sure to tell you what they feel are your shortcomings and how to do your job. There are several employees who threaten to tattle to the higher ups if you answer a question in a way they don't like. This will result in a call to your manager and then a discussion with you about it. Even when you are correct. The pay is not worth the amount of hours if you are on salary. Raises and bonuses are an enigma. Helpful things like training for your particular role are often discussed yet rarely happen. There also seems to be a direct correlation between attractiveness and advancement opportunities. The stress is very high. Everything has to be done yesterday and a response of "I'm working on it right now," is not satisfactory. Things change quickly but the schedule is largely based on the CEO's (often unattainable) expectations and have nothing to do with real time. Things get rushed to meet a deadline but the work can be shoddy. You then get back into the loop of being called incompetent. You will be consistently mentally exhausted. If you have a family prepare to put them on hold for anything related to the company regardless of the hour. Your efforts will never be enough despite logging hours long into evenings, weekends, and occasionally even holidays. Some managers will scrutinize every move you make and others will be so hands off that you have little to no direction and can easily be blindsided by things you weren't even aware of. That said, there are a few good managers, depending on your department. It's true that the consultant's love the company and from that standpoint I bet it is great to work here. For the ones who are in the background and keep the company going day to day - Not so much.

avatar
Pure Romance Response
11y
We would like to take the time to comment about your post as it relates to the leadership of our company. As you know, Pure Romance is a family-owned and family-run company, and for a decade our CEO has worked tirelessly to make this a global enterprise with thousands of satisfied Consultants. He continues to operate Pure Romance in a professional manner, and we expect our Consultants and corporate employees to do the same, whether at our Cincinnati headquarters, out in the field, or online. If you have a legitimate comment or concern about Pure Romance, please confidentially contact Patricia Riegel, HR Manager, at priegel@pureromance.com. Thank you.
1.0
15 Jan 2016

Laughable

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Nice office, free parking, most people were friendly. Seemed to be moderately laid back environment with autonomy.

Cons

Plain and simple a pyramid scheme. No organic growth, growth only comes from acquiring other direct sales party companies or attempting to re-stack the pyramid in other countries, somehow failing to realize that expanding into countries like Australia, South Africa or Germany, all of which have significantly smaller populations than the US will have hardly any impact on top line revenue. The customer isn't the end user, the customer is the consultant who has to buy (or finance!) their inventory. Gross margins are amazing, and it shows, since PR prices are 2-3x that of any other competitor. 50%+ of the product price goes to paying consultants, so they can't compete on price or quality of merchandise, rather relying on the rapid but unsustainable direct sales/MLM model. Most people didn't seem that intelligent, but I guess you can't be too bright if you see your career developing within a pyramid scheme. Narcissism runs rampant, but that is to be expected at a sales driven (& pleasure driven) business. Pretty decent size company operating without any HR department, because HR itself turns over pretty quickly?

Viewing 1 - 3 of 215 Reviews

Glassdoor has 295 Pure Romance reviews submitted anonymously by Pure Romance employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Pure Romance is right for you.