On the surface, the stores look impeccable, the choice of dresses off the peg are great and with a long history in the industry boasting 350+ stores the stats are impressive . However, working here does not come without its challenges. The company is money oriented, so, in turn comes a huge amount of pressure. You are targeted on everything. The targets, commission and bonuses are not achievable so commission would be rarely seen in wages. The company are not afraid to frighten employees with their job if targets are not met, with performance reviews a regularity for a stylist who has not hit a productivity target after 4 weeks in the business. Low pay for what’s expected. The staff are over worked and under-valued. Staff turn over is high due to lack of time and patience for training, a lack of flexibility and unreachable targets. There is no guarantee of a full break. The appointment systems are left to easily overbook, causing stylists to be double booked. Stylists are just expected to take double bridal appointments (training on this is not provided) which always ends up over-running, causing anxiety amongst staff and taints the experience for the bride. Therefore staff are tired, over worked and stressed, often leaving late after their shift has ended. There is very little work/life balance.
You are only as good as your last appointment, so if you sell, your a favourite, but if you haven’t sold you have appointments taken off you, which leads to a low staff morale and perpetuates the toxic environment of a fear and blame culture. I worked for 3 years in management and then as a stylist, to some degree a fair bit of pressure in terms of management subsided, but the culture and internal structure of the business remains the same. The pressure just comes down the line from the senior management in head office. You will thrive if you are resilient and are happy not to challenge the status quo. The lack of coherence between US head office and the business in the UK is concerning. Often feedback on this issue would be dismissed. Pay would often be incorrect and/or late in many cases amongst staff in all stores in the UK. Many dresses that should fail QC are sent to the UK anyway, which causes confusion and stress amongst customers, and subsequently, complaints. Staff are told they have to rectify the issue to avoid a negative review at all costs, even being told to ask the customer to remove their review online. IT tickets are left unanswered for weeks. Facilities requests are often ignored even when you have raw sewage spilling from the staff and customer toilets and are trying to stop it from reaching stock. Marketing materials would arrive late or incorrect..for you to be penalised on a store visit if this wasn’t correct…the list goes on. Fundamentally, errors are never addressed, therefore nothing changes. I worked here for 6 years and I doubt things will ever change going forward.
