Pros
-Working at Bath and Body Works is a fun, friendly upbeat environment -store manager and DM are open to communication and suggestions and always are there to answer questions -Great flexibility with scheduling as long as you know well in advance( unless you are part of the management team) -40% discount for SM and CM at Bath and Body, Victoria's Secret, White Barn, etc. -20% - 30% discount for associates depending on length of employment -samples of select items given once in awhile, TONS of promotional contests and drawings to win product (associate eligibility only on most contests -- great for store morale though!) -Great place to work if you are looking for a part time job while in college or to get out of the house if you're a stay at home mom or retiree and are only wanting to work a couple times a week (shifts run from 3-5 hours and you will usually only get 1-3 per week depending.) - great room for advancement within the store to a sales leadership position - access to seeing semi-annual sale items in advance
Cons
-Chaotic work atmosphere most of the time due to high traffic of customers, -Lots of black out dates due to the high traffic at holiday -- more than any other retail store I've worked at -Communication from top of company down is inefficient... email is recieved on a daily basis in the morning from HQ with CONSTANT changes. Sales change almost daily which is normal and to be expected, but store floorset decisions get made in advance,as well as decisions applying to other aspects of the business and then get changed last minute. This happens on an almost daily basis it seems. -From an associate perspective, it is not a job that will pay the rent, but it's fun and easy work -From a management perspective, be prepared for a TON of hard work. It is an expectation to excell in what you do at Bath and Body, and at times this is difficult because you will be given an overwhelming amount of work to do with little preparation and a short time to accomplish it (this doesn't vary from store to store, it is corporate directed) -scheduling system is automated, but has to be edited by the SM or CM due to MAJOR flaws in the system, also accessing the system from home may give you different shifts than what it actually is - Full-time SM and CMs have set shifts they are required to work and certain days off, this can be difficult if you're needing time off - Management at the corporate level will schedule last minute floorset changes with little regard for associates (ex. Christmas Eve Floorset --- after mall is closed early for the holiday so employees can be with family, as well as one last Easter when the mall was closed) Upper management at the store level has little to no flexibility with scheduling as stringent directions are given that floorset must be performed at that specific time. - associates are left dangling frequently and uncertain of their hours due to on-call shifts and required cutting/ and or lengthening of shifts based on business of store (but due to changes there are often hours to be easily picked up if one doesn't mind getting asked last minute) - as with any other retail job, expect to put up with pain- in- a$$ customers -- customers who don't have internet and leave their house once a year to buy lotion will yell at you because their favorite scent was discontinued 5 years ago and they just now realized it. And it will be your fault that they have not entered to 21st century and bought a computer, clearly.