Pros
Creative freedom, working with guests is fun if you like fashion.
Cons
Tight with payroll, compensation, employee appreciation, anything that costs money. Please stop being such tightwads! It is impossible to hire sales leads when I can only offer them $9 an hour and they are making $10+ at their current employer as a salesperson! And $10 an hour for assistant manager? Come on. I’ve lost so many good candidates because of low compensation rates. It makes it nearly impossible to fill a position externally, so you are out of luck if you don’t have an internal ready or willing to be promoted. And it is impossible to receive help if you are short staffed with management due to costs of travel and accommodations, even in a 911 staffing situation. Also, the health insurance is deductible only- no copays. What a joke. Lower volume/older boutiques are ignored when it comes to remodels. Older boutiques look outdated. There are chunks of wall breaking off in my boutique but being able to receive a remodel and have your boutique actually look like it’s from this decade is basically a popularity contest. Store Managers are required to work at least 42 hours a week, which means choosing between staying until almost 7 PM on days you open or coming in at noon or earlier when you close. Work-life balance is nonexistent. Which I wouldn’t mind as much if I were earning a competitive wage. Lower volume boutiques don’t get payroll hours for many tasks. Product allocation has serious issues. We will often receive fixtures or product needed to execute a visual set days or weeks later and merchandise is often broken in freight. Visual guides and sets are given using fixtures, tables, and cabinets from the new style boutiques that the older boutiques don’t even have! Very few acts of employee appreciation. Virtually impossible to move up to a District Leader role. Markets are saturated and the company keeps opening new boutiques instead of investing in their older ones.