Sur La Table reviews

Like many retailers, the company is struggling to bring people into the store and having and even tougher time converting those customers into sales. They are looking to cut costs, primarily at the expense of its people. Too much availability is asked of part time employees as more and more hours are getting slashed. Expectations are way too high for the compensation that is offered. Floor lead positions and below are only part time with no benefits or major incentive beyond the store discount. Training is little to none and while vendors are very supportive about coming in and training employees, there are often not enough hours to even have them bother coming in. The corporate culture is seriously lacking and the priorities with accountability are skewed. High quality employees may be fired for trivial matters while low quality employees can get away with murder because they have not been "coached" enough or the documentation is not specific enough. This creates additional workload for salaried management both with unnecessary paperwork and to pick up the slack of their employees who are not given enough hours or training to complete what is asked of them. Upper management is not supportive in key areas and micro manage in others. They want their managers to run their stores, but will micro manage things like simple coaching conversations or the store's cleanliness level. If support is really needed on a higher level you are expected to "figure it out," then are criticized if you do not follow through the way upper management would have. Many customers get away with scams and sob stories with a complaint to upper management and customer service. Return policy is strict but overridden to the point of creating bad tension with clientele and stores. Stores also take a major hit on online returns at a cost to the store's bottom line, often affecting store's ability to hit difficult sales goals and destroying bonus potential. Compensation is also skewed, based on "zip code." Stores located within 10 miles of one another may have employees making 5-15% more or less in starting base wages for the same position. Merchandising is often unrealistic and stores carry way too many skus often resulting in clearance laden wastelands and too much clutter.

Day to day store operations are micro managed from corporate. Executive management seems to have little confidence in the abilities of store managers. Like most retailers it is pay for play but many stores are under staffed because of unreasonable payroll expectations. Store managers often work well past a normal work week to meet the needs of the business. Many new stores seem to be opening in speculative markets with hopes, dreams and wishes for growth without consideration for the reality on the ground. Major markets rely on hiring from the outside for managers because little to no development is taking place from within. Most internal promotions are taking place because people quit or are terminated. Part time staff is under employed for most of the year with the promise of more hours during peak season. Most managers at the store level are frustrated in being unable to provide hours to people who want to work. Stores are required to maintain staffing as it relates to an often exaggerated business goal while keeping most pt employees in the 4-12-24 hours per work week. The computer system is old school and often does not reflect current inventory. Lost prevention is a focus by corporate but store level concerns are often ignored by corporate. In one case a store had its guard removed without corporate informing the management team at that store. Store walk through: by corporate executive and regional managers are sometimes pop visits, usually unprofessional and often demoralizing. The general attitude seems to be wanting to catch the team doing something wrong vs how to help them succeed. Embarrassingly dated management practices with a focus on coaching notes and behavior modifying. The idea is fine but it's sad when smart people rely on a check list to to try and manage intelligent people. It's an inside joke among the the staff when a manager tries to coach in the moment. It's an inside joke among the managers when they write notes to the area/district/regional manager regarding the people they coached. I am sure the joke goes all the way up the top to HR...not to mention Investcorp. Stores follow a mostly mass visual execution with little payroll support to maintain. In most stores managers are working in overdrive trying to keep their store aligned according to visual expectations. Some stores enjoy having a great merch asm that was likely trained by another company.