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      Sur La Table

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      Sur La Table reviews

      3.1

      42% would recommend to a friend

      (1,057 total reviews)

      Jason Goldberger

      46% approve of CEO

      32% positive business outlook

      Ratings by category

      3.4

      Diversity & inclusion

      3.2

      Work/Life balance

      3.0

      Culture & values

      2.8

      Senior management

      2.7

      Career opportunities

      2.5

      Compensation and benefits

      Sur La Table has an employee rating of 3.1 out of 5 stars, based on 1,057 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Sur La Table employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Ventas al mayoreo y al menudeo industry (3.5 stars).

      Ratings by demographic groups

      Reviews by job title

      1K reviews
      2.0
      Jul 10, 2018

      Get out while you can

      Store manager
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Good discount... that’s about it. The discount used to be better, they would offer cooking class opportunities for employees. Benefits used to be great, by the time I left the insurance didn’t even cover basic birth control. The upper management used to be interested and engaged with employees at the store level. In my last year there I saw my supervisor twice in almost a year.

      Cons

      Roughly 3 years ago they brought in an efficiency consultant and then fired more than 30% of the total workforce. Those who remained were overworked, underpaid, and criminally understaffed. Widespread supply chain issues. Decreasing quality of products in the stores. Essentially the new hiring philosophy became pay the least amount and require the most availability, and fire anyone who doesn’t comply. As a result, fantastic employees were either let go or quit and were eventually replaced with the cheapest warm bodies they could find. As a Store Manager I went WEEKS without days off just to try and keep the store afloat and and keep up with the astounding level of busywork that corporate forced on the stores.

      1.0
      Oct 13, 2013

      Formerly great company run down by truly terrible management

      Middle manager
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      The people in the trenches have good intentions and work hard. You will rarely find yourself locking horns with non-executives; the majority of the staff is trying to make the best of bad direction.

      Cons

      I spent many years at SLT corporate before I finally admitted that upper management was never going to change, and I gave up and left. With the perspective of a year away, here's a parable capturing what the experience was like. In this story, every city is a project, or an operational goal, or a business objective. "VP" is leadership. "Staff" is you. VP: We need you in Los Angeles right away! Staff: We'll get started. It'll be a three day drive. (next day) VP: Where are you? We need you in Chicago. Staff: I'm in Portland. I'm on the way to Los Angeles. VP: Forget Los Angeles. Go to Chicago right now! Staff: Um, okay, it'll be a week or so. VP: You have two days. Staff: That's not really-- VP: Get going! (two days later) VP: Why aren't you in Chicago? Staff: We told you it wouldn't be possible. We're going as fast as we can. VP: Never mind Chicago. We need you in Portland immediately. Staff: What? We were just in Portland. If we'd known-- VP: Stop arguing and get moving! (two days later) Staff: Okay, we're in Portland. VP: Great. On your way through Idaho, we need you to pick something up. Staff: What? We're already in Portland. We needed to know about Idaho yesterday. VP: Go back to Idaho, do the pickup, and on your way, stop in Houston. Staff: What? Houston isn't between here and Idaho. VP: Get moving! And so on, and so forth. If you don't mind being yanked around like this, if you enjoy wasting your time being sent down blind alleys and dead ends by inexperienced micromanagers, if you can handle the realization that the people in charge have literally no idea what they're doing from day to day and are running the business at a blindfolded improvisatory sprint, then have fun. Me, I like to know that there's an actual strategy being followed. I don't respond well to reactionary panic.

      3.0
      Apr 2, 2018

      General Manager

      General manager
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Amazing Product and the cooking school and our customers are what get me going daily. Mt staff is wonderful but only because they like working with our team.. They stay because we have a family here.

      Cons

      Corporate is money hungry and makes unattainable numbers. They are not on the ground and don't understand how hard it is to run a business on 200 hours . They ask us to pay people horrible salaries and expect them to be happy enough to turn out big numbers. Corporate does not let us run our business and payroll in order to actually make the business run well.

      avatar
      Sur La Table Response
      8y
      Hi! Thank you for taking the time to post your comment. I understand change is challenging and we have asked many employees to change the way they approach their business. We're grateful you've assembled a team you enjoy working with and that your customers keep you going. Thank you for 8 years of your service. In the last two years, a cross-functional team looked at the work each store completes; analyzing sales, traffic and other tasks by store. We made some adjustments to our labor model across all stores and reduced some of the task load at the same time. Additionally, In the last 8 years we have opened new stores - averaging 5 per year - while other retailers have closed doors or closed, permanently. We're not perfect and will make mistakes along the way so we appreciate your feedback and take it to heart. Some of our SMs and GMs have been successful in creating a business plan to strategically add additional hours to drive their business and achieve greater sales in the process. Over the summer we launched the Brand Specialist program specifically to support stores with training hours and additional selling hours on the floor. I encourage you to partner with your DM and/or National Director to develop a proposal and a plan for additional labor to drive and measure improved sales.
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      ReviewsSur La Table reviews

      Glassdoor has 1,086 Sur La Table reviews submitted anonymously by Sur La Table employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Sur La Table is right for you.