Pros
Sales associates and customers alike share a love of all things cooking. Sur La Table products are well selected for the foodie. Cooking classes are excellent.
Cons
With over 30 years experience in all levels of corporate business, I have never experienced the level of unprofessionalism and incompetence as evidenced by my local Sur La Table store manager. The store manager consistently created a hostile work environment where sales associates were routinely reprimanded in front of both co-workers and customers for no apparent reason. Favoritism was prevalent. Sales associates and assistant managers have been systematically terminated or their hours diminished to zero to force resignation. Management does not seem to understand the concept of teamwork and respect for co-workers and staff. These practices are particularly alarming as the majority of the sales associates and assistant managers have many years of experience in either retail sales or other positions in corporate America. All employees that I worked with had a strong work ethic as well as the skill set needed to attract customers and build sales at Sur La Table. Finally, we were discouraged from addressing any personnel issues with HR, and were not even given access to a phone number or e-mail address to address our concerns. I highly discourage anyone from making the mistake of joining this company as a sales associate or assistant manager.
