Pros
Flexible schedule, watches sell themselves, for the most part a quality product. Discount and benefits for Full Time employees are good. Company has incentives and commission/ bonus structure. Overall the job is not difficult. You just need to keep your mouth shut and your head down and sell.
Cons
Just keep reading the reviews and see the whole picture. I LOVE Swatch watches. But working for Swatch has been an extreme disappointment. HR has put restrictions on who can be hired per experience (3-5 yrs retail) but the company has a training program so little experience is truly needed. This makes staffing very difficult since the pay isn't great. You can make more slinging coffee at a Dunkin' Donuts or Starbucks. Pay increases this last year still are not where they should be competively for store managment. New hires coming in at a better rate than existing. DM's say they focus on promoting from within but then turn down associates for promotions saying they are not qualified even if it's just from part time to full time. DM's are unsupportive and only interested in covering themselves when things get shaky. POS system and network a complete joke making it difficult to process transactions half the time because it keeps crashing. System is relatively new to the company but antiquated when comparing to other retailers. Company focuses on KPI's but doesn't change goals or expectations based on the trend of the company. Turn over in management on store level is absurdly high to the point of comical. Never in my vast years of retail experience have I witness such a high rate of turn, whether it be from resignation or termination. Company is too proud to counter offer when losing a stellar employee. Customer service department is ineffective. All problems bounce back into store with no support. There is no examination on the issue, just a "fix it" attitude. This undermines store management authority and breeds a knowledge in customers that if you complain you will be compensated no matter what. The level of micro managment keeps increasing despite the "experienced" new hires. Required to track everything daily from multiple watch transactions, conversion, ADS, etc... but all information is available on the flash report. Most tracking is just extra busy work under the guise of being on top of your business. Virtually no marketing of products in most areas of the country. Switzerland needs to check it's ego and realize the US needs to be reeducated in the brand since it fell out of popularity in the late 90's- early 2000's. Almost feels like the US market is the little unwanted step child of the company. Where are the national commercial spots? Where are the internet ads? Company expects grass roots marketing from customer information capture at store level.
