It is a good learning experience for beginners, but that is all.
Pros
There are many pros about this job from my time working here. One was obviously the discount that we got. You get what you pay for, so thankfully I can say I didn't pay full price because well it's not really worth that much for a bra in my opinion if its made in China where they probably make it for like a dollar or something. The other pro was my some of my coworkers. They are what made coming to work enjoyable. We all were knowledgeable in the product after a while because well we are around it all day so I hope we would be eventually, so it got fun to joke about it once we got to know each other and come up with new ways to entertain ourselves to make time pass easier. Victoria's Secret is an instantly recognizable brand, so whenever I mentioned that I worked there people were excited and surprised and it made me feel proud to be employed there. Coming from a male's perspective, I had so much more respect for women after working here because I learned what they have to go through. Bras are expensive as hell, and to get the matching underwear to go with them....ouch. Seeing a customer light up when they found out they have been wearing the wrong cup size made my day sometimes, because it makes a tremendous difference or so I have been told by my female coworkers. It's the little things that count in life and making someone happy with the littlest thing can have a huge impact and I loved to see people happy so I tried my best to do so. Most women when I worked there were surprised at my knowledge in bras, and once they were reassured that I actually knew what I was talking about they were open to hear my suggestions and ideas for them. I did as much as I could possibly do as a male associate there, and handed them off at appropriate times if they needed to be measured or such. I learned a lot from working here ranging from customer skills (selling, handling situations, etc.) to how to run a business effectively to a certain extent (There are always flaws, no matter where you go), so for that I am truly thankful. I certainly am not a jaded or bitter employee, it was simply time for me to move on as I had found a better opportunity.
Cons
Hours. Let me first start off by saying that I was hired on part time so I knew what I was getting in to. I had been with the company for two years when I decided to quit. There had been times where I had a lot of hours and then there were times where I had none or very little. My main complaint is that I wish the hours would have been more consistent so that I way I had somewhat of a predictable income. Also, a set schedule would have been nice, not one that changes every week to something completely different and I have to readjust my plans every single week accordingly. They were still hiring on masses of people whereas they had the current staff willing to work more hours but they wouldn't let them so they just hired new people. I understand their reasoning behind hiring a bunch of people and cutting hours for those currently existing, is because it is cheaper to hire a new worker rather than to retain an older one who has been there for a while so they in my mind were kinda hoping all the old ones would quit as a result so they'd have a newer and cheaper labor force. But what I did find funny is that oftentimes the new hires would be earning slightly more than the people that had worked there....funny and insulting. Pay. There has been plenty of discussion on this topic relating to VS so I will keep it simple. For the amount of work that they require you to do, I think you are simply not paid enough here. Overworked and underpaid is a good way to put it. There were days where I worked 12 hours and realized at the end of the day I just earned enough to buy one bra, but wait...that was before taxes were taken out so I was just kidding about working that long and still not being able to buy a bra from there with what I was being paid. Part time vs Full Time. No benefits for part timers but plenty for full timers. Part time employees are offered absolutely no benefits here, not even the option to purchase stock. I have heard of other employers that offer medical insurance to their part timers as well as other options that they can opt into if they want. Working here part time sure does take up a lot of your schedule as they will often schedule you to where it would be very hard to fit in a second job in the day, as they most likely schedule you during peak hours or for hours to where it would overlap into a good starting time for another job. Full timers are treated with a little more respect by management from my personal observation, which is kind of sad and discouraging once you realize it is happening. If you want to be full time here then they expect you to be devoted to them 24-7 and practically have to give up working anywhere else just to be full time here. But once again even though full timers get paid slightly more, the pay still isn't enough to make it a sustainable income for most people so I sure hope you have money on the side or a rich spouse or your parents to fall back on or to make ends meet. It would be nice to see atleast something offered to part timers as a benefit. Management. I do not want to mention too much about management, so I will keep it brief once again because I fear if I say too much it will only lead to a rant, which is not what I want this review to be. Gossiping is a huge problem I have found to happen amongst management at Victoria's Secret. I have heard them openly talk about other employees saying they were too fat, not that pretty, weird, etc. Hearing that as an employee is discouraging because I thought management was supposed to be older and wiser and fair but it turns out they're just as immature as high schoolers but on a more adult level if that makes sense. The manager I had was amazing, super cool and fun to be around. She made coming to work fun and that was one of the reasons I loved my job. Some managers had their perks but others were just plain different. Some were super strict rule followers, whereas others knew that in order to get stuff done the rules had to be bent. Management also seems to pick favorites A LOT which is discouraging to the morale of the team knowing they favor some over others. I also felt like management kept secrets from the employees about the company and how it was doing or news within the company. The best policy I think is to have an open policy, so anything you learn you should let regular employees know as well so that way we know what is going on as well and won't be surprised when something happens and work collectively as a group to fix them. They had an open policy, but only at certain hours and days of the week so not everyone could be heard. Management always seemed to think that they knew what was best, and would sometimes but usually never listen to employee suggestions for improving business. If they did they would often fakely say oh that's a good idea and pretend to care and write it down but just forget about it later.
