Limited Brands Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Limited Brands

Pros – Great Benefits
Nice Gratis and product bonuses
Vast majority of associates are happy, motivated young women

Cons – Management staff integrety, consistency, and professionalism is very sub-par
"Customer-centric" culture is not upheld by policies, nor does home office uphold policies that it thrives to implement through store staff - i.e. return policies

Advice to Senior Management – I believe that the majority of this company must function at a very high level, however, there are problem areas existing in decision-making and consistency that are a direct result of emotional rather than logical and policy-based problem-solving. It seems as though there is too much room allowed (especially on a store level) for emotional reactions to take presidence over professional and logical business maintenance. In addition, the amount of power or clout given to store level and district level management has resulted in management's failure to recognize associates for accomplishment andhas also resulted in failure to give associates the respect that they deserve in their workplace.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Limited Brands

Pros – The money is competitive for the Columbus Market and the perks are great.

Cons – Advancing at Limited Brands is all about who is in your corner.

Advice to Senior Management – Leadership would be well advised to stop beating up on everyone if they want anyone to stay much longer.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Limited Brands

Pros – Great learning experience in one of the largest specialty retailers; some very good people working there.

Cons – Lack of work/life balance; lack of caring by upper management; lack of teamwork between groups; can encounter "boys club" in some areas.

Advice to Senior Management – Understand that associates are one of the most important resources in the company, and that people do have other options when it comes to leaving!

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Limited Brands

Pros – The best reason to work for limited brands is to enjoy the great discount. The clothing is great and it is a good way to establish a professional wardrobe at a steep discont.

Cons – No internal growth opportunity. The District Managers would rather keep members of management teams in a role that they have clearly outgrown then promote from within. Empty promises were often made to the management teams.

Advice to Senior Management – Look within your four walls for talent, talent does not always have to be external. If you do not let your team grow in to new roles when they are ready you will eventually loose them to a company who will.

Former Employee – worked at Limited Brands

Pros – Limited Brands always provided a challenging work environment.
There are some good and talented people there.
I worked in the Information Technology area & there was always a new challenge.
By working for a very visible retailer, you could often see the results on your effort. For example in the catalog or web site you could see features and functions that you had worked on, such as gift cards.
The compensation package was quite good for a midwest city with nice benefits such as a forty percent discount.
The user community was very supportive of IT & extremely knowledgable which made them easier to work with

Cons – Many very talented people left the organization due to burn out. No matter how much U accomplished it was never enough. Although you may have earned 27 days of vacation there was never a good time to take it
People had to learn how to say "no".
Once you had become proficient at a technology or system, it was very difficult to expand your area of expertise as you were always needed for that system. More IT functions were being outsourced (off shore) where there was no business knowledge or loyalty to the company.
This makes for a fearful environment for those remaining

Advice to Senior Management – Stop outsourcing IT work, especially off-shore

Current Employee – been working at Limited Brands

Pros – Benefits are good
Locally well known company that looks good on a resume
Discounts on products
People are friendly but watch out when an available position comes up, cause the claws will come out

Cons – No recognition for work performed
Career path is foggy at best, internal associates don't appear to have any advantage to obtaining an open position as one from off the street.
Pay is lower compared to similar positions at other companies.
Promotions are based more on seniority than ability.
Hiring process is too simple and it doesn't always weed out unmotivated individuals.
Due to the large company aspect many associates get away with poor work habits when if they were at a smaller company would've been shown the door in a heartbeat.

Advice to Senior Management – Pay more attention to your employees and pay them what they're worth and some of them might stay around!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Limited Brands

Pros – There were great people who worked their butts off to make the brands successful. It was a great team atmosphere.

Cons – One word..... burnout, burnout, burnout

Advice to Senior Management – The company is turning back into the horrible "burn and turn" reputation as a place to work that many spent a large part of our careers fixing. And you just laid off many of the folks that fixed that reputation.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Limited Brands

Pros – Fairly good benefits, laid back work environment (if thats what you enjoy) and management seems to treat employees fairly.

Cons – Work environment is to casual/laidback at times. Management tends to let people underperform. Serious lack of recognition. Pay is below the average for similar positions.

Advice to Senior Management – eliminiate some middle management

Former Employee – worked at Limited Brands full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Job offered me the opportunity to learn a lot and prepare me for my next professional position.

Cons – Political infrastructure can be difficult to manuever to leverage yourself professionally. Work life balance is questionable.

Former Employee – worked at Limited Brands full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Benefits are great
The company is lucky that VS does so well - it sells itself
Some very nice people work here

Cons – Politics
Playing favorites
Smug & incompetent people in positions of leadership
Backstabbing by co-workers
Management is top heavy (too many chiefs)
Too many employees have worked at this company their entire career, so this is the only way they know 'how to do things'
HR does little to nothing to help - sides with 'the company"
It's not what you know, it's who you know
Ignorance borne from arrogance

Advice to Senior Management – Do some actual managing of people and projects & stop playing politics

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend