Pottery Barn Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Pottery Barn part-time for less than a year

Pros – Employees receive a 40% discount on products which was great!

Cons – No room for advancement, no commission on sales although they tracked and listed your sales reports.

Advice to Senior Management – There must be incentives to the employed to keep the job motivating.

Former Employee – worked at Pottery Barn part-time for less than a year

Pros – Very nice sales associates, good rapport between each other, great attitude, no problem, maybe due to no commission at the company. All sales associates complained of management and pay and lack of hours to look at this job as a serious job.

Cons – Much too much attitutude between the managers in turn being in a bad mood to the associates. No one smiles. Almost no communication, occassional intructions at onset of the day, without detail and if you ask for specifics, strong distain. We should be able to read their minds. You never know if what you are doing is the right way or wrong.
 Always late on the weekly work schedules. On call was silly when you never had enough hours anyway, and then have to call at 8:30pm for a 6 am shift.

Hired as seasonal, assuming the hours would be quite full to the 29 hrs before a "full time"position, only to get 5- 10 hours a week. Turns out a few seasonal would get 20 hrs and others 5 hrs. Why hire more people when no one worked as many hours as we all would have liked to. ? . When I would request more hours, I would get less! It seemed as though the more I wanted any explanation on almost any aspect, the less I would get and the more annoyed all 3 managers would have. Had I been told I was being hired for 5 or 10 hours a week, I would have known to get 2 or 3 other jobs.

     I was prepared to take on this employment as a permenant full time position and and I wanted to
 take it seriously as a çareer move. $9.00 / hour, 5-10 hours a week? Really?

Advice to Senior Management – Make sure that managers remember to instruct and communicate to new associates and to tell them to make it clear that they need other jobs as well, unless independantly wealthy.
 There is no point to have daily goals if there are no incentives. A $10. gift card if you sell an entire bedroom set?

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Pottery Barn part-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Wonderful product!! Love owning and selling the merchandise! Majority of coworkers here have worked together a long time and have formed a strong, knowledgable, and supportive team which our customers recognize and appreciate.

Cons – Company culture has changed in past 3-4 years for the worse. Payroll and scheduling are constant issues. Employee stress levels are high and morale is low. It seems that visual standards have taken precedent over customer service. Many times there are more visual associates on the floor than sales associates which is negatively impacting our sales. The store is huge and one person scheduled per department has reduced our job to that of a glorified cashier. At times it is impossible to get out from behind the cash wrap and provide great service that we should be known for. Management is usually
absent from the floor (unless there's a corporate visit) and slow to respond to calls for assistance. GM appears overwhelmed and unresponsive. Some members of management team treat associates and customers disrespectfully. Associate training is almost nonexistent (due to payroll constraints), and this frustrates our customers when they are misinformed or poorly serviced by new hires. I find that i'm frequently apologizing to customers for our shortcomings as a store.
Hopefully, in time, the company will get back on track and focus not only with providing our customers great product and service, but also providing associates with the leadership they are sorely lacking.

Advice to Senior Management – Be visible. Lead by example. Respect your employees. Sometimes a little recognition goes a long way.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Pottery Barn part-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Discounts, clean working environment, upscale customers.

Cons – Terrible management, stressful work environment.

Advice to Senior Management – Learn to treat team members with respect.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Pottery Barn full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Fellow Workers , good discount, good product

Cons – Painting, spackling & heavy lifting are tip of the iceburg, this company is going to work you like a dog. Family flew into town, from across the country, for Thankgiving. 2 days before Thanksgiving they told me I had to fly out to Ohio to help a store get ready for a visit leaving behind my visiting family, my husband and my 3 kids. Even when youre comping by double digits ,above company trend, top 2-3 in your district and meeting measurables DM may decide she wants to replace you with someone cheaper to make net contribution for the year look better and she will "find" things to get rid of you. Its no surprise that store has gone from being tops in district to closing after only one year.

Advice to Senior Management – Dont believe everything your DMs tell you, even the most minor investigating can reveal you are being lied to, next time you may get rid of someone who cant keep her husband from having his high priced lawyer best friend sue the company (though my husband still hasnt given up trying to convince me)

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Pottery Barn part-time for more than 3 years

Pros – discount
co-workers
flexibility
casualness
bonuses through contests

Cons – on-calls
low hourly wages
new employees make more than senior employee
very small raises

Advice to Senior Management – make the weekly schedule at least two weeks in advance, depending on availability most associates should have to work evening and weekends. Everyone should be entitled to at least one weekend off a month. Raises should be higher than .20. Manage fairly and do not have favorites. Follow the rules when handing out prizes for company contests.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Pottery Barn

Pros – Pay was good, sales associates very friendly, customers were easy to sell to, lot's of incentives for selling, they stand behind their products.

Cons – Manager roles are a salaried position so be prepared to work long hours, especially if the same GM is in place. GM was always late, took lots of time off, she was always in her office, on facebook, or talking to her husband, definitely has other priorities other than the store and her team. Luckily for her that store runs itself, customers are very generous in their purchasing habits. Also, its the only company that I have heard of that they can just stop scheduling you because the manager has a personality conflict with you, an abuse of power by GM. If you didn't agree with her, you knew you were the next to be "worked out". DM came to town and pulled sales reports on an associate that was let go and by all records she pulled, there was no way associate should have been let go. Good luck getting days off, even if you have a planned vacation if a "jet trip" gets scheduled during those days it is expected you to forgo any time off even if pre-approved (always buy insuranceon any airline tickets you purchase). GM would deny time off requests for no apparent reasons only to make your life difficult, But in all fairness, if she liked you your job was gravy! Sales tracking is complicated there, computer systems and programs are not intergrated, difficult to learn how to use them. Company still does most of business by fax, no email systems for stores.

Advice to Senior Management – The GM currently in place has you all fooled! Invest in a more up to date computer system. The Jet trips are a joke, if you say you are going to be there, give the team some courtesy and show up! Know that they worked hard prepping for you, give them the recognition they deserve.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Pottery Barn

Pros – Beautiful merchandise, great tips on how to decorate your home and the people I work with on an associate level are great.

Cons – I have been with the Pottery Barn for years and it used to be a place I enjoyed working. I have seen the company change for the worse over the past 4 or 5 years. Every day we hear as associates we need to do more, it is never good enough. Stores in my Distict have started posting the worst associates and just how bad there numbers are. They are constanly cutting pay roll and still everything is required to get done while keeping your numbers up.

It is almost comical to watch when we have a corporate visit. The higher ups walk the store as if it's the first time they've been in a Pottery Barn everyone ignoring the customer and falling all over themselves to please these corporate visitors. We pump at least 2 weeks of payroll to get the store ready for a one hour visit and then it's cut everyones hours for the rest of the quarter. You would think someone would notice the payroll spike before each visit.

There is no chance for advancement and the raises are so small it is encomfortable when they are handed out because you almost want to laugh at the GM.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop the metrics, we are not Nordstroms. Remember the people on the front line and stop taking our hours and give us a raise that says good job. Try working at the store level instead of always having your endless conference calls

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Pottery Barn

Pros – Great customers, a little demanding but expect quality...which I loved.

Cons – On-calls. They control your time without paying you. Oftentimes, sent home early when sales are slow. One CANNOT count on hours. Expected to sell high priced furniture at almost minimum wage. Wish customers would know that salespeople do NOT receive commissions for their hard work.

Advice to Senior Management – As a former employee my advice is more professionalism and less snarkiness. Treat your employees with respect and don't mock them and make faces when things are crazy. At my previous job was awarded for exemplary customer service and professionalism. At Pottery Barn I was mocked by male GM when trying to explain why I was in stock room and not on sales floor. There is a "mean culture" within. I was regularly stunned by "smart-aleck" attitudes of the ASM's as well.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Pottery Barn

Pros – 40% staff discount on all item including sale stuff too

Cons – lack of hours given to the workers

Advice to Senior Management – NIL