Bare Escentuals Reviews

Pros

-Pretty decent starting pay with the opportunity for a raise every year.
-BE becomes family, not only on a store level, but on a district level and beyond.
-You will become an addict, and you really have to be in order to be successful with your numbers here.
-Incredible education. Twice annual seminars plus two day basic training, on top of which corporate sends out new videos weekly about updates with the company, products, etc.
-Excellent discount, 50% for employees and their household/immediate family.
-Swag (we all got pink iPod shuffles, bracelets, compacts, water bottles, bumper stickers, t-shirts, etc).

Cons

-Not much work/personal balance. It's hard to advance if you can't drop everything to pick up an extra shift here and there, one girl I worked with was told her request off for her grandmother's funeral was denied because she "didn't give enough notice". The work environment is small (most stores average 10 employees) so gossip is inevitable.
-My store had a lot of favoritism.
-Expectations for advancement are very unclear, unless you have the right connections.
-Goals aren't realistic. The company expects sales to be all too similar and there are too many metrics to keep track of. Not only do you need to know ADS, IPT, and SPH, but you are expected to have xx% skincare, xx% Ready, and other miscellaneous numbers.
-Bonuses only benefit management and can sometimes harm the potential earnings of associates (hour cuts).

Advice to Senior Management

Please promote based on merit, not who you went to college with or who introduced you to your boyfriend. Pay closer attention to issues brought to your attention--there have been so many things I've seen that, in my opinion, would have gotten someone fired on the spot that have simply been looked over while other more competent employees have been treated undeservingly.

Pros

great leadership, open communication, fair, clean, consistency and regular training.

Cons

if you are someone that is not motivated or goal oriented, this might not be the place for you. seasonal employment is rare.

Pros

The excellent products and the people I worked with directly in the store

Cons

There was a constant change in district managers. The first two were great. The final DM was not exactly honest. She's the first to throw you under the bus in order to save her toosh. She claims she does not remember agreeing to things or making plans. She conveniently forgets entire conversations, even when you recite them in great detail. She made a lot of promises that never came thru, many of which included things regarding my future advancements with the company. She definitely said what you wanted to hear, but never did any follow-thru. The company as a whole was not great at listening to their managers and employees. there is a lot of micro managing/

Advice to Senior Management

Accept responsibility for your mistakes. Be ethical.

Pros

great product, and pay is ok.

Cons

the company and management are so disorganized, and will railroad all over an employee's basic needs to achieve what the company wants to achieve. even the interview process was incredibly disorganized, they just do not seem to care about their employees at all.

Pros

Met some life-long friends, loved meeting great people, makeup is great, hours weren't so bad, and pay is decent compared to other retail stores.

Cons

MANAGEMENT! they do nothing but micro-manage and are more immature than a 13 year old girl. BEWARE, they are catty and do nothing but talk about employees and are awful at managing others.

Advice to Senior Management

START ACTING LIKE A MANAGER!

Pros

Great benefits, good pay, 1/2 day Friday's during summers, and free makeup

Cons

Long hours -- not much work life balance. Promotions from within results in poor leadership and inexperienced senior managers.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to hold managers accountable for bad behaviors and poor people management skills.

Pros

Great gratis, great discount, employees

Cons

Rules change everyday. Too much micromanagement, pressure not just to sell but what is sold. Goals raised everytime your goal is made and raised to unatainable levels. Too much ephasis placed on percentages

Pros

Great environment! Easy and laid back. The customers love the product and Leslie so they are excited about the product.

Cons

A lot of realignment with the districts, so once you get to learn one persons likes you have to turn around and start all over. I had 8 different DM's in 4 years so it was hard to know everyone's personalities and what you could do to make them happy. All the DM's were great except one who almost got rid of a few girls on my team but we were realigned and now they are both store managers, so it just goes to show sometimes it's who you know or who's a## you have to kiss a lot.

Advice to Senior Management

They were all great in my opinion. Leslie works really hard to create that Girlfriend experience for both internal and external customers.

Pros

Friendly environment, great teams, wonderful company to work for, fair work environment, definitely one of the most fun places to work.

Cons

I found that there weren't many downsides to working with this company, perhaps more gratis could be given out. That would make it more awesome.

Advice to Senior Management

Leadership at bare Escentuals, from my experience, is carefully selected to make sure that all of the boutiques represent the girlfriend experience, even with its employees.

Pros

Easy to start, easy hire (just be presentable and clean)

Cons

Nowhere much to grow, very small store, they liked me but I could have done so much more for them than what they were able to offer

Advice to Senior Management

Nothing comes to mind right now but generally being a bigger store would have helped because it would offer opportunities for growth