The Gap Reviews in San Francisco, CA Area

Pros

Proud to be part of a company that prides itself on corporate responsibility

Cons

Because of the size of the organization, there are many inefficiencies

Advice to Senior Management

Consolidate the workforce

Pros

From what I have experienced, the managers at Gap Inc. are very flexible with schedules. I had an injury in Jan 2011 and they allowed me to take off as much time as needed to recover, no questions asked. They were respectful in placing me in stationary areas once I returned so I wouldn't have to walk the entire building while I was working.
Teamwork is very important at Gap Inc. The managers always encourage working together to make a better environment for not only ourselves, but for our customers. This is overall a great place to work.

Cons

With so many employees working in one store, hours per employee are not often abundant, but if you need more hours, the managers do their best to give you more.

Advice to Senior Management

I think the leadership team is doing a great job at Gap Inc. They are very aware of their employees needs and to their best to facilitate them.

Pros

Great people, fun environment at times!

Cons

Horrible crappy business. Some merchants are idiots who think they are holier than thou. Ttoo bad the product is not good and business is terrible!

Pros

You get a great discount on the clothes, and the other sales associates were very nice and friendly.

Cons

Total disorganization and chaos! This is possibly the worst job I've ever had, and I've been in corporate all of my life, in manager/supervisor/director positions. I took a "holiday sales staff" job to earn some money while I am job searching, so I was clearly over-qualified for the job, but thought it would at least be fun to be able to socialize with customers and assist them with shopping. Instead, I have never witnesses a more poorly executed hiring and training process in my life. It was a textbook case of "what not to do when hiring for retail."

Other than watching a 2-hour "training" video, I received no training -- not even on the cash register. The manager never entered me into the work email system, so I kept missing emails telling me to come into work. The only person who ever complimented my work and noticed that I was selling a lot of kids' clothes was another sales associate. But the Gap doesn't pay commission, and the only sales goals I could report was on how many pairs of denim I sold. So everything else didn't count. The store manager was too busy to care, and he stopped staffing me, so I quit. My direct deposit never kicked in, and the store manager never called me to say that he had my paycheck at the store. I had to hunt it down, and it took weeks for me to receive my final paycheck.

Advice to Senior Management

Train your store managers in how to support and cultivate their employees. Store managers represent the Gap brand. Employees represent the Gap brand. Don't ever give any employee a reason to not LOVE the Gap brand! It is the store manager's job (and assistant store managers) to make sure new employees have the tools and training they need to succeed in their job. If the employees don't succeed, the manager does not succeed, either. And be willing to pay to have enough sales associates on the floor. It is impossible to keep the store tidy during "rush hours." After working the Kids' section just a few times, I figured out that the "rush hour" for the Kid's department was between 2pm - 5pm, when moms pick their kids up from school and run errands, e.g. go to The Gap for new clothes. So if I could figure that out after just a few times working there, the managers should have figured it out and added more staff to the Kids' section in the afternoons. This is not rocket science! But, they didn't have the budget for it. So, OK, the store will look like a mess, then.

Pros

Discounts for the brand and other associated companies

Cons

Pay for the job is a bit low

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your reports

Pros

The company wants its people to enjoy working there, and is willing to work with its employees to make sure they have what they need to be successful.

Cons

Working with the employees ends with compensation. GAP is headquartered on the Embarcadero in San Francisco, yet their compensation packages would only look good if they were headquartered in a suburb, or somewhere outside of the Bay Area.

Advice to Senior Management

The best advice I could give to GAP? Move the company. Move it out of San Francisco, preferably our of the State of California. Choose a State where the regulatory environment is not so openly hostile to business. A move like that would immediately increase the job satisfaction of the employees, as NOT working in an area as expensive as San Francisco would mean current compensation packages would be satisfactory. Move the company, and you could save an outrageous amount of money on the cost of doing business. Leave San Francisco.

Pros

Distribution Center Finance is great for young people who are just starting out as financial analysts in a corporate setting. I am learning a lot given that I work with a combination of subjects within Finance and Computer Science/IT: expense close/forecast, capital close/forecast, financial modeling, SOX controls, database management...

Cons

The work is not very difficult, but it can take up a lot of your time in a day. It is very common to stick around for 9-11 hours; 12+ for budget season. Also, management can be difficult at times letting politics get in the way of work which you will find at most companies.

Advice to Senior Management

Working long hours doesn't mean that quality work is being done or any work is getting done. Politics are useful only when you want work to be done in a inefficient manner.

Pros

Wonderful discounts, good benefits, in-house cafeteria with pretty good food. The headquarters in San Francisco had an in-house art gallery focusing on the art collection of the founders, the Fischer family.

Cons

Eat or be eaten. Everyone is very supportive to your face, and will cut you down the minute you turn your back. Management changes often, and that means you will be doing an about-face every time you get a new manager.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat everyone equally, investigate employee complaints and problems, invest in some better IT infrastructure. The current IT setup is a joke - there is no support whatsoever.

Pros

People
Culture
Values
Fun
Rowe
Gap is a family of brilliant people that are really trying to understand what the customer wants to be relevant

Cons

Tough business results for how hard you work

Advice to Senior Management

Keep believing

Pros

Flexible schedule, great discount! Co-workers were always pleasant and management was great, very understanding, fun environment, loved the music!

Cons

No opportunity for advancement, salary sucks

Advice to Senior Management

Management was always great, it's not their fault that at the corporate level Gap kind of blows!