A great concept in theory but a poorly run company - Store Manager L'Occitane Employee Review

This company is not for the lighthearted in retail. Managers work an average of 4 to 5 hours a day alone. They handle a great deal of tasks and retail operations including shipments alone, while talking care of customers, answering the phone, reading a non-stop parade of e-mails that often leave you feeling overwhelmed and frustrated trying to keep up with such an abundant amount of communication. Payroll is bare bones. They expect you to stay animated, energetic and give excellent customer service on very little double coverage. Part time Employees are only given 20 hours of training, which the managers handle while operating the boutiques. Training is often interrupted to take care of customers which gives you little quality time to spend on actual training. Part time employees are expected to run a boutique by themselves when the manager is off or on vacation. They are not given enough training to handle this responsibility. Managers often spend their days off getting texts and phones calls for help or because last minute changes and communication have come from corporate that have to be taken care of. Your personal time will disappear once you work for this company. Many managers suffer from health issues due to stress, lack of personal life and work balance and feel they cannot enjoy time away from their stores. Part time employees are paid the low end of salary for the expectations and good employees often leave due to lack of promotions and full time jobs. Most boutiques run on one manager and all PT employees. Managers are paid very low salaries compared to other luxury companies. Managers do not receive enough training to start. Also, you are expected to do a great deal of operations paperwork on the sales floor while attending to the needs of the business. Many managers take their paperwork home to complete it with thoughtfulness and no interruptions. Tasks such as floor sets & shipments have to be completed within the allotted payroll given. This company rarely gives extra hours to complete extra tasks. Budgets for events, supplies and extras to help run the boutiques are very small. They expect store managers to constantly partner with other companies for free drinks and treats to have store events. Recruiting is almost impossible with lack of double coverage and you are expected to fill positions fast. They want the absolute best in talent but are not willing to pay for them or give you quality time to train them. If managers want to move up in this company, the only choice they often have is to relocate. There is very high turn over at corporate every year and the IT department is one of the worst I have dealt with as a manager in any company. You often deal with an overloaded and rude help-desk that makes you feel stupid for calling. The company is forcing IPads on stores to use as a POS but the IPads are harder to ring customers up on and they gave zero training to really understand how to work them. Raises are an absolute joke. The company waits until the end of the fiscal year and then decides to change the metrics on which they will review employees. They wait until all the scores are gathered then decide what scores will receive raises. It's the worst review system I have ever seen in a company. Your daily goals are not realistic and almost impossible to bonus. Gratis is very skimpy compared to Lush, Aveda and Origins. Most employees cannot afford the products at 40% off. It's clear the CEO and his retail operations team have very little idea what it's like to work on a daily basis in their boutiques and why the turn over in this company is so high. Also, get ready to have non-stop e-mails and conference calls about pushing Divine on customers. Despite having several great skincare products, this company wants to sell Divine and Divine only. Even if you are selling the required percentage of skincare, they will insist that you sell Divine. Also, most boutiques are built without bathrooms so expect to have tremendous bladder control and stay away from liquids until you have double coverage. Something I'm sure the executives don't have to deal with in their corporate office all day. Until the company wants to take an honest look at how they are forcing employees in the stores to operate and improve the conditions and adopt realistic expectations, this company will continue to leave their employees feeling burnt out, over whelmed and very under appreciated.