Pros
- GRATIS is very generous IF you are in leadership or elevated roles. - You establish great working and personal relationships with coworkers and brand partners! It’s a great way to network and meet awesome people. - 20% discount on brands sold in store, and 40% on Sephora Collection. - Brand training and education is exciting and informative. I worked at the flagship location which may explain why we had better trainings, brand founders would take the time to come in, etc. this varies from store to store. If you are in a lower volume- you will not receive the same treatment as higher doors. - with the right management, you will advance in your career.
Cons
- GRATIS gets distributed unfairly as said above. Some people have been known to never receive their gratis (I.e. favoritism). - work life balance does not exist here. There is a new availability policy which has caused SEVERAL part-time partial employees to lose their benefits because they couldn’t commit to the new agreement that was implemented this year causing several employees to either quit or become part-time (without benefits). - This company violates many major labor laws (a lot of the people they hire are young and naive). A co-worker quit, because they refused bereavement for her grandfathers funeral (I understand state laws differ on this but this in my opinion lacks sympathy and compassion as a company who wants employees and clients to be fearless, etc). - Pay rate and appraisals are ludicrous here! It’s a billion dollar company where you are expected to go above and beyond your pay rate/role, but are paid the bare minimum. As someone who worked their way up to management, I can attest that even my climb up the ladder did not benefit me much. My pay raise with each promotion was GARBAGE. - If your resume is impressive, good. It doesn’t matter because your experience and pay rate will never be matched. - With external hires joining the company, it has become a remake of MEAN GIRLS- only with unprofessionalism and the inability to run a business properly. The store directors and district managers are not here for you, and do not care whether or not you grow within the company or how tenured you are. You are expendable, so remember that when you accept employment here. - Racially profiling customers/clients happen way too often here! Even as an employee/former employee shopping at other locations, I have been uncomfortably watched and followed but quickly changed when I inform them I’m a manager at another store, lol. This shows that hiring and training is done poorly! - The “We Belong” campaign about inclusivity is a way for Sephora to pull their heads out their butts (sorry not sorry) from all the trouble/bad publicity they’ve been in. - FYI, if your color matches suck, it’s because employees always call out, and other workers are pulled from their worlds to help aid in color/skin worlds. Most of the time, they are cashiers who have received no color trainings (hence why the color matches are off). - corporate employees rarely come from working in stores, and never take feedback from in store employees about things that do or do not work. - organized retail crime is a real scary thing here, and if you do not “client service” them- you risk getting in trouble for “not deterring theft” even if you risk getting physically or verbally assaulted. These are criminals- do not approach these types of people! - with the wrong management, you will be left with no advancement or placement.