 Guess

Being here most of the time I feel out of place everyone is nice but I just don’t feel like I fit in especially when many times when it’s not busy I’m standardizing replanning SFS etc… whatever we need & everyone is outta their areas just talking it just hurts at times doing a lot of work but never getting credit or feeling like I’m a genuine friend as well. I constantly get the least amount of hours each week a majority of the time less than 4 hours a week even when I asked if I can get more the answer is “there’s not enough hours this week & it doesn’t fit your availability” but I look at the schedule & everyone else has over 14+ hours & there’s so many people who work at times or days that fit my availability but I constantly never get scheduled on those days. I feel like when I do work I give it my all I help multiple customers while helping my team with whatever they need constantly running around getting what any of my coworkers need & helping the best I can & always when I see someone or something needs help I do it asap, but regardless of how hard I work I feel neglected because 90% of my shifts I’m the only person who never gets a 15 min break I even recently feinted after coming home because I was so exhausted & none of the managers bothered to give me a 15 min break but instead had me standardizing running around helping people doing whatever needs to be done. I also feel like because I rarely get hours there’s stuff I need help on like returns or understanding where are the proper sections of the store that I feel like a deer in headlights when I ask for help sometimes I feel like I’m talked down on or made the feel stupid when I haven’t been taught or trained to do any of this. Plus working most of the time only 4 hours & sometimes more a week I have to constantly multitask to not just meet my personal selling goal but to also do the weekly tasks like taking corner stone quizzes etc… that I feel like because I barely work hours I’m expected to do it all in a limited amount of time which doesn’t feel fair because we’re watching videos that sometimes have a duration over 20 mins while I have to make $1,000+ in 4 hours & taking a quiz at the same time & also standardizing+replanning+constantly running around the store getting whatever my coworkers need & half of the time I don’t get the sale credit of the customers I helped because I’m running around helping everyone else & multitasking doing quizzes & watching the mandatory videos & standardizing it just is a lot in a limited amount of time & in the end I don’t even get my 15 min break in 90% of my shifts. I really do enjoy working with my coworkers but I constantly feel like no matter how hard I work I will always get the short end with the least amount of hours even if I’m working here longer than other new hires or I never get a 15 for 90% of my shifts or I’m constantly running around multitasking & I half of the time I don’t get credit for my sales, I guess I just feel neglected working here that even when there’s no customers many times not always but many times everyone is talking while I’m standardizing & tryna get work done (sometimes I am able to join the convo but most I don’t because I get Lectured that I’m not doing my job or that I just am not in their work friend group). I don’t have hard feelings for everyone I think everyone is nice friendly & doing the best they can to try to give fair hours & to work together as a team, but I can’t lie & pretend that I don’t feel like I’m constantly left out & basically an outsider.

I came to Guess as a part-time gig after I had left my other job working luxury retail (I know big mistake) at first the manager seemed chill, and the work environment did not seem crazy so I accepted the job offer. Immediately I noticed red flags (not being given an official first day I had to call). Took weeks just to get me on the schedule, they spelt my name wrong on the schedule and never even bothered to fix it, and were giving me 10-12 hours a week which is not money I can live off of. They would not match my pay from my previous job so I was definitely getting underpaid for my experience and was overqualified. The staff was very mean to me and definitely did not make me feel welcomed there there was only like two coworkers I liked there and one assistant manager the rest of the staff was very mean, unwelcoming, gossipy, and just not classy. Literally one of the managers would straight up start screaming at me to talk to clients in front of the customers which is like #1 no no in high end retail what you do is greet and wait and observe to see if they need assistance, then approach but no they made us pester the clients to the point the clients were annoyed. Huge micro-managing problem at the store I worked at and poor communication among staff. I was harassed about my looks nearly everyday working which is so unprofessional and at times made me feel uncomfortable coming into work. The dress code is sexist and men can wear whatever they want but the females are expected to wear heels and makeup. They were very pushy about sales goals and the sales floor was super sharky managers constantly trying to snake the sales associates to get numbers under their name even though we made zero commission off of it. The amount of times I was accused of "stealing someones sale" was insane. Also there is a huge gap between higher management and the associates the district manager barely even said hello to me which was weird for me because in most places I have more the district managers are more involved. Schedules were very unorganized and always released on the day day of a weekend so I could barely make plans for the upcoming weeks because of it. They would literally just cut your shift early too if business was slow and were very stingy about clock ins/clock outs.To sum up: Stingy/cheap company, passive aggressive/catty management, poor communication, favorites, sexism, low-pay, no hours, and lack of structure.

Typical Work Day: Since I was working at a very high volume mall and about mid luxury line merchandise, my day was a lot of maintaining and replenishing the stock on the sales floor. Although most of my time was devoted to helping customers style themselves and have them walk away with product, and reaching my daily sales goal. 

What I Learned: I can definitely meet a quota and also I am a really good sales person and stylist. I learned a lot from my manager who was a really nice mentor for me. My managers business practices and sales technique passed downed to me has definitely influence my outlook on life and how the sales world work. My time at guess also help me learn how to predict trends, and the many different types of consumers there are out there in the world. 

Management: I wish I could say all my managers at Guess were as good as the Manager that actually took time to mentor me but sadly it was not. Unfortunately I don't even know how they were managers after looking back all these years. Also Management was inconsistent, constantly changing managers and manager at the time was extremely bias between the employees. 

My Co-workers: My co-workers were great. They were very helpful in helping me learn and they were really nice people who I still to this day have a very good friend. Although I know that they are not at this company any more but the people who were there were really great. 

The Hardest Part: The job was very tedious. For those of you who cannot do constant repetition this is not the job for you. Every day felt like the same for closing and I am ok doing tedious and repetitive work, its just folding clothes is not my strong point. 

The Most Enjoyable: The best part about working for Guess was that It totally changed my outlook and style concepts. I was able to take my wardrobe and myself to another level and create an image for myself that I want people to be able to respect and admire. I was also glad that I had a decent manager that cared for my development. 

Now I was there for about half a year or so and I would have stayed there but the pay is really low because its not a high end/luxury brand. But I decided to take what I got from the experience and maybe move into high end/luxury sales position or go back into the restaurant/hospitality industry.

The job is simple and mainly focused on customer service. You are given a daily goal when you show up to work, such as $500 in a 4 hour shift. This can be done by helping customers find the size they need, answering questions, or helping them put outfits together (this is done a lot at this store and can be really fun!). Because it is such a small store, you start to recognize customers and you will find that there are some that will feel more comfortable coming to you for help or only shopping while you are working. You get to really build a relationships with customers and if you are there long enough, you get to see babies growing up, which is a plus. This is all definitely the best part of this job--all the possible friendships!
The hours that an employee is scheduled depend on how well the store is doing as a whole and also on whether or not you are helping the store meet its goals by meeting your own. Employees that help sell the most will receive the most hours. During holidays, the hours available to work are very good and can average to 16-20 per week. During slow months, employees may only be scheduled about 8 hours per week. Your availability also affects this.
Employees DO NOT receive raises. There are no holiday bonuses, and the only way to obtain a bonus of $50 Guess gift card is if the store has met and surpassed its goals for the month and you have been scheduled a certain amount of hours. The only ones scheduled enough hours for the bonus are managers and perhaps one preferred employee.
Unfortunately, the management team has changed a lot in the past years. There are definite favorites and if you are not one of them, you will be stuck in the same position no matter how good of an employee you are. If you are not one of the favorites or friends with the managers, then you will be the employee that finds himself working non-stop, attending fitting rooms, cleaning the store, providing customer service, all while the management team and its friends stay at the registers chatting away, ignoring customers.

All in all, aside from the current 2015 management team, working at the Manteca Guess is great for those with no retail experience, as it is not a fast-paced environment.

This company from my (albeit limited) perspective appeared in many areas to have a "spaghetti-strategy" -i.e. throw it against the wall and see what sticks. 

The modus operandi was to put out fires rather than prevent them. Moreover, there was no formal training for any position, but everything from corporate culture, to essential job functions to daily tasks to dispute settlement was passed down from veteran employees to new ones. Ironically -the only formal training that was *mandatory* was in the performance evaluation system.

This created a "CYA" or "bunker" mentality which made any sort of interdepartmental synergy or symbiosis next to impossible. 

The atmosphere was casual, and people were nice. The office campus is in a terrible section of town but is literally right next to a freeway exit. While the executives had them, the offices I worked in had no windows, so that, for example, in winter it was entirely possible that one could both enter and exit in darkness. The offices were quiet -even though right next to a major freeway. 

The employee cafeteria is wonderful - stylish, great cuisine, and reasonably priced, though the hours were limited, so that you couldn't say grab a cup of coffee whenever you wanted (or needed) to. 

The compensation and benefits package was generous with time-off that accrued per pay-period and "rolled-over". In addition ample "sick-time" was also provided, which was on a per year basis. 

This company has a seriously high turnover rate - and that was from executive management all the way down - though I will say that many of the people at the "lowest rungs" had been there the longest.

Overall, I would say that this would not be a company where one could expect to build a solid career, but would be a potential stepping stone in one.

Overall it was a great experience. I worked my way from seasonal to assistant manager. I got to learn all the parts of the business. Got the opportunity to give customer service to people from all over the world. The majority of the staff was great and fun to work with. I did supply orders. Got to do ecomm orders. Help with inventories. I got to help the store during its remodeling. I dealt with reports on theft and other incidents on the apsis system. I learned quite a bit and grew as well. One thing I did not like was that I only got one raise from when I got promoted to Assistant Manager. Most of superiors of our store/district/region did not really help us too much and felt like they just wanted to get out of Barstow as soon as possible and at times even made fun of the town. What made it to be a strain to go to work and just too stressful on me at home was a certain manager. There were double standards for this manager and always getting away with everything bad and shadey that she did. She did the least of the 3 Assistant Managers and still managed to get promoted to Co-Manager. I got written for being late once and nothing happened to that manager when they lost the store keys for a week.  Like they say it only takes one bad apple to ruin a batch. Once I did leave it put a relief on me. Would I recommend working at Guess?, umm that's hard to say. Every Guess? store I visited outside my store never tried to help me or really talk to me. Plus its a lot of work, I had multiple duties and not that much support. Well with all that yeah I would recommend Guess?. For me it just came down to that person or me and obviously the company was fine with what the other manager was doing(or not doing).

Recently worked at burloak guess Factory location. Horrible management. Our head manager was on sick leave for 2 months. Came back for a few days then quit. The assistant managers that were hired had next to no management experience and had issues with organization and coworkers. They caused a lot of drama and stress in the work environment. Both extremely unprofessional and made the associates uncomfortable and manipulating behaviour. They would stand around on their phones and yell at everyone. After a week of working there I was told to train a new associate even thought I didn’t know much. Overall a lot of stress working here and I found a normal job elsewhere. I got hired as part time and worked fulltime. Upon hire I was told I’d get hired as fulltime as that’s the only reason I took the job. Then after giving my notice at my other job and a week later I was in the system as part time. I got full time hours though. Obviously didn’t want to give benefits. Which is one of the the reasons I ended up leaving. The store in general was unorganized and messy. Upon working I gave my direct deposit and kept getting paper pay checks. Never got direct deposit. Constantly reminding but they didn’t care. Most associates had this issue. Also didn’t get my first pay check for a month and a half. I would not recommend to work at this location. During my 2-3 months of working here a lot of people quit and a lot of new hires. After I gave my notice to leave, head office didn’t know I even left as the managers on duty didn’t tell anyone as I wanted my vacation pay out. Wouldn’t recommend. Only pro is getting a lot of hours, however hours are based on sales so every week I’d have to try to outsell my associates to get fulltime hours as I needed to be fulltime to be able to afford my living expenses.

My typical day at work was i'd clock in and my manager would give me a 5 minute meeting where she'd mention the sales goal for the whole team that day and my individual sales goal. she would give me the update on the fashion trends and any new line of clothing that came out, or any sales or promotions going on. then she would let me know which position i would be encharge of that day. 
    At Guess we werent trained just to be like any other sales associate trying to get as much sales as we can. Guess was hugeeee on fashion and we were expected to keep up and wear the latest trends. our dresscode was: always wear heels, hair styled, wearing makeup, and overall looking very fashion forward and presentable. on the sales floor we not only greeted our guests but were expected to give them fashion advice and show personal interest. Be able to act like the customers were our friends and we were helping them get dressed for a holiday party, engagement party, a red carpet event etc. the hardest part of the job and being on the sales floor was when certain people would just ignore you when you would greet them, because we were still required to find out what that customer needed and was looking for, even though they didnt want to tell us. the most enjoyable part of the job was having fun talking and associating with the customers, and always having something to do. the fact that we were always staying busy never let me get bored at the job. i enjoyed being busy all day, talking to the customers, running registers, or simply standardizing the clothes and restocking.

With declining sales, an increased workload is expected with minimal payroll. A typical day at work consisted of one on one selling with customers while trying to accomplish operational tasks designated from corporate office. Upper management was approachable with issues, however no changes would be made. In store culture has changed over the years with new management. There are fewer opportunities for advancement than when I first started with the company, mainly due to a lack of training & development (this can vary from manager to manager, unfortunately my store manager did not care to train or develop anyone on the team.) As a salaried manager I found myself consistently working more than 40 hours a week. I witnessed all of my co-workers have meltdowns at one point or another from being burnt out.

In store culture can vary from store to store depending on the management. My store in particular had an awful in store culture due largely to the store manager's attitude towards the entire team. Attempts to discuss these issues with the store manager were met with backlash and poor attitude. Reaching out to the district manager and HR departments were met with further backlash from the store manager.

Heavy gossip between stores and management as well.

Hardest part of the job was the excessive hours and overworking of their salaried managers to accomplish tasks because we did not have payroll to do them.

The most enjoyable part of the job..the generous employee discount.

Before working at Guess I absolutely loved the company and the clothing! When I started working there I found out how bad the store culture was among the managers. The managers would talk behind each others backs a lot and they created a very toxic environment. The hardest part of the job was trying to be properly trained but instead managers were too busy trying on clothes and gossiping about other managers and associate's that it made it extremely difficult to concentrate. Certain managers would not work all day and then when you come in they pass all the work on to you. This was the most toxic work environment I have ever experienced and it was only because of the people that worked at this location. Unfortunately if you speak up to the higher-ups they seem to not care and do nothing about the situation. Even though they know the store environment is very poor they still did not try to bring it right back up. I still love Guess clothing which is why I decided to take the job but the job was still stressful due to the lack of hours and there only being one manager and one associate working throughout the entire day. I will still continue to shop at Guess because the clothing is nice but I will never recommend to work there especially at this location. This means more work for you at such little pay. On top of that at this location there are a lot of call outs which lead to more work on the managers but of course nothing was or will be done about this.

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