sales associate

customer service representative

supervisor

retail assistant manager

sales manager

Anthropologie

Unfortunately, there were many cons working at Anthropologie. I worked as a supervisor on the third street promenade in Santa Monica for 6 months and it was one of the most mentally and physically taxing and stressful jobs I’ve had. 

Outside of the high volume bustle and laborious tasks required 
(I hardly ever took a ten minute break in a 8/9 hour shift), 
I experienced a lot of unnecessary and unusual things: 
Upper management would change my timecard without communicating to me about it and when I brought it up to the Store Brand Leader or General Manager it took a long time for her to come to a solution. It was simply a slap on the wrist for whoever had changed my timecard, which is illegal and unethical and on top of that chastised me for going into overtime. Mind you, this position demanded so much it was inevitable to go into OT sometimes.

The worst of my experience was when I was assaulted by a homeless man stealing in our store. Anthropologie was generally caring about this but I don’t know how much of it was genuine, honestly. I took time off because of the incident and they used my existing PTO for compensation. When I reported what happened they didn't catalog it, press charges or do much really. If anything, the part time associates were more sympathetic than upper management about the incident.
Considering that there were other cases of homeless people assaulting Santa Monica employees, including stabbings you would think Anthropologie would have the sense and decency to have a security guard. Nope, because of my incident they had a security guard for only 1 week.

After that, I tried to transfer to another location. I had to interview at two other stores only to be rejected. It was insulting when the SBL for Beverly Hills said she would call me back to let me know her answer and did not. After waiting a couple of days after, I called her a few times on different occasions; I was redirected to someone else, was put on hold (no one ever checked in) or was told she would call back-she never did. Finally, I contacted my new SBL, who seemed helpful and nice initially and tells me, “The Beverly Hills SBL went with another candidate” that was all. The lack of decency, regard and professionalism from a majority of managers and associates from this company, namely, Santa Monica is astounding. It’s disappointing and shameful too. That doesn’t include my general interactions with a lot of people there. To put it frankly, a lot of the people there were like Mean Girls. That’s not to say they weren’t nice at times but it was outweighed by their crassness. Whether it was personal or not, I treated everyone with the utmost respect, professionalism and kindness. I was new to not only the company but to apparel retail and the supervisor position was a whole other animal. I was learning and it took me a while to get certain things and I asked a lot of questions. That was my guess as to why these people were so impatient and at times rude, cruel and mean. Working there was stressful but I still treated everyone with kindness and respect.

My experience with this company was pretty bad. I wish I could say more positive things but I can’t. The apparel and products are beautiful but overpriced and the employee discount is ok but with Anthropologie, if you wait long enough, everything goes on sale and it’s oftentimes better than the discount.

Ultimately, when I left the company, regrettably I couldn’t give a proper two week notice because I had made plans several months in advance to leave town for my boyfriend's sister's wedding and at almost the same time received an offer that paid more and paid for parking. Another thing, as a supervisor they do not cover your parking-you’re forced to pay up to $25 a day in Santa Monica or walk 20 minutes into the residential area and look for parking. Sometimes when closing late at night (store closes at 9 usually but you get out at 11-12) and it was precarious. That, of course added to the stress.
Since I could only provide a 10 day notice, the SBL made it so I was “unrehireable”

I haven’t mentioned everything that happened while working there but hopefully this is enough to educate and warn anyone reading this. I hope Anthropologie makes the necessary changes and I hope for the current and future employees that it is a happy, healthy and fair place to work. Despite it all, I do wish Anthropologie success.

My apologies for a somewhat brutal review, but I thought it better to be honest. 

Most days are enjoyable if you are alright on your feet with minimal breaks. The clientele is slightly difficult to cater to, but the employees are the true gems! I deeply enjoyed the friendships I made there, and would absolutely consider them life-long friendships. The other managers and I became incredibly close, and were able to rely on each other in and outside of the workplace. However, the store brand leaders (SBL) were barely involved in day-to-day processes, and often pushed their responsibilities onto other managers. The company did not provide associates or managers an outlet to anonymously "review" and report our SBL (other than a theft hotline, to alert home office). Home office does not make the time or effort to connect with employees at the store level -- often times the store would spend a week preparing for their visit, which would last only 30 minutes with our SBL, and then not hear from them again until the next visit (usually once per quarter). Home office would send directives through the SBL that didn't reflect what *actually* happens on the floor, which could be an easy fix, but it seems they don't care about the effectiveness employee experience could have on company policies and conditions. The workplace is moderately flexible, as employees can "call-out" of a shift without any repercussions. 

In order for a sales associate to get any benefits (healthcare, paid vacation, 401K plan, etc.) there is a very difficult application process, even for employees working 32+ hours/week. I had to get "approved" by our regional store director, which consisted of our SBL simply asking them if I could get health insurance. On multiple occasions, they forgot to ask or hadn't returned my emails. I never received an answer throughout my multiple attempts to follow-up. 

In my opinion, this job is best suited for college students who can work for a few months and then can return to school, and for empty-nesters who want to work only a couple days a week. There is very little attention paid to employee development and advancement -- no one can "move up," unless someone quits or is fired, and that most likely will not include locations that are in your district. Again, the friendships were the best part of the job, and got me through a lot of workplace turmoil. 

I worked for this company for over 5 years, at multiple locations, and have seen no changes in company policy, customer policy, employee motivation and perspective, and management communication, etc. I have been significantly disappointed in the URBN company and the issues they have ignored, and will not be working at any of their stores again. Hopefully this has helped with a clear view of their company priorities over employee care.

A typical day at work would go something like this: Generally, you would be cross-trained on every position in the store, such as fitting room, sales floor, greeting, customer service, cashiering, backstock, etc., and you would move around to a new position every hour. I loved this--it kept me alert and on my feet. You didn't get much of a chance to get bored. You also get an hour for lunch, which is really great.

The management was fantastic. They all took the time to get to know the employees, and you could tell they genuinely cared about everybody else who worked there. They also all cared greatly for the customers and the store, and it really showed. They were very easy to talk to and ask questions. They were never intimidating. Even the store manager was a joy to be around, not scary at all!

My coworkers were amazing. Everybody who works at Anthropologie is well-educated, smart, funny, fashionable, worldly, and wise, which leads to some great conversations and some wonderful friendships. They didn't only hire young people either--I was 18, and there were a couple people as young as me, as well as some who were 50! And every age in between. They didn't hire based on age, only on personality and sense of fashion.

The best part of my job, by far, was the work I got to do. It did get busy and sometimes a little crazy, but it was never out of control. I got to help people, talk with some amazing customers, and help all kinds of people find the things they were looking for.

One of the only cons to working here were the hours. From what I understand, Anthropologie pays its employees based on the individual store's profits, so if it's a slow time and profits are way down, you may only get 3 hours of work in an entire month. They'll schedule you for on-call hours where you call in 2 hours before the shift would start to see if they need you, but you are never called in. Whereas, if it's busy (like the holiday season), you could be working a 35-40 hour week. It's sporadic. The dress code was another downside. You had to dress like you shopped at their store. You didn't necessarily have to wear clothes from Anthropologie, but it was encouraged. And no matter what, your clothes had to look like they COULD have come from there. The clothes are expensive, and even with the employees discounts, they are hard to afford.

But overall, I loved working at Anthropologie. I was let go because of my store's lack of profits, but if they asked me to come back, I would in a heartbeat!

All shifts for anyone in management are 9 hours out of your day because they require an hour break for full timers. The work life balance isn't very good and you're constantly contacted outside of working hours with texts or emails regarding incidents at work or finding coverage for employees. Coverage I can understand, but the emails about issues in the store are a bit much and need to be saved for when you come into the building. The most enjoyable part about the job is the variety of personalities you get to work with and the customers who come in, all though some customers can be difficult, as per any retail job. The company values are great but in the location where I worked the values were not considered and the managers disregarded it as something unnecessary,  which I strongly disagreed with. Management was disorganized and didn't hold themselves accountable for things that went wrong, instead blaming it on the newness of certain employees but not making any changes to fix the issues that were ongoing for several months to a year. If suggestions were made, they were ignored, or answered with "yeah I know" but nothing was ever done. There was no proper teamwork from management in the location I worked at which trickled down to affecting the morale. Blame was consistently put on associates who were never trained properly and then put down for it when it wasn't their fault. We were constantly told by higher up managers in the store that there wasn't time to train, but it just wasn't true. I did not work there long because of this. As someone who has worked in management for a long time I believe you need to have the mentality of putting the well being and happiness of your team above anything else, because without them you have nothing, but the management team I was a part of didn't see things this way and it was just not the right place for me. If you are someone who is good at blocking things out when you leave work, this could be a good place for you as it pays well and has good benefits, but if you're someone like me who is very people-first in management you may not be happy here unless you find a location with an already established, functioning management team. 

I worked here as my first job out of college. I first worked as a sales associate, but really desired the job as the display coordinator. The display coordinator (DC) was responsible for coming up with and executing in-store displays for all of our different concepts, and all of our windows (our store had 6 large windows).

I loved this job because I got to work with unusual materials and learn interesting techniques for making some of the most memorable displays for this already infamous company. This job brought me a lot of pride in my work and what I was accomplishing. This was a great job for someone just out of college and burned out by the rigor of studying and sitting at a desk.

But this job was also very challenging. Firstly, I worked from 6am-3pm every weekday. Which meant that I had to get up at 4:30 in the morning to shower, get ready and drive to work. Secondly the turnaround for these displays was very quick paced, and there was no way to accurately estimate how long it would take you to create something. (For example, how do you estimate how long it would take you to create 6 humungous hand dyed poppy flowers with long, green, stable stalks using blueberries as dye that you also have to hand make?) There was a lot of pressure on me at all times to get things done quickly, and under budget. Occasionally I had interns, which was either a blessing or a curse. Sometimes they'd be great, take initiative, do what I said exactly as I meant it- and other times I ended up having to re-do everything they had done because it was not correct or had poor craftsmanship. 

My first ever display, I had to cut 14 4'x8' sheets of cardboard into 1 inch by 8' strips. This hurt my body so badly because this task alone took weeks and I was armed only with a box cutter. My wrist has never fully recovered.

My manager was terrific at her job and I learned a lot from her. Im grateful for my time there and all that I have learned, and learning how to manage interns was very valuable. This job was very challenging, but ultimately rewarding.

3 stores, same culture.  

Outside of NY where the minimum wage will make it somewhat worth it working in a retail environment with lots of physical labor (take-home pay will average about $13/hr so you can support yourself for the most part), the hourly wage for Atlanta, and other stores outside of state-wide wage mandated locations, is $9-$11 an hour.  If you’re looking for apparel discounts, are a bored housewife/empty nester, or have no real obligations, this is a decent place to work.  If you are seeking full-time employment, I would not advise because although you may work 35+ hours a week, you will be exhausted and only receive dollars per hour after taxes.  Also, it’s encouraged to wear apparel that is in season and with the generous discount, after purchase, your pay is still not commensurate with time worked. 

Somewhat elitist culture.  The calling out of suspicious shoppers were limited to minorities, which puts employees of color in uncomfortable position.  After the disclosing of this poor practice and it going viral, the company is doing what the rest of the retail world is doing by implementing new “approaches,” “training,” and “programs,” to “address” what they “did not know” was happing ALL ALONG.

This is a physical job.  You will be returning clothes to their rightful placements in large heaps at a time, so you must be comfortable with lifting.  At times, you may process shipment, so unpacking boxes and and lifted is required.  Sometimes climbing.  

CONS:  Some associates get promoted simply by years with the company and not necessarily for satisfactory employee relations or their professionalism and/or HR knowledge.  It was weird to have young inexperienced gals talk “AT ME” to tell me what I needed to do in order to complete a task.  Most did not comprehend embodying leadership, versus making commands at associates.  You can look up public portfolio of the company, they are doing fine financially.  It has always been known that they pay employees poorly, but still do nothing to address THIS issue.

I was overjoyed when I found out I had gotten the job at Anthropologie after applying ever year for five years. I was eager to get started and get involved with such a creative and innovative and unique company. 
I started right before Christmas so I was thrown into everything head first which was awesome. I learned everything so quickly, with the help of my amazing coworkers. All the girls that I met have been such a joy to be around, made coming to work a lot easier, and have become some of my closest friends. 
I, unfortunately, found out rather quickly that management and associates did not see eye to eye on very many things. While I always respected my managers, I never felt very much support from them. I often felt that I was spoken to in very condescending manners, even after being with the company for almost a year. There were days that it was very difficult to come into work and feel happy due to management and some of their decisions.
The hardest part of this job, as with any retail job, was the customers. Anytime we work directly with so many different kinds of people, there are bound to be a few rough patches and not knowing what kind of mood customers were going to be in on a certain was always a little scary. 
However, the most enjoyable part of this job for me was also related to our customers. There are at least five examples off the top of my head of fantastic customer relations I encountered. The feeling of helping someone find a dress for the wedding they have to attend and having them really love it and be blown away is like nothing I have ever experienced. Even if it is something as simple as bringing them a belt for that dress that they would've never chosen. That is by far the most satisfying and enjoyable part of my work at Anthropologie.

Without going into an entire backstory; this company has a WAYS to go. The complete lack of humanity and empathy was something I knew to be a theme in customer service/retail-based settings; everything comes down to how much $$ is made in a day. However, working on the management team for Anthro made me understand how unimportant we all were and how replaceable we all were.

The continuous manipulation and hidden agendas kept by the Store Brand Leaders and the district, made many staff feel uncomfortable; as if they were walking on eggshells or that we were out of the loop with things going on. It was made pretty clear that as a manager, with vacation/sick time that I personally accrued from working 40+ hours a week, any time I wanted a day off it was questioned and made clear that it was inconvenient; even though as an employee, I had the right to request shift changes and vacation times at the discretion of myself and no one else. It is expected of you to not have a life outside of the store, even if you were a part-time employee.

The overall tone of Anthropologie also made it very clear that there was a specific stereotype of customers that we are to cater to and another specific stereotype that we were to watch like a hawk. It was incredibly tone deaf and put a lot of the team in uncomfortable situations with potential customers. 

Should there ever be an escalation with an unhappy customer, you will not get any support. To the point where most times you are brought back to an office and gaslit into thinking you caused the issue. There is no morality to being an employee there or integrity; you are not valued as an employee, you are there to make their store attractive to those stereotypical customers.

I worked at Anthropologie for six years, where I had the opportunity to grow as a merchant while working alongside incredibly talented, creative, and driven people. The brand has a distinctive point of view, and it was rewarding to be part of developing products that customers genuinely loved.

The pace is fast, the work is challenging, and I gained invaluable experience in merchandising strategy, product development, assortment planning, trend analysis, financial planning, and cross-functional collaboration. It was an environment that pushed me to think both creatively and analytically, and I developed skills that continue to benefit my career.

Like many retail organizations, work-life balance could be challenging during peak seasons, and priorities often shifted quickly. Career growth and leadership experiences could vary depending on the team and manager, and more consistent communication and employee development would have made an already strong company even better.

Overall, I’m grateful for my time at Anthropologie. I left with meaningful experience, lasting relationships, and a deep appreciation for the brand. I’d recommend it to someone who is passionate about retail, loves solving complex business problems, and thrives in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.

Upper Management at this particular location is less than desirable to work for. As people, the managers here are nice people. However, as actual business operators and people managers, there are countless opportunities. There are a few good ones who truly care, but based on the complaints I heard, there isn't much support in terms of positive traction from upper management. One of the largest is the misleading communication among leadership to its employees. During my time with Anthro, I witnessed seasonal hires go without ANY hours during the holiday season for weeks on end to the point where associates didn't even know if they were still on the staff or not. Mistreatment of associate development and favoritism are frequent issues at all levels at this location causing a direct influence on the morale of the store. I don't believe there is a lot of investment in the associates as assets to the store, rather, they are treated as labor hours to fulfill a schedule and often sent to the sales floor without the proper training and product knowledge (aside from their onboarding New Hire Orientation program of how to punch in and out and break schedules). Oftentimes, associates were just told what to do instead of being trained properly to be more autonomous and self-driven. Many associates, after being hired on for weeks and months, didn't even know who their GM/Store Manager was. Overall, the morale in this store is very low and the turnover rate is very high as witnessed by their constant need to hire, but ironically once hired, there are very few hours available. I still believe Anthro is a great brand to work for, but this particular location has a lot of managerial and communication issues that go unaddressed.

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