sales associate

retail sales associate

specialist

regional sales manager

beauty advisor

Dillards, Inc.

You are paid weekly, but it's a draw against commission. This means you're paid hourly, but that is a pay advance to you on a weekly basis until you get to the end of the month, and they deduct what they paid you for your hourly wage from your total commission earned. 

[Ex: You make $2800 in commission. Your weekly checks add up to $2500 for the month. $2800-$2500=$300 You get $300 in commission after the end of the month.]

If there's still commission leftover, you get paid that after the end of the month. If you made less than what you were paid hourly, you are now in a deficit. This means if you were paid $1000 more than you earned, next month you have to make an additional $1000 in commission to break even. If you can't do that, they drop your hourly pay for a while to pay it back. If you still can't do it, you're fired. 

Even though this is entirely commission based, the expectations to do things aside from selling shoes is still very high. You have to unload and stock shoes in the back when trucks come in. If it is slow, you should be dusting or cleaning. You have to connect with customers via call or text every week. Considering you have to surpass a quota to make enough commission to earn more than your hourly wage, expecting tasks to be done off the sales floor is a little ridiculous. You can also expect to be nagged by management if you can't get enough credit card applications, written up if you get through a month without a credit application, and ultimately fired if you make it through two months without one.

Management is a huge issue in itself. I am not talking about each department manager, but the store manager and assistant manager. It is all very political. You can expect them to ignore complaints and only step in when it is in their best interest. If you are short-staffed (which you likely will be with the impressively low retention rate), then extra hours and tasks will be thrown onto you without warning, or even asking if you are able to do it. Management doesn't care if you have coverage or are left alone, unless a customer makes a complaint. They don't care if you have a whole truck piled up and nobody to help get it done. They only show up to help if they know higher management or the owners are coming for a visit at your location. At best, they will show up to complain about how it needs to be done.

Visits are a nightmare and happen far too often. This is the only place I have worked where owners and higher management make frequent visits, and even worse, decide to change things everytime. As soon as they catch wind that a visit is happening, all management is scrambling to get everything perfect. Managers will be walking the stock room and the sales floor, asking you to do menial tasks, and advising you to check to make sure your aisles in the back have no mistakes.

What higher management positions actually do aside from visits is beyond me. During visits, they often don't even check the stock room or walk the shoe sales floor. All of the managers follow them around for the duration of the time they are there. If you have a problem, you will be brushed off and told to come back tomorrow after the visit. The last visit we had, one of the people visiting made our schedules. Several departments had complaints about it. People were scheduled for overtime who could not do it. Essentially, more employees were upset and worked anyway, or just called in. When a colleague approached the assistant manager regarding the scheduling issues, he responded with, "We will talk tomorrow".

As far as schedules go, you can expect to work open to close everyday you are scheduled. You will not get shifts where you get off early or come in later in the day. You will not get weekends off. The only day you have a short shift is Sunday because we are only open until 6 PM. You cannot take a day off from mid-October through December and will likely be told you will have to work 6 days a week. (You also do not get paid time-and-a-half for overtime because you are a commission employee.) You will be told that if you call in on mandatory holidays, you are "running the risk of being fired".

Another scheduling issue is they have a quota for how many hours are scheduled for the week. This means if there are not enough associates, they will schedule you more days to make sure hours are scheduled. Even if they tell you that you are off specific days, they will add in hours for those days as a workaround for scheduling more hours, which just looks like you didn't show up for work. In addition to that, if you need time off and ask for it ahead of time, only to find out that they won't allow you to take that day off because of whatever minor holiday, you will be told they have to schedule everybody to work. Rather than give you the day off, you will be told to "just call in" by management. This quota for hours scheduled means there are also days when too many associates are scheduled. If it's a slow day and five people are scheduled, nobody is making enough in sales to earn commission. On days like that, you dig yourself farther into a deficit. You will also have management breathing down your throat about reaching the sales goal for your department as if you control how many customers come in.

Everytime you are late or call in, you earn "exceptions". You get these when they fiddle with the schedule on your days off, as well as on days you gave notice and they told you to call in. Even worse, they will say they are unexcused. As a matter of fact, most reasons for tardies or absences are unexcused because they don't excuse them with doctors' notes, for bad weather, for car accidents, or for illness, even if they tell you not to come in (for example, COVID-19).

There is no appreciation or opportunity for advancement. You are treated like a number for credit applications, hours, and sales. If that wasn't already dehumanizing enough, if you have any issues, management acts as if all of the shortcomings in numbers are the associates' fault, regardless of foot traffic, markdowns, or over-scheduling. If you exceed your goals, you will receive no compensation or appreciation. You will just be expected to do it again and again. If you want to contact human resources, management will do anything in their power to make you go through them. They will avoid giving you any contact information for human resources, and will ask how to fix your problems without going to HR. Even if you do express your concerns, they will not offer solutions.

Management complains about dress code almost nonstop. The biggest issue among associates tends to be footwear since you are on your feet all day. Because of this, many associates have doctor's notes and special needs to deviate from the footwear permitted in the dress code. Even if you have a doctor's note, they will question you about your condition and how long you need to wear different footwear, as well as complain about color choices and styles.

Another issue is how hot it gets inside the store. You either have to wear a dress or skirt, or three pieces if you are a woman. Men are required to wear a shirt, tie, and pants, as well as have a jacket. With all these layers and running around, it gets very hot, even in the winter. The air conditioning cannot keep up with the front of the store with all the lights, windows, and customers going in and out. Associates have passed out from the heat, and customers complain constantly. Management doesn't listen. All you can do is suggest customers make a complaint, but complaints still have not brought change.

If you want to be overheated, overworked, underpaid, and micromanaged by people who do not even know how to do your job, then this is the ideal work environment. If you are seeking anything else, save yourself the frustration and apply elsewhere.

I worked in the lowest revenue department and transferred to the highest, most demanding department. I have three points for you: Sales, pre-sales, and credit cards.

It's a female dominated company, men are either managers or special salesmen for certain areas like menswear and accessories. If you are friendly with your immediate supervisor your shifts can be enjoyable, but the competitive sales culture is pretty rough.  The days consist of an opening and closing shifts for full-timers, part-timers in the mid shifts to cover for lunches, which are an hour. You'll make displays according to your department, dress mannequins or tables or shelves with product, following a guideline from corporate every month. You'll maintain the floor, clean and order the stockrooms, mark down prices and set up special shelves on sale days with clearance.  You are ALWAYS standing, you never get to sit unless you're off the clock.

 There are discount sales at the end of every month, and those are big days for the Dillard's membership cards. They want you to sign up a new person every week, ideally every day, but ESPECIALLY on the discount weekends. If you are not signing up enough people for these credit cards, you are a problem in their eyes. It doesn't matter how well you do on the floor, how well liked you are...all that matters are your sale numbers and how many credit cards you 'sold'. They make you to take a special class if you have not done enough of them. I will also say, if you don't have a full-timer around to train you, your manager is not going to do it. 

There's a steep learning curve if you don't jump right onto that "used car salesperson" mentality. You are expected to gather your own 'clientele' or customer base that come here to shop exclusively with you...even if you are in a department that doesn't cater to that kind of shopping. (Watches, bedding, lingerie) Competition among the employees get personal if it goes on for too long. The older women who have worked here for years have their regular clientele, but they are either really great or downright rude. I've seen intimidation towards the new hires to make sure the pecking order stays in place. Like I said, microaggressions. No one wants you to get in the way of their sales, and that's the bottom line.
  
Pre-sales are a promotion for a new product that hasn't arrived yet....so you need to get your customers to reserve their sale.  It gets so bad that employees would use predatory tactics on coworkers on their way out the door, to get those pre-sales. If promotional pre-sale goals were not met, management made their displeasure WELL known. Sales associates who didn't meet their goals have been marched through the store and up to the manager's office for a lecture like a public shaming. There was active hostility during these pre-sale events, with stressed-out employees resorting to buying merchandise themselves to make the numbers.

Now, your quota is an amount based on your hours and your rate of pay, and if you don't meet that every single day, you will accumulate a 'deficit' that continues to increase your quota.  Every time someone returns a product you sold to them, that is added to your deficit and you have to make that up by the end of the day, on top of your daily goal, even if you already met it. This means in certain departments, one single return could put you down hundreds of dollars for the rest of the week, or longer. You're constantly doing the math.
While I worked there, many associates actively operated with a negative deficit because it was literally impossible to make the numbers back.  If you did really well this time last year, no matter how empty the store is, you still need to make that number. Every month you feel like you have to outdo yourself in sales until the numbers become unmanageable. If you're in a department with clothes, makeup or accessories, this is easier to do.

The owners visit the store once a year, and everything needs to be perfect for those visits. There are two brothers and a sister, the Dillard's heirs, and they might as well be imaginary because they spend two minutes in each department then they leave.

Management actively discourages you from shopping on sales weekends, as if you were not worthy of taking advantage of the discounts. (It's because of your employee discount, which is only about 15% I think). Staff were not allowed to shop on our lunch breaks during one of the biggest sales of the year, but once management realized we were not meeting the goal for the day, they changed their minds.

I have also personally listened to some very close-minded, sexist, and racial things said by staff. The hierarchy is exclusive, unless you make this store a lot of money, and even then, it's about loyalty, not job security. 

Now, if you're outgoing, you really love talking to people and you love being involved in every single aspect of your department, this might be good for you. This job is not for soft people. The hour for lunch is what really made me stay, and a weekly check was great. There's new things coming each season, the departments look beautiful when it's clean, and at Christmas time this store is truly unrivaled. There's camaraderie if you can establish yourself among your coworkers. Your department can be your team.  If you remain in good standing, your reputation will speak for you, and you will get opportunities for advancement. Guaranteed on busy weeks you are pushing 40 hours as a part-timer, with my holiday hours as a full-timer averaged at around 60. Holiday hours at Dillard's are some of the worst I have ever experienced in 10 years of working retail. I had genuine pity for the dock workers.

 
Finally, the nitty gritty: at my location, we had a problem with locals peeing in the fitting rooms. The carpets were never replaced, just shampooed. Theft was a huge problem, and the security would either show up late or not show up at all when called. They also don't train you well on how to handle that. The store would hold big things at full price for months, only to drop it down to clearance because it wasn't selling. Despite their façade they WILL put up with a lot from a person they can rely on for sales and clients. There was a male associate who had an affair with his co-worker, it was blown out of proportion throughout the store, even addressed in a staff meeting.  He kept his job. Shortly after I left, a man came into the mall with a gun and cops shut down the entire area. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
The best part of the job was the people I worked alongside in my department. I formed great connections with my coworkers, and we created a really supportive and enjoyable environment together, which made a big difference during busy or stressful shifts.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The most stressful part of the job was the level of pressure surrounding sales goals and credit card metrics. While a sales driven environment is expected in retail, the constant pressure and fear of consequences, such as a decrease in pay or even losing your job if goals weren’t met, made the role feel consistently stressful.

In my department, there were also frequent events with additional targets, which made it difficult to balance both event-specific goals and daily expectations at the same time.

At one point, performance indicators were displayed on employee name tags in a way that was visible to customers. This created uncomfortable situations and felt more discouraging than motivating. Overall, the expectations and how they were communicated made the environment more high-pressure than it needed to be.

Additionally, interactions with the store manager added to the stress of the role. While some leaders were supportive, the store manager’s approach could feel distant and lacked direct engagement with employees. Interactions often felt more critical than constructive, which made the environment feel tense and uncomfortable.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment can vary a lot depending on the time of year. During slower seasons, the pace is much more relaxed, and there is time to focus on tasks like cleaning and organization. However, during peak retail periods such as holidays, the environment becomes extremely fast-paced and high-pressure, often feeling understaffed and overwhelming.

The culture is very sales-driven, with a strong emphasis on meeting quotas and credit card goals. While this is expected in retail, the level of pressure can create tension, especially when employees are not meeting their targets. Performance is tracked regularly, and falling behind can lead to uncomfortable conversations, which contributes to a sense of being constantly evaluated.

At the department level, the environment can be very positive. Many coworkers are supportive and work together to help each other meet goals, which creates a strong sense of teamwork. However, that dynamic can be impacted by the competitive nature of sales, and at times it led to tension between employees.

There are also frequent sales events and additional expectations that add to the workload, making it challenging to balance event-specific goals with daily responsibilities. Combined with long shifts and limited work-life balance, this can make the role feel demanding over time.

Additionally, interactions with the store manager contributed to the overall tone of the environment. At times, these interactions felt impersonal and lacked direct acknowledgment, which could make the workplace feel more tense than supportive.

Overall, the culture is highly performance-focused and can be rewarding for those who thrive in a competitive, sales-driven environment, but it can also feel stressful and demanding, particularly during busy seasons.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
A typical day can look very different depending on the season. During slower times, the day is more relaxed and involves maintaining the department, cleaning, organizing displays, and helping customers as they come in. There is usually time to stay on top of tasks and work at a steady pace.

During peak seasons, such as holidays, the environment becomes much more fast-paced. A typical shift involves constantly assisting customers, moving between multiple tasks, and trying to keep up with demand, especially when the store feels understaffed. It can feel like you are moving nonstop throughout the shift.

In both cases, there is a consistent focus on sales goals, including offering credit cards and meeting daily expectations. Shifts are often long, typically covering most of the day, which can make it difficult to maintain a strong work-life balance over time.

During my time with Dillard's, I worked under two store managers and three ops managers. My first manager was somewhat inattentive to his responcibilities as a manager. However, that being said, he was always kind to me and often would tell me how much he appreciated me and that I was doing a great job. He was released from the store for misconduct.The ops manager was over-bearing, dominating and threatend me. She was ultimately transfered to another location as a repremand to her behavior. She was replaced by a woman from a near by location who I must say is the finest manager I have had the opportunity to work for in all my 30+ years. I would work for her again. She was transfered back to her other store as the store manager. She was then replaced by a woman who had been a territorial merchandise manager. We worked very well together. She treated me well, like a friend and trusted me with extremely confidential information and proceedures. The new store manager who replaced our terminated manager was by far the worst manager I have worked for. He was demeaning towards me. Often put me down and used intimidation to push me around. I went from being happy to be there to wanting to cry every day I left for work. I am an individual with some physical challenges needing to be in a seated position so the job as secretary suited my needs. He wanted to put me on the sales floor. I had requested a chair that would meet my needs and was told no, that maybe I might leave my position and the next person might not like my choice of chairs. I finaly got my own chair only to come to my desk to do my work only to find one of the ASM's sitting in it. When I requested help with lifting heavy objects such as archival file boxes, I was told I would have to do it myself. This man was not this way with just me. He was rude, intimidating and very unkind to other individuals with physical and health issues. Senior individuals who had the work ethic of their generation were often over-worked while the new-comers got away with not pulling their weight. Many times the women who worked in Customer Service worked and 8 hour shift without a break, including bathroom, at the peak of the shopping seasons. Further, they were told they could not have food or drinks including water behind the counter, and yet management would bring in pizza during these events. Never taking in account diatary needs. An individual who's stature was all of 3'5 was put in the shoe department. He was injured twice and was told if it happend again he would be terminated as a liability. A senior woman injured her knee and needed to go to the instacare the company used to have it examined. She was told she had to get there on her own. She could not drive. I took her and was repremanded for it. They did not want to pay me for my time away. I had to insist on it. Another associate fell on a clear plastic piece of hanger on the marble floor. He didn't offer to help her, but rather teased her about being graceful. She did not file a workmans claim. She said that that is not what one does to ones employer. That if you did, they would find ways to terminate you and you would loose all your benefits. When I took these issues to my managers supervisor, I was told that I was probably mistaken or misunderstood the situation. I got to know roughly 1000 people during my time there and knew them all by name. There are many who are still my friends today. I cried when I lost many of them to quit, termination or the INS. I loved what I did there. I miss that job. I capped out in my salary at $12.00 phr. I needed more. More money, respect and dignity. I least enjoyed dealing with the shoplifter issues, particularly when I had to stand in with the suspect while she removed the clothing. I LOVED MY JOB. WISH I WERE STILL THERE. The favorite manager I had as an OPS manager is there now as the Store Manager replacing the last manager I worked for who was transfered out of state.

Working at Dillard's was an interesting experience. I would like to begin with the structure of the job itself. Your day-to-day is the exact same thing every day. You must sell and reach a specific goal called the SPH (sales per hour). If you don't, you're in the red and the manager(s) will talk to you about it at the end of each month. Not only that, you must also maintain a good credit ratio (amount of credit cards you can get people to open per every 40 hours you work) If you sell a great amount, congrats! You get mentioned in the top 10 in the morning meeting. If you open a credit congrats! You earn employee points and can get cash for those points or even a day off. 

What I am about to explain is not a manger issue I believe it's more of an organizational business-wide issue. 

First off, to get the employee discount you have to apply for the credit card (already a big red flag) and it's only 25%. They have employee "double" discount days. In reality, its not double its only 40% instead of what you would think... 50%. 

The pay is pretty good for some of the new hires. They got paid within 16-23 dollars an hour. It was sad to hear some of the employees that had been working there for 10-20 years were barely making 20 hourly but you have new hires that are already going to be making nearly 20.

Dillard's does not get the same amount of business it did 10 years ago. Employees should not be "punished" for that. I say punished because when a customer returns an item it really does make a large impact. I will use a real-life scenario from my experience:

I sold a necklace along with a few other items on a busy Saturday ($550 total). The next time I worked on a VERY slow Monday and the customer returned her items back to me/my department. Because I sold them, I was then in the negative sales because it had been very slow and it was nearly impossible to recuperate from that return. (I had to start my day in the negative $550 sales and try to dig my way back out only to end the day with $40 in sales AFTER recovering from the $550) So yes, returns do count against you if you sold something, and they affect you GREATLY.

A funny thing I noticed is that in orientation, the video modules show that Dillard's is comparable to Saks Fifth and Nordstrom when it definitely is not. At least not this specific location. The business here is just gradually dying and management/higher-ups are trying to fight to keep a crowd. They continue to over schedule the departments on some days so there could a fully staffed department but only 3 customers looking around, so then its a constant competition/battle between the associates to try to lure that customer their way because everyone is fighting for their own sales. Its incredibly toxic that associates have to feel that way towards one-another.

If the sales aren't bad enough, opening credit cards is also a tedious job. While it is possible surprisingly at this store, it is definitely not easy.

Management is fair, I never had issues with any of them however there have definitely been some passive aggressive remarks made from one specific manager that I did not enjoy hearing.

The people I worked with were amazing and so kind/friendly! I appreciated them so much!

I wouldn't recommend this job to people with extracirriculars or kids or anything of that nature that require changing hours/not being available. They are flexible with scheduling but once the schedule is set (you can see the schedule for one month at a time) then there is no going back without getting a weird attitude from the managers. I really hope this review helps anybody making a decision whether to work here or not! I am not saying don't work here, but definitely understand what you're signing up for.

Best thing about working at this store would be the starting out at $10 and $10 training part. And being 401k eligible. Every person has a goal. they make it 3 times as much as it should be. they set you up to fail. if you ever, by some miracle get your raise goal, they will move you to a different department so they dont have to give you the raise. They will cut your pay and then let you go. its a revolving door, thats how they want it. Be prepared to completely change as a person and have no life what-so-ever. You are not allowed to go to school, not allowed to request any days off, hardly earn ANY vacation time even after being with them a whole year! You never see the managers, they don't know what they're doing at all. They tell you they're going to take care of things "oh just email me about it" and never do any of it! You get hired on not knowing where you're going, training is 3 weeks long and they don't decide what they're going to do & where theyre going to put you until the last day. I got put in kids shoes, after specifically saying if I got put in the home department ill quit. Kids sboes is the ABSOLUTE SLOWEST, and pointless department in the entire store. Kids shoes and kids clothes should be all one. Men's shoes, and ladies shoes are commission, but not kids shoes. You're lucky if you see anyone all day and I'm talking about working 12-9 and 9:45-6 or 7.
Do they really think they need 2 people to work FT (40 a week) in this slow department? It's not busy enough for 1 person. I cannot explain how I've changed and how miserable, lonely, aggressive, unhealthy physically&mentally this place has made me. This job WILL affect you. You can walk around and just look at everyone and know that they're miserable. Everyone cuts each others heads off for even saying hello, how are you to someone they've laid their eyes on... Everyone automatically assumes you're trying to take their sales, and they do the same thing! After starting to really hate it here and becoming lonely and bitter and angry, I placed my 2 weeks notice to have my shoe manager tell me if I took it back he would put me in ladies shoes which he knew I really wanted and I'd see people as make commission there. So I took it out. Him and the managers "supposedly" sent in a transfer request for me. I asked and asked if they had said anything yet, and it was always no I haven't heard anything. Then a month goes by and I go to ask off for a few days because I'm going out of state, to find out we're not allowed to do a thing outside of work! And I asked once again, am I going to ladies shoes? No, we recently made a rule to where you have to be in kids shoes for a whole year before that's possible. WHAT? After the GM and ASM and my shoe manager all told me it was possible and was going to happen! Are you kidding me? I said okay, and that day I put my 2 weeks notice right back in. Our new shoe manager comes in and apparently is in the worst mood ever and everyone in shoes is talking about it. Then he tries to tell me I'm not allowed to even talk to my co workers!! If no one is here, I can't even talk to my co workers? Not to mention they recently just cut a lot of people to part time for 2 weeks and then made them full time again. No notice for any of it. No excuses or reasoning. We could all have filed for unemployment. They won't hire anyone full time now so they don't have to give benefits and all that. This place just keeps getting worse and worse. The managers literally don't know what they're doing.

New and moved associates are trained by other associates in an assigned department, which these stationed associates are not properly trained or compensated for teaching a new associate how to sell and maintain the department they are placed. It is drilled into every new hire that the most important part of their job is making sales. It causes many associates to not work together, also a hostile work environment. While the new hires are selling to nearly every customer, the seniority associates are making sure the department is clean and organized and their SPH suffers every time. Oftentimes, by senority and new hires, Quota cards are confused with SPH goals, which are both important but the SPH numbers determine pay-cuts and pay raises and many associates don't realize that. Review times are scheduled at the company's convenience in the worst interest of the sales associates. For instance, upon approaching a busy time for the store a review will be scheduled before a particular event or holiday or way after so the associates will not have time to bring their numbers up because of the slow times. A sales associate has many duties and help customers the best they can, but none of that counts unless a sale is made. Associates can receive special hours if they are requested by management to do tasks and parts of merchandising. With years of working there, ASM's do forget to put in special hours too often.Another issue is scheduling, you can work anywhere from 5-14 days straight, get one day off and another stretch. Every month is different, not even seniority gets set hours. Also, the hours are hard to keep up with with no consistency its exhausting and hard to live around.  As for management, there is little to no communication between department ASM's, so associates are receiving different directions from several managers. Also lack of communication between ASM's and employees. A lot of the less profitable areas in the store are neglected until there are corporate visits. And day of a corporate visit every manager will make sure all the proper and correct signage and merchandising is done last minute. Then after the visit it will go back a lot of departments left alone.  Buyers for the company don't take the time to find out and research which products are latest trends and which items sell the best. Large quantities of the least popular items are sent to put out and trendy popular items that they do pick out run out quickly and don't get replenished or when they do its too late because customers go elsewhere or the trend changes. A few positive things are being closed on Thanksgiving day and Christmas day, the employee discount, learning knowledge and skills to take with you and the people working right beside you, going through the same turmoils from the workplace, and working together and helping each other. The people who are working next to you are the friends you will consider family. Not the stores management because to them you are just labor to sell and push products. I enjoyed my job and felt accomplished when I met the needs of customers, but poor management continues to push away loyal and hardworking individuals.

You will be hired as a fulfillment associate which is not a bad job. You stock or pick orders in the warehouse in different areas but after about a month when you get settled and get all your benefits set up that's when the switch occurs. They send you to be trained in a department called returns. Returns is in a large cage with an 8 foot chain link fence around it. You set at a desk and process all the merchandise that is sent back by customers. Returns is always behind and can't keep employees due to it being mismanaged. Why does upper management allow this to go on? Because returns is managed by the warehouse managers wife. Nepotism runs rampant in this facility from the top down. A typical day in returns you sit and inspect merchandise that comes back which includes using a garment brush to remove deodorant stains from clothes, using a lint roller to remove pet and human hair, febreze anything stinky, use wet wipes to clean the bottom of shoes and the best of all replacing all the hygiene liners in the bathing suits. Your goal is to make it all look new again and repackage it so they can stock it and sell it to the next customer. All of this is done with no PPE provided. No gloves. Just your bare hands. If it is to damaged to resell then you refund the customers money and it gets put in clearance or thrown away. You cannot wear headphones and listen to music, You cant be chatty and talk to the people around you. Don't plug your cell phone into their outlets to make sure it is charged in fact don't even touch your phone. Leave it in your vehicle. The whole cage is surrounded by security cameras and they watch everything and then report it to your area manager. You know, the area you were hired to work but are not working because they are using you in returns everyday. Meanwhile the other areas of the plant are getting behind. You might get shifted back to your area every once in a while to either help catch up or train a new batch of temps to do the job you where hired to do. They roll thru temps like there is no tomorrow. Most catch onto the game pretty quick and either leave before the first shift is over or don't come back. They rant and rave about how great the pay and benefits are but they are mediocre at best compared to other warehouse in the area where you get all your benefits the day you start verses having to wait a month to six months and more on the same benefits here. No flexibility in your schedule even though shifts are available. Vacation blackouts were you cannot take off or use vacation or sick time. Gated parking lot to get in and security checks all bags when you leave. Don't have an emergency and have to leave or you will get interrogated when you come back to make sure it was a valid reason  In conclusion, this is not a good place for permanent employment. Now if your looking for a place to make some quick cash and get out this is it. You can literally work all the overtime you want because they are always short staffed. It seems to be what the majority do because its like a revolving door with employees and supervisors,  

You definitely can’t buy class at Dillard’s. 

From the day I set foot on the sales floor, the Assistant Store manager was so needlessly rude to me. She could hardly deign to walk past me, let alone speak to me. I worked my department and was continually praised for my performance. I was even sought out during a corporate visit by Mark Galvan, the Regional Vice President, who wanted to personally shake my hand and thank me for styling and representing my brand so well. She continued to avoid me; I had no idea why this woman seemed to have such a distaste for my presence but for five months it was nothing but eye rolls, head tosses, and huffy attitude from her. 

No one else seemed to have a problem with me except for her, so it came as no surprise that she suddenly fired me under the comically fabricated reasoning of “you don’t look happy here.” If “unhappiness” was a legitimate reason for firing people they would not have a single associate left in the store. Also, if she was any type of decent manager (or human), one might approach their coworkers about said unhappiness before simply firing them. She also did this without even speaking to or notifying the area sales manager of the department I worked in; he was quite shocked as she fired me while smiling like a gleeful maniac. Hmm, interesting, I’m sure it had nothing to do with her own personal pettiness. 

I had already planned to leave Dillard’s and I thank her for the favor of no longer having to subject myself to that place. The culture is toxic and cliquey, and both she and the Store Manager perpetuate that culture by being condescending, unkind, and classless. And speaking of the Store Manager, he is a disgusting, chauvinistic excuse of a man who sexually harasses the young female associates. They have no respect for the associates or their lives outside the store. They attempt to lord over, speak down to, and downright belittle associates who ironically have more formal education than they do. Maybe their attitudes toward associates has more to do with them projecting their own jealousies and unhappiness. 

In addition to the poor management, the SPH (sales per hour) goals are dictated by some algorithm that spits out a lofty, unattainable number. Associates who had personally sold over half a million dollars in a year still never received raises. They will use this as reasoning to dock pay and generally treat people poorly. And how convenient that after the management harasses their employees into misery, Dillard’s has no Human Resources department to file complaints. 

I hope they enjoyed their time playing royals, as the COVID-19 pandemic has certainly served them a dose of karma. Maybe sitting home while they are unemployed and non-essential will give them the time they need to reflect on their sorry personalities and lack of managerial skills. 

Advice to management: Remember, walking with your head held high is much different than stomping around in cheap heels with your nose in the air. 

If you’re contemplating applying at Dillard’s have respect for yourself and look elsewhere.

This job seemed to be amazing. The benefits you get are great. And the 25% off discount sounded nice (before they tell you that you need to apply for a dillards card.) The management seemed super awesome and friendly (It was probably because of the holidays a time to make the most money.) But over time things fell apart very quickly. First your assigned locations manager will NOT be able to help or listen to you very easily. So if you have problems with coworkers that are pretty serious and a danger to others don't expect to be listened to. Second if you don't meet your number every month or at least exceed them you will NOT get the you were told to begin with but instead get a pay cut. So even on slow days when no one is shopping you will suffer. And the blood spill between coworkers is depressing. There is NO team work just ME work. Third, IT. IS. A. CORPORATION. Yes it can pay you a bit more and it can provide insurance coverage but since it is a corporate place it will burn you out quickly. With the burnout will come very little pay or care for you the employee. They also overwork those who are commissioned because it is different from hourly pay. Legally they can do that but it will burn you out and can potentially cause depression and suicidal thoughts. Burn out is classified as a serious problem in the states and needs to be taken more seriously. 
My final opinion, if you plan to work here don't get to know your coworkers. They claim they want team work but there isn't any. 
Don't expect to have desired time off honored, they will only do what they think is best.
If you work as commission avoid sales as much as possible. Only ring people up if they come to you but don't help. You won't make enough for the amount of time you help them.
They will not care about you at all if you don't sell enough. This is a company worth millions and millions of dollars. Your well being is of no concern to them just that you're making them money. And if you are you can be sexist, racist, homophobic, and a stalker. I don't expect them to know this at first but when people are reported more action should be taken especially if a party is being abused but doesn't know how to solve the problem without getting "involved".
And last but not least consider your mental well being. As said this company does not care. If you aren't worried about your mental health then working here can work. But if you need to be mentally healthy go work at a ma and pa shop. The smaller local business are better because they can work with you better and they may have to start off lower pay but over time with hard enough work they will increase your pay. In a corporation it isn't how hard you work it's how dirty you work to get a raise and more. But in a ma and pa shop your hard work is FAR more important.
Just remember these facts it is something to ponder upon before going to a corporation to work for them.

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