customer service representative

account coordinator

product engineer

demand planner

brand manager

Helen of Troy

What is the best part of working at the company?
Until 2022, it was a wonderful company with great benefits, employee-centric culture and trust in employees to be adults and get the job done. Our CEO was diligent in making sure we were protected physically and financially during COVID. He was enthusiastic and excited about the company as a whole. Helen of Troy was founded in El Paso in the 60s and was one of the largest, highest paying employers in the area as well as the only publicly-traded one. 

Then the current CEO took over. Departments were relocated/laid off, micromanagement became the norm and the sacrifices made for the bottom line have yet to pan out (check the company stock quotes)—particularly laying off talent that successfully built and maintained their brands to hire younger, less experienced people in a more recognizable area that was far less, how shall I say—-close to the TX/NM border. 

Despite the value of the company absolutely tanking from 2023-24, they opened new offices in Boston and NYC as opposed to the far lower cost of remaining in Texas.  It’s so sad to see a once brilliant cornerstone of the SW become a cautionary tale. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Micromanagement, irrational decisions leading to an astonishing decrease in valuation as well as stability, blatant disregard for tenure and talent

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Was once inclusive, positive, welcoming. Now it’s the opposite. Zero focus on employee retention. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
After 2023, communication and project management took a massive nosedive along with a lot of “looking over the shoulder” so it became stressful, unpleasant and exhausting.

I worked there first time through a staffing agency and I fell in love.  The work culture, the place, the benefits all employees had were just a far dream for me hahaha! As the staffing agency wouldn't let go of my contract, Helen couldn't hire me directly... I spend one year like that until I decided to quit so I could eventually go back, and odds were in my favor! later on actually they called me!!! Excellent pay (above average if you live in El Paso, TX), great benefits, awesome work-personal life balance... the building is beautiful... you always feel you're in the right place.  Yeah, it is a job, I am not saying there's no drama and this is a fairy tale, no.  I am saying if you go there and do your work, you'll be happy and rewarded.  This company really takes care of their employees.  I left when the US was in recession, as they started laying off people (I have to say they were one of the last companies doing this, they really didn't wanted to take that route, but came the point where they had to) my work load was minimal and I applied for a job at the State, and I got it, but they needed me RIGHT AWAY, so I couldn't give my two weeks notice.  The HR department was nice enough (and of course, because it was better for them) that they didn't write me down as if I left in bad terms for not giving my two weeks notice, so I could be re-hired later on... And forever after I have tried to go back there hahaha! I guess the right position hasn't shown yet, but yes, my experiences there are awesome,it is a great company to work for.  Truly recommended.

For a company that wants to be Employer of Choice - I can't think of a company I would want to work for less.  Within Ops, you are likely to encounter great people.  Their processes are a bit out of date, but they are trending in the right direction.  The IT side, however, is entirely different.  Senior leadership wants to promote a change in culture, but they have not identified that the negative culture that exists was promoted by the same senior leadership that wants to change it.  It's extremely difficult to change a culture while retaining the leadership that created the culture.  Until the right people can identify this as a failing point, I'm afraid that they will be forever doomed to repeat their failures.  Tenured leadership had no influence over changes promoted by newer management and I feel that is why they simply gave up.  Doing anything more than your "job" can lead to your demise as well.  Stay in your lane and be a puppet and you will be safe within IT.  Want to do more and improve?  Find another job.  Within IT, they will never be Employer of Choice.  El Paso (corp) leadership in IT means they will never have a firm grasp on what really transpires at facilities.  Leadership does not listen to the complaints brought to them...even when brought up numerous times.  If the same group has the same complaints month after month, maybe it's the truth and maybe it's worthwhile to investigate the cause of the complaints, not brush it under the rug.  

Within Ops, they are making great changes to make it happen and the local HR groups genuinely care about their people.

1. You are not allowed to bring any type of electronic into the warehouse. (they are very strict on that). So if you don't have car and usually gets rides everywhere good luck because you can't have no cellphone. The security might let you use their cellphone but you can't use their office phone which is ridiculous. 

2. They MAKE you work overtime with no extra break added. You'll be working 10-12 hour shifts and still only get and hour break period. They break it down into two 15 min. break and a 30 min lunch break. 

3. They will  work you like a slave be prepared to work 10 hours PER day including weekends.

4. Be aware of your surroundings and watch what you say around people. Everyone doesn't have good intentions. This is a warehouse and you're around a lot of people daily.

5.The management is horrible period.

6. Be prepared for inconsistent shifts. One day you will come in at 3/4am or 5/6am. The tell you at the end of your shift what time you are coming in tomorrow.

I've learned absolutely nothing. Only that I will not settle for less ever again. Just keep looking and hoping for the better. That place will make you bitter. 


My typical day there is either pricing a product(putting a price tag on an item). Packaging products(pretty much putting boxes into boxes). And doing other things outside of my department which is what they always make us do.

The one thing anyone should know about the El Paso division, is that you would have to like working with people who hate their jobs.  Do you like working for micro-managing supervisors with unrealistic expectations?  There are few good people that are great co-workers who lead by example and generally have a bountiful amount of knowledge that Leadership will never have.  Leadership only cares about the end product; they don't care about your needs.  Your expendable and leadership could care less about the negative environment that they themselves created, and you have to deal with co-workers who are rude, have no work ethic and most importantly are passive aggressive when it comes to standard operating procedures.  Like with any other companies with weak leadership, leadership rewards dysfunctional & toxic employees and allows good and hard working, loyal and overall strong performers to go without fighting for you to stay.  The level of insecurity of the people of El Paso is suffocating as it is, and the leadership values these toxic individuals to thrive in this dysfunctional environment due to leaderships lack of action.  Expect to hate your position immediately.  Save yourself the time and effort to work here and find some other organization with the leadership you deserve.

I started working at Helen of Troy back in 2015. I started as an item master then promoted to cost accountant. During that time everything was great I had an amazing manager not to mention we were a great team, willing help each other. The senior cost accountant is the best team player I had ever met, she’s took me under her wing and taught me everything I know. Three years after, an opportunity came as a Business Analyst for the Beauty Department. I was so excited to join that team to give it my best. That was my death sentence. Never in my life I felt not welcome, I was an outcast. The office assistant was the one who persistently treated me awful. My manager never took the time and train me properly, nor did it point me in the right direction with someone who could’ve help me out. This land me into a PIP, I ask for help, and all I got was humiliation, the manager made sure to put me down every time I ask for its guidance. I went to HR several times, although they took notes, and they comforted me, they didn’t do anything to help me to succeed in this PIP. I tried so hard to succeed an pass the performance improvement plan that it wasn’t enough. All I can say is I did my part, my manager didn’t. Overall if you apply at Helen of Troy make sure you don’t land in Beauty Finance. 

Leadership lacks transparency and doesn't discuss openly what direction the company is planning to go. Strategy creates purpose for the employees. Current process is married to a fire drill mentality, reacting to every competitors move. Unfortunately, not a 'winning' strategy. Managers need to stop reacting quickly with short term solutions and focus on the long term. 

Managers don't have skills to help give employees purpose. Hours are long and sustained 15-hour days all the time and this has ultimately led to a burnout work environment. Managers consistently commit their employees to such a large abundance of tasks and process that are impossible to achieve. My advice to management would be to listen to your employees with empathy and focus on supporting your staff. This is especially true during organizational transformations. There are a lot of very skilled employees there. Be careful with self-regulation and self-awareness. Remember that the three leading drivers of long-term employee satisfaction include culture and values, career opportunities, and trust in senior leadership.


This is a pretty fast paced call center environment, but the calls tend to be pretty routine once you get the hang of them. The system the company uses is erratic and malfunctions a lot, but the response to most of the issues is prompt. Management could be randomly passive aggressive and a little bit condescending at times, and other times they're pleasant, but at least they're fairly communicative all in all. Every so often, a surprise care package with some company or brand swag was sent out, and there was a lot of meetings and events to promote inclusivity as well as many attempts at a progressive work culture, which is nice to see these days. It would be even more inclusive and progressive to see a company like this one extend their remote work from home roles beyond COVID-19. The holidays the company is closed for are a plus as they are plentiful, and the fun little events planned for some of them are charming. The training program could have been organized better, but the primary instructor for product training was fantastic. 

I used to be a Forklift Operator there. My experience:
Stressful place because of the difficult production average to get. You need to make 12 lines or 6 pallets an hour, sounds easy if the product were in the location or if the system wouldn’t send you to the very end of the warehouse to try to get a turret truck driver to finally let Down your product, not mentioning that you have to go and check A long location lists to see if you find a missing product in your order YOU YOURSELF HAVE TO LITERALLY GIVE BIRTH TO YOUR MISSING PRODUCT WITH YOUR PRODUCTION TIME STILL RUNNING. Also there are no racks which makes a safety hazard pull out a pallet without knocking off a whole bunch of them. Floor pickers picking at the same area from forklifts do. Constantly you face the fear of not seeing one of them and accidentally kill somebody. Some leaders are emotional which is no good if you need to keep working some extra hours. 
You have to walk a long distance to get a decent machine to work with everyday.


What is the best part of working at the company?
The people not management they spend lots of money on their power of one and don’t even care about the people who work for them.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Seeing how management get so much pay and make you feel like you are not valuable. It’s like a sweatshop they drain you till you can’t anymore and then let you go and place someone else to do the job and pay less. You can dedicate 10 years of your life and yet not care how much love you out toward the organization. All they care about is how much money they can take home. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Bad they spent millions of dollars on their “power of one” and management doesn’t care about you and they force that culture knowing that they do nothing about making you feel valuable. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Work work work work and smile so that you are not a target for management. Once you are their target they will make your work environment toxic.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Customer service representative 1 salary reported	$24.00 per hour
Account coordinator 5 salaries reported	$72,974 per year
Product engineer 2 salaries reported	$88,611 per year
Demand planner 7 salaries reported	$125,215 per year
Brand manager 7 salaries reported	$100,138 per year

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