sales lead

sales associate

support associate

assistant store manager

store manager

Soma

It isn't an awful place to work if you're comfortable working with customers in a very private setting. You will do well here if you value privacy and working with varieties of people. You need to be very discreet, respectful, and attentive. If you're uncomfortable with male customers or trans women for any reason, avoid applying. This company is very LGBT friendly. If you're uncomfortable seeing bare breasts or touching a stranger's bare skin, avoid applying. If you have a problem with seeing people who are overweight in minimal clothing, avoid applying. The environment at Soma requires you to be inclusive and body-positive at all times. Many customers will express insecurities about their bodies to you. Pay close attention to those insecurities, think about how you'd want to be treated, and you'll do just fine.

You are extremely underpaid when you consider how many of your tasks are a specialty service.

Weekday shifts are very slow, do not expect to be doing many fittings or fun tasks unless it is a weekend. A lot of your time will be spent opening boxes of shipment, folding underwear, and processing returns. Upper management (store managers and regional managers) are very hit or miss. Good store managers at this company are mentors and they will reward you for good sales metrics. Bad store managers are difficult to please, and they will leave you to do all of the fittings while they sit around. 

Breaks are always reliant on store traffic but I've never been refused an adequate break. Requesting holidays off is nearly impossible and may require months of planning to get dibs. Many employees were technically on-call if somebody needed a shift covered so don't expect your day off to be uninterrupted. 

The worst managers and coworkers will take credit for your large sales and claim your hard work for themselves. I found myself rushing to the register to make sure nobody stole my sale because metrics were very important to management. 

The only way you will advance in this environment is if you develop a really good personal friendship with a manager. Raises are practically unheard of. 

FUNCTIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES:
1. Directs and supervises associates engaged in sales, inventory-taking, reconciling cash receipts, or in performing services for customers. Ensures weekly schedules are prepared to provide proper floor coverage within fiscal guidelines; reviews time sheets and other payroll documentation for accuracy and submits as appropriate. 
2. Promotes customer service by ensuring associates are greeting and assisting customers; responds to customer inquiries and complaints in a professional and timely manner. 
3. Models sales expectations by utilizing various techniques and communicating product knowledge to the customer; recommends merchandise selections or helps to locate or obtain merchandise based on customer needs and desires.
4. Maintains a visually appealing store, ensuring proper housekeeping, visual merchandising, and organization are kept to the highest standard. Trains associates on visual merchandising techniques to ensure store is maintained at all times.
5. Monitors associate sales activities and productivity; acknowledges and communicates performance to associates; motivates and trains associates to achieve full potential. 
6. Performs all financial activities effectively and in accordance with policy including cash handling and reporting, price changes, and merchandise handling; ensures all register transactions are completed accurately and in accordance with policy. 
7. Prepares and oversees physical inventories, ensuring proper accounting of receipts and outflows of merchandise. 
8. Manages the general operations of the store ensuring that the store is in working order and adequately supplied to ensure safe and efficient operations. 
9. Ensures compliance with all applicable laws, loss prevention policies, operating procedures and controls; conducts associate training as needed to reinforce proper controls. 
10. Recruits, hires, and develops store associates; prepares and conducts all performance appraisals and evaluations; interprets Key Performance Indicator reports and delivers coaching as needed.
11. Other duties as assigned/required.

The company is only focused on obtaining their sales goals. They claim to care about creating a  great place to work, grow, and learn. However, they are very quick to write management and associates up for not attaining sales goals without coaching and development assistance. They feel employees are easily replaced. They use these write ups to coach employees out of the business. They implement unrealistic sales goals and will not except any "excuses" why these goals are not obtained. They will not listen or have a realistic conservation why these sales are not obtained their answer is scheduling and staffing. No time in investiment and development is entertained they just want the employee replaced. They expect all sales to be high. They feel it is normal for clients to spend $1,000.00 if the sales associate was performing. The upper management, district manager ( and up) was very unappreciative, unrealistic, mean, and demeaning. The district manager would yell, scream and embrass employees on the sales floor in front of clients and not care. She had many of the employees in tears and did not care. She would call and interagate the management team on a daily bases keeping them off the sales floor drilling them for answers. She threatened the entire management teams' jobs and in turn they all quit in fear and then she blamed the store manager. They want the store staffed to the max and do not care if associates get hours. They claim to believe in a work life balance but they hold time off over the management team as punishment. There was several times where the management team were told by the district manager they could not have a weekend off do to staffing, or sales. I was told I could not attend my son's college graduation. However, the district manager got her time off. Also, the turnover in management and staff is frequent.

It may have been a good job if at a different location with different people but my experience was not good I did not learn much they did not know how to train yet expected you to pick up on it right away which I could have done if they weren't micromanaging breathing down the back of my neck for every little thing they literally wouldn't let me take the bag out of the drawer to bag cust. stuff except the way they did it. Really, I got in trouble for taking the tissue out before the bag how crazy is that I have run my own stores and I would never treat someone like that or micromanage to that degree but these people were new to it they weren't used to retail they came from different industry of some sort wherever they worked food place or something so they didn't quite understand how to manage in retail and then for example asked me what how can we increase OMS and I said well does the breast cancer thing count because other places at work a lot of times that last little Charity type things will actually count as your OMS and she was like no I mean what is OMS tell me what OMS is and how to increase it like she wanted me to say you increase it by getting one more sale but instead I accidentally because I've run my own stores gave her more information and said well we could do it by trying to get that breast cancer thing or maybe this she didn't like that I didn't give her the exact words we have to increase one more sale what a dummy and then she acted like what was my problem, my problem is that I'm used to working a retail and you aren't and it's very apparent and you're treating me rudely and badly and straight up unprofessional like you've never been a manager anywhere before. And there's something a little off with everyone that works there at that location to be honest.

I've worked for Soma going on the better half of a decade as both an Associate and a member of their Retail Management Team as a Sales Lead. The product is fantastic, the coworkers on a cohesive team are irreplaceable, and the opportunity to change a customers literal life with a proper fitting bra is a fantastic experience. The company overall has some serious flaws. Having been with company and a top performer I can say that the company does not pay accordingly and they take advantage of their almost exclusively female staff. The only raises I have received within the company have been because minimum wage was raised and they were literally forced to pay me more. They do not offer raises based on performance, merit, or longevity within the brand. If they promote from within they pay $1-3 less then recruited candidates from outside the company which is disheartening. The company would also benefit from having a third party survey employees to evaluate and grow the brand. We only recently began offering shwag and brand loyalty products like our primary competitor and that has been a huge miss within the brand as well as a general lack of product diversity. Every bra should be offered in every style, size, and color even if the on hand product cannot accomodate this it should be something that can be ordered. We could see huge overall growth from improving these sectors. Also being a primarily female staffed company that services a large female customer base we have zero maternity benefits, educational support, or just other key support features you would aniticpate out of a company that triest to present itself as so progressive.

Working as a sales lead at Soma is like a regular sales associate job. Its great for people in school looking to make some extra money. There really was not much opportunity for advancement in the store, and certainly not any opportunities for advancement in corporate. One of the few things I hated about working at Soma was the intense emphasis they put on just the bras. I understood that Soma was a bra store, but we could sell thousands and thousands of dollars in pajamas and panties and hit our sales goals, but if we did not sell a certain number of bras our district manager would be upset. During the holidays, this was really frustrating because who is giving away bras for Christmas?  People want pajama sets. 

Also, about 80% of our customers had large chests, and all of the cute fancy bras that are shouldved in customers faces through marketing and commercials only went up to a D cup. A lot of our customers were forced to only buy pajamas and panties because the bras that came in their size were all ugly. If soma wants to increase their bra sales, they need to make ALL bra styles come in ALL sizes that they advertise. They also need to put emphasis on cute colors and designs in their bras and not just the pajamas. You can't create cute little holiday sets and market the heck out of them, and then still have the same boring bras and expect for customers to not buy more pajamas than bras. ESPECIALLY during holiday season when that's when everyone gets pajamas.

I LOVE THIS JOB! I have worked for Soma Intimates for 2-1/2 years now and I can't imagine ever leaving. It is a part-time job and they are always willing to work with us on our schedules if approached in advance. Also, I did not receive any negative feedback whatsoever when I had to fly out of state to care for my ailing father for an unknown length of time. All that was asked of me was to keep them posted on what was going on.
Management pays attention. If they believe that your technique could use improvement, they will give you examples of what you could have done differently rather than scolding you. And they are also open to any suggestions on how to increase sales/traffic. It's definitely not a place where there is only one way to get things done. Any criticism is done on a constructive level, never to put you down or to make you feel inadequate.
Communication is always there, as is a friendly smile. And helping the customer who has had any surgeries, rather it be enhancement, reduction, or partial mastectomy, when they leave feeling that they were treated with respect and that their problem was solved, it always leaves you with that "warm fuzzy feeling" that you did something good for someone.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Employees generally enjoy working with confident, effective & fair leader. Good leadership not only helps company succeed financially but also keeps employees engaged, motivated and goal are driven. 
Effective manager treat their staff like adults, encouraging them to make decisions & work independently.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Long hours.
Heavy workload. 
Changes within the organization & duty’s. 
Tight deadlines. 
 Lack of job insecurity.
Boring work. 
Cause of work-related stress. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Company work environment & culture is the shared values, good attitude's &  behaviors, & standards that make up a work environment. 
It’s about the experience staff have at work & how that experience aligns the company. Culture is what creates the day to day experience at all times. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I would like to emphasize how are an effective routine day on a daily basis.
Keep a to-do list. 
Keep a tidy workspace. 
Find a schedule and stay with it. 
Moniter staff breaks before the 5th hour's. 
Reduce multitasking if needed. 
Identify to avoid distractions.
Tackle tasks in order of importance.
Showcase & enthusiasm fore work &  profession.

A typical day at Soma is varies. Soma is a upscale lingerie and lounge ware retailer, so the clientele is usually upperclass. Some days are slow and some a very busy. When we do not have many customers in the store, we restock, organize and situate our wares. When we have a lot of customers in the store, it is our job as a sales associate to make sure each customer is given the most amazing personal experience (MAPS). We use a touch and go method to make sure that every customer has been serviced. In this method we have to approach the customer, help them as needed and then politely disengage to help another customer. My coworkers are all really nice and supportive, we help each other manage the customers to increase our sales. The most enjoyable part of the job for me is seeing that the customers genuinely appreciate me helping them. I like that at the end of their visit they are happy with their purchases. The hardest part of the job was getting accustomed to doing retail, as this is my first retail position. I have learned how to juggle multiple customers at once, how to do bra fits, how to interact with more professional clients and much more.

The great product is what drew me to Soma, as well as being able to help women look and feel great and beautiful in their own skin. I love and trust my former store manager from my time at Soma, but from the district level up the company is a mess. The corporate staff is always changing, and with it the policies change all the time as well. During the interviewing stage, I was told that work/life balance is key to Soma and they don't allow you to do ANY work off the clock, which is great in theory, but is their way of avoiding overtime pay for anyone and keeps the store from ever being fully organized in the stock room. The pay is the worst part, they have below industry standard hourly wages, and they tell you you will be making more with their SPH and other bonus programs. This works in some markets, but for the new store I helped open and the hours they wanted us to schedule the team it would have been impossible for literally any team member to make SPH bonus consistently, even if we were 20% above goals. They also don't trust the store level staff, having cameras monitoring the sales staff at every location.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Sales lead 102 salaries reported	$18.28 per hour
Sales associate 101 salaries reported	$16.86 per hour
Support associate 76 salaries reported	$17.17 per hour
Assistant store manager 41 salaries reported	$21.77 per hour
Store manager 17 salaries reported	$63,214 per year

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