Work-life balance is preached in person and in paper, but is not the reality. It's retail, so you are signing up for it, but it takes its toll. I mentioned the pace in the pros section, but during the holidays and peak season that quickly flipped on it's head when presented with the brand's often unrealistic expectations regarding execution timetables.
The company prides itself on its flexibility regarding its response to trends in the business. At times this is a strength, but what sounds great in a boardroom doesn't necessarily translate well to the store level. Floorset dates are moved on a whim and you have to connect with staff and transition 150-180 labor hours for post-close-of-business work during the holidays when you are already running on extended hours of operation. The lack of a dedicated full-time operations manager separate from the sales staff really limits the team.
The move to a sales-per-associate-hour (SPAH) model for tracking employee productivity was one of those initiatives that worked well on paper, but led to a negative impact on what had once been a strong team-selling environment. It went through a number of iterations in a short time span, which led to confusion and inconsistency. It's most negative impact was in effectively transforming store leaders into highly paid sales associates, distorting time management disproportionately from operations and leadership in the name of hitting arbitrary individual goals.