At Dillard's, there is no such thing as "life/work balance." They have never heard of it. During the holiday retail season, a reasonable person expects to work extended hours. But at Dillard's, there is always a pressing reason to work a 10 - 14 hour day, 14 days in a row. Days off are cancelled and seldom returned to you. At many stores, associate and management staffing is kept to a minimum and the staff on hand is bled dry.
Associates are asked to spend most of their time accomplishing a series of tasks that keep them away from customers. The system in place for marking merchandise down is high-pressure and profoundly time-consuming. Dillard's talks a good game with regard to customer service, but stacks the deck against associates and customers by forcing associates to accomplish difficult tasks during selling hours. I spend a great deal of time acting as a sales associate because my actual sales associates are busy doing other things. I am then called into closed-door meetings to discuss why my manager-type work isn't getting done. Or maybe I'll just get a phone call at home asking why I went home after only putting in a 10 and a half hour day.
Managers are asked to recruit seasoned employees from other retail establishments. We are chastised when we do not produce recruits. No time is allotted to us to do this; upper management expects us to do this during our free time. Please read my first paragraph above and see if you can spot the issue. Making recruitment additionally problermatic, Dillard's somehow appears to have a less-than-sterling reputation as a company people want to work for.
