WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN?
I'll start with the ever-popular complaint, the unrealistic SPH (Sales Per Hour). Depending on your department, making your sales goals each hour can be a frustrating task. Not only is it hard to convince a customer to spend way more than they planned to (times are tough, economy sucks), but you also compete against your coworkers like animals. I'm a sharing kind of person, so when I see that a coworker is struggling to meet their SPH and mine has been reached, I'll share my sales with them to help them out. I don't expect that from anyone else, but I only do this out of kindness and care. No one else will do this. They will do whatever it takes to scoop up all the customers they can, even if that means they deliberately steal another employee's customer.
It's blatantly obvious that employees at Dillard's despise their jobs, but the competitive pay keeps most people here until they find something better. Morning meetings to stir up some sort of excitement amongst employees are nothing more than a 15 minute money-talk and how we need to get more credit applications.
Another thing that irks me is merchandising. On top of high expectations in meeting sales goals, all employees must stock and re-merchandise their area. This wouldn't be so bad if it meant that EVERYONE would contribute to this. But 9 times out of 10, half of the employees try to get all of that done while the other half rake in the sales. They should hire people who stock at night. Lots of companies do that. They get paid to keep the sales floor updated and sales associates get paid to sell.
Upon being hired, you're given an orientation, which is a complete joke. You sit in a conference room and watch these outdated videos about legal garbage and how to handle unruly customers. Then you're given a lack-luster tour of your store. The next day, you are thrown onto the sales floor with little-to-know direction or instruction on how to perform any of your tasks. This forces new hires to bother other employees. The manager is virtually nonexistent during the "training" process.
Favoritism, gossip, and hostility are huge amongst employees and managers. It's disgusting and I've never seen anything like it before.
Getting time off is like pulling teeth. And if you like having a few days off for holidays during November and December, might at well cancel those plans. You're not allowed to take any time off for the holidays because that's when sales are at their peak. That should be illegal. People want to see their families and friends during the holidays. That's the whole POINT of the holidays.
This job has literally made me break down and have an anxiety attack. You feel like you are never doing anything right. Seriously, you could be a superb salesperson with all the charm and fake laughter one would need to make a sale, but in the end, money is money and numbers are numbers. You're not an employee, you are a number. You're in charge of making all of that money for a company that could give a rat's behind about the well-being of their employees.
I've worked retail before this job, and this job by far has been the worst one I've ever had. DO. NOT. WORK. HERE. Save yourself that misery and find something else! There are plenty of reasons why Dillard's is on the top 10 list of WORST PLACES TO WORK FOR.
