Pros
Not many pros... Staff discount was 30% if you had worked there for 3 or less years. 40% for 3-4 years and 50% for 5 or more years However, you would often get 50 - 70% off the crap in-house product (Ksubi, Insight, Subtitled, Arvust etc.)
Cons
Where do I begin... for starters the company has completely lost touch of right and wrong. Head Office - has to be the most unorganized and unprofessional bunch of people I have ever come across. Communication between HO and stores was appalling, but they would be the first to critique everyone else on exactly this. Always having parties at HO and not actually focusing on fixing issues in the company (I.e. bring your dog to work days and Snapchat/Instagram it to everyone). Training - Absolutely non-existent. Whether you are a casual or manager. It was sink or swim, and you were provided with very little tools to succeed. On top of this you were expected to hit completely unfair and unrealistic goals! Progression - Again, don’t even think about it! You will be in the same position for 5+ years. EVEN if a role becomes available they will advertise for it (no one will apply, because no one wants to work for GP anymore) and then finally of months looking for someone they will finally decide on someone internally who was already basically doing this role. No extra money, no praise and definitely no thanks! Product - Oh god, where do I begin. Remember when GP was cool? Yeah so do I... the buying team need to be SACKED! Horrible buying for the last few years. Always stocking in-house brands (which no one likes except for Ksubi). Everything is so overpriced and the quality is terrible. They call themselves “trend setters”, I think not! More like trend followers... 12 months late. Unrealistic targets - Stores are slapped with completely unrealistic targets (which maybe they did use to make years ago) but I’m sorry GP your stores make no money anymore. Lower your expectations and let’s the teams actually breathe without having upper management questioning you on why the store isn’t making enough money and the conversion is so low! KPIs - Conversion Rate!! Yuck. Every GP door has a people counter, like Nike and some other retailers... however GP has managed to use this as a tool to tell team members they aren’t making enough more or that they need to push harder (I.e. A store will make budget for the week, but you as a manager will get grilled and told you’re not doing a good job because it’s in a “negative swing” - which basically means there was many more people counted through the doors and the money you made, even if more than LY, still wasn’t good enough). Like seriously!? Learn how to celebrate a bloody win! After all, the stores barely hit budget anymore. Bad leaders - Area Sales Managers are a joke. Whether it be NSW, QLD, VIC, WA or SA, they are all so terrible. None of them are professional and can barely handle a difficult situation. They spend most of their time on the phone chatting to one another and utterly rude to the teams. Telling the staff on the shop floor to work harder and make more money... how about you guys DO YOUR JOB and train these poor team members! Lead by example and be an inspiration to the managers and teams. Unfortunately they got rid of the last good area sales managers in the last few years... such a shame! And finally.... Large Lay-offs - The company recently made some pretty major lay-offs, from team members in head office, to area sales managers & VMs. The main reason is because they needed to save money because the poor performance of the company! Be very very careful in perusing a career with GP - the company has been failing for years now and will continue to do so because there has been absolutely no significant changes made in the last few years. I would avoid this place at all costs or you might end up seeing your job cut too