Could be a great company to work for...but it isn't. - Anonymous employee Talbots Employee Review

This is a heritage brand with a good name behind it. It's a shame that the company has decided to go the way of multi site store managers in some markets (mine included). This tells me corporate is either very out of touch or greedy, possibly both. Million dollar stores are already spread thin with staffing. For example, Q1 and Q2 of 2022 was all about hire hire hire. Then going into our busiest seasons we were told to cut payroll right before our trunk show and going into holiday? Corporate talks about work life balance but the only way you pull off a successful trunk show and holiday while cutting payroll is if management is doing IT ALL. You'll be doing it all a lot of the time. Way too many blackout dates for a retail company. When hiring top talent for management, the company needs to think about being competitive. Having holiday blackout is to be expected but having classic awards events PLUS a trunk show in the spring PLUS a trunk show in the fall in addition to your yearly inventory? Too much. If you're not paying your assistants at least $50,000+ you're going to continue to have turnover. Other retailers are paying more for less work. And those trunk shows are a LOT of work. Associates are not paid commission, and they should be. They are expected to book appointments all the time, send thank you notes, and send product shares. I have a great staff but even they get tired of it. There is a point system for them to buy things on a website but you must earn A LOT of points to buy anything worthwhile. Ask a lot of questions about payroll, associate discount, blackout days for vacation, how many trunk shows you're expected to do+how many appointments for each show. Ask about your paid holidays (there are only 3 right now which is VERY behind competitors). Ask about how many people are supposed to be on shift along with store volume. The details really matter. I'm exhausted.