Pros
I worked at Fossil for over 2 years. Working at Fossil was a good experience for me and helped develop my skills as a retail manager. On a store level, operations are run in a very organized and professional manner. Customer service and selling are highly focused upon and done in an impressive manner. The management team was encouraged to motivate the sales associates and we were always trying to keep work enjoyable. Speaking for the store I worked for, we always made sure to give recognition to the employees when they deserved it. The district and regional managers I met were very professional but also friendly and treated you with respect and that went a long way with me. The product we were selling continued to get better over the years. By the end of my stay with the company, the watches were of great quality for the price and the leather products, particularily some of their handbags, were of designer brand quality. The employee discount was 50% off most items which is a great discount for retail. The store had a young and hip feeling to it. We had to dress something similar to J.Crew or Banana Rep. The music was mostly pop yet there was something for everyone and it had a lot of energy. Like any place it had its bad moments, but overall I enjoyed working for the company.
Cons
A lot of problems similar to many stores within the retail industry occurred. Most of the sales associates(a lot of high school kids) were not planning on advancing and making a career out of their job so it was hard to get them to take it seriously at times. Therefore there was a lot of turnover. Employees would sometimes call out sick or not show up and you would have to find someone to cover their shift or do it yourself. Management would sometimes be under a lot of stress therefore making it a bit stressful for the associates. Payroll was affected by weekly sales so if you were having slow selling week you would have to cut hours as you go leaving you sometimes short handed on a busy weekend. You were required to have a flexible work schedule and work on weekends sometimes both Sat and Sun for weeks straight(in my store at least). However, you could say this about a lot of stores in the retail business. There were definitely some bad days but overall it was better than a lot of other companies I worked for.
