Pros
Personally like the brand and really impressed with how Mickey has raised J. Crew and Madewell to the level it is now. He's smart and has great vision for the company. Would have been nice to be able to work more directly with him. Could probably learn a lot from him. Great discounts Co-workers were ok, some nice.... 3 weeks vacation & Summer hours (though rarely take advantage due to work load)
Cons
There's not much work life balance for the lower level positions.....understandable in some respects (entry-level) but many times, too ridiculous with the amount of grunt work. They just pile it on....seems sometimes just for their own fun. There was one senior manager who was not very professional. Most of the time sitting around gossiping with the girls, whether it was about other co-workers or celebrities or did not talk to you or greet you at all if you were outside his small clique. Definitely showed favoritism, complained and whined often. Did not act like a senior manager at all. Hard to have any respect for him. He seemed to promote favoritism, his directs also had their favorites. My manager and associate mgr although nice, were very close and working under them was uncomfortable at times because of this. Almost everyone looks and dresses the same (maybe with exception of the designers - who have some uniqueness). 80% of the people are quite young and look like a J. Crew/Madewell catalog model. It's almost cult-like. You definitely need to drink the Kool-Aid to work there. They need managers who are trained to be managers, not young girls trying to be managers or tenured unskilled senior managers to handle conflict among co-workers. There were instances where 2 girls had a disagreement and loud enough for all to hear. But since the managers are not trained to handle situations such as these, instead, there is cattiness and favoritism. It was unpleasant to hear. Too bad Mickey never gets to witness these despite his frequent visits around the office floors.
