J. Crew reviews

Competition when selling is never a fun thing. Some of the associates are very serious about their daily goals and will stop at nothing to get there. I, personally have never been involved in an elevated situation selling-wise, but I have definitely witnessed many. The dress code can be quite ridiculous. Employees are required to wear a "third piece" when wearing jeans. This "third piece" is a jacket or cardigan. This can be a nuisance while working in the southern California area (yes, the weather is usually nice, but we all have those days...). The store can get very hot and forcing employees to wear layer upon layer of clothing is borderline cruel. Another downside is the scheduling. If you work at a small J.Crew location it can be virtually impossible to get a shift covered. I've also encountered some favoritism at my J.Crew. The managers tend to become close with the personal shoppers, you can't blame them, they are both full time positions and therefore spend a lot of time together by default. The only bothersome thing about this is favoritism when faced with making the schedule. Personal shoppers, or just well-liked employees, will receive prime selling shifts while everyone else is left with closing shifts. Finally, the commission system is not all it's cracked up to be. Unless you are selling MASSIVE amounts of product per day, you won't see much difference at all in your weekly paycheck.

The organization is non-existent. There is no clear chain of command and so much overlap between groups that most people aren't 100% sure who manages what group. The org chart looks like a connect the dots gone horribly wrong. There are a lot of strong personalities there and it's difficult to navigate the political waters. The informational material given during orientation presents J Crew as a big happy family where everyone is treated fairly and that is a complete lie. There are a huge group of people who are treated far better than the average employee.