There are significant company culture issues that come from the very top (Paris). Sometimes I forget we aren’t saving lives at work. Every task is both urgent and critically important, meaning it becomes impossible to prioritize work and you constantly feel pulled in too many directions, at the detriment of productivity. Depending on where you work in the organization, you can have decent work life balance, in terms of leaving at a reasonable hour and having weekends free. However work stress will often enter into your personal life, even if you’re not “working.” You have to give a lot of yourself to this company.
The issues with company culture have become more apparent with Covid and the Black Lives Matter movement. As it relates to BLM, brand communication teams were completely restricted in what the brands could say and when. When approved messaging finally came through, it was scrubbed and “corporatized” with meaningless jargon. Black employees were not welcome to advise on messaging. Internally, it took several days for the organization to acknowledge what was happening with employees, and only after a group of employees demanded action and support. L’Oréal also has a diversity issue in hiring - very few employees of color in our corporate teams.
Regarding Covid, the organization started strong with messages of support, but those were quickly replaced with ominous and unclear messaging around returning to the office (mostly about cumbersome safety protocols such as in office temperature checks). While other companies were providing clear timelines for return, L’Oreal USA refused to provide any sense of timing for the NY offices, even as employees were asking daily (many had left the city). When the company finally announced a return to office date (June 29 - 2+ months before most corporate offices), employees received 1 WEEK’S notice that they would be expected back. The announcement also came at 6:45pm the night before Juneteenth, which the company had given employees as a PTO day of cultural observance. This felt like an effort to take advantage of the Juneteenth holiday to minimize swirl over the announcement - really distasteful. L’Oreal is rushing corporate employees back to the office simply for face time, irresponsible both to the health of employees and essential workers who are using public transportation. Employee morale is very low - employees do not feel proud to work for L’Oréal right now.
