Sephora reviews

Although Sephora is generally amazing about granting their team work/life balance, there isn't as much support for full-time employees. I would LOVE to see Sephora institute a more progressive policy surrounding maternity leave, and possibly provide daycare assistance for their employees!

-Career Progression / Promotions into leadership positions (Director and above) from Sr Manager and below are virtually impossible. I worked in the E-commerce team (FSC Corporate Office) for 3 years, during which 10 director level positions opened in my group. 1 of 10 was filled by an internal promotion candidate, the other 9 by outside hires, despite multiple qualified internal candidates. There generally seems to be an attitude that if you are an internal employee you can only be promoted based on past performance (ie check every skill box that they expect from a director – which will take you 5+ years at the Sr Manager level), but they are willing to take a major risk and hire externally for these positions – with those hires often leaving after less than 1 year due to poor culture fit. This is very different from other similar sized organizations who focus on developing internal employees into leadership roles. Sadly, in my group, they also favored white men for promotions, despite being a heavily female organization. -Work Life Balance – There is a very meeting heavy culture which makes work life balance tough for anyone at the execution level. I was typically in meetings from 9am-5pm every day, and often during lunch. This means that all my work got done after 5pm or on weekends. They have ½ day Fridays in the summer, which is a nice idea, but I was realistically only able to take 1-2 per month due to workload. -Politics/Backstabbing – I have worked in 7 different companies (including other retail companies) and am able to collaborate with teammates of different personalities and working styles; Sephora was the only company where I have been thrown under the bus during meetings (by a VP) and backstabbed by peers and leadership team members. Part of this may be due to the pressure folks are under to meet business goals (especially during peak season) – but this is really no excuse. Every company has issues and fire drills – it’s how your employees deal with them that shows the true culture of your organization.