Urban Outfitters reviews

3.6

61% would recommend to a friend

(6,266 total reviews)

Sheila Harrington

54% approve of CEO

48% positive business outlook

Urban Outfitters has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 6,266 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Urban Outfitters employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Retail & Wholesale industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

6K reviews
2.0
Jan 20, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Dog friendly, great campus (as long as you are ok with working in the middle of nowhere), some great people, relaxed dress code

Cons

Don't know where to start. I have worked for this company - at the corporate headquarters- 2 different times on the buying team, in a management position. It is a brutal place to be. It really depends on the executive level leadership, which has changed so many times, which means that the strategies, structure, process are always changing along with them. There is an air of cattiness amongst the Creative leaders, and it can be as bad as the feeling that you will not be treated as well if you aren't stick thin or have the perfect outfit. Forget your mind or your years of experience. Expect to be on emails late into the night and on the weekends. It's a fickle buying process and the buys are constantly being changed, edited, cancelled due to leadership reacting too quickly to weekly selling instead of a bigger vision. They have little respect for their outside vendors or brands, even the small ones. In a nutshell, it's a great name on the resume but it's a mind game and somewhat torturous while you're there.

1.0
Dec 16, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The stolen artistic ideas and cool customers you can meet.

Cons

Below-poverty salary, no Human Resources Department, complete disregard for OSHA, horrible, demeaning working conditions, stolen overtime hours from employees (class action lawsuit currently ongoing - December 2014), absolute disregard for employee rights, no fair due process exists, employees mean absolutely nothing to the company, disgustingly greedy upper management, grossly incompetent merchandisers and district managers, stay far away from this company, both as a potential hire or as a customer. Boycott Urban outfitters and teach them that this is unacceptable. Proof of statements available upon request.

4.0
Jul 12, 2014

Senior Designer

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Beautiful corporate campus located four miles from Center City Philadelphia. A rich and immersive company culture that identifies strongly with the UO customer. Entrepreneurial spired is valued and rewarded within the company. There are many opportunities for lateral movement within the brand and the URBN Inc. organization. Casual work environment with an official "Bring Your Dog to Work" policy. The most creative position in the company is store design/display, which is really what separates the brand from it's competition. Open to differing points of view.

Cons

The strong company/brand culture can be a negative if it doesn't fit your personal style/outlook. The company is adding layers and structure as it grows which tends to work agains the core entrepreneurial values. Long standing employees that have transitioned to management roles aren't well supported in the change from "doer" to "manager". There is not a traditional HR department which can make it difficult to navigate and resolve issues with other co-workers or bosses/managers. The focus on internal promotion (from stores) and keeping operation costs low means that some of you co-workers could be a bit inexperienced for their position. Also not competitive from a pay standpoint and relocating to Philadelphia (mainly from NYC and LA) can be difficult for some. Both of these points tend to contribute to a high turn over rate for many areas.

Viewing 7 - 9 of 6,266 Reviews

Glassdoor has 6,574 Urban Outfitters reviews submitted anonymously by Urban Outfitters employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Urban Outfitters is right for you.