Victoria's Secret reviews

3.5

57% would recommend to a friend

(13,114 total reviews)
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Hillary Super

70% approve of CEO

47% positive business outlook

Victoria's Secret has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 13,114 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Victoria's Secret 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

13K reviews
3.0
Dec 16, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You'll work with some of the sharpest, most ingenious people in the industry. LBrands and Victoria's Secret are serious about hiring top talent and almost everyone here is at the top of their game. The brand recognition and reach of this place is also phenomenal; I get wide-eyed stares and slack-jaws when I mention that I work for the VS home office. There's also plenty of swag. New bra launch? Expect to see your name entered in a raffle to win one of your own. Home Office associates are also able to participate in bra "Wear Tests," where you get to preview and a sample bra and provide feedback before it's launched for mass production. You can stack up on tons of free bras and swimwear that way. There's plenty of gratis for just about anything you can think of. You'll see free lunches, free snacks, box office tickets to events and concerts, you name it, you'll have access to win/earn it. Just know that you'll be paying for all of those perks in one way or another. :) There's an annual sample sale held in both Columbus and New York. The Columbus version is like the love child of a black market garage sale and a trashy scrap heap on steroids. If you're willing to get dirty and deal with Black Friday level crowds, you can score some sweet deals on clothing, beauty, jewelry and even wonky things like store fixtures and design pieces. Get there EARLY (Seriously. Like 4am. This Black Friday level insanity, remember?), bring a friend, some water bottles and snacks, and smear your face with war paint. It's that intense. If you don't mind literally surfing boxes of broken glass, you can score the mother lode of Bath & Body Works wallflowers and anti-bac. I hear that the New York version is much better organized--no one risks getting black eyes while fighting over a pallet of hand lotion. Much classier. Lots of focus on work culture and community. They force a program called "Limited Way" down your throats, which is a little cult-like, but I find it beneficial. It helps to provide some basic ground rules for how to treat others within the workplace and some basic life skills that can translate to your personal life. The brand is also big on philanthropy and community service (Pelotonia, United Way, Race for the Cure, etc). I can't say that all of that is geniune, though. Participation is pretty much mandatory (you WILL be called out if you haven't tithed your money or time to any of Les Wexner's projects. I've also heard stories about promotions and raises based on history of United Way donations).

Cons

There are absolutely no rules, no documentation, and no checks and balances for ANYTHING. I wish all new hires the best of luck, you basically have to bust your rump to get even the basic understanding of what the heck is going on in your department and your role within the business. (On-boarding is a joke.) The lack of guardrails makes it difficult to get basic tasks accomplished without having to get buy-in and feedback from everyone and Moses. There are opportunistic individuals and departments who take advantage of this weak structure by dominating other teams and bullying them into submission. Victoria's Secret Stores and Victoria's Secret Direct (the dot-com half of the business) are ENTIRELY different companies (Lord, I'm not even throwing PINK or VS Beauty in the mix, that's two more levels of dysfunction.). The fact that they're broken up between 3 separate offices is telling. We're told to think in an omni-channel ("Megabrand") way, but VSS dominates all discussion and process with little to no consideration of VSD. So-called "leaders" make split-second decisions without taking into consideration the actual work it takes to execute the details. It makes for a frustrating work environment and ultimately a broken customer experience because both teams are more concerned with kicking sand in the other's face rather than playing as one, focused brand. It's pathetic. Individuals are fierce and there are several dominant personalities. You have to be on your A-game each day of the week, as people would rather cut you down than collaborate. Lots of name dropping ("Les wants this," or "Sharen and Bridget asked for that...") as a way of intimidating people into doing what you want. Communication is poor and strained across all levels. Get used to being the last person to know that your project was cancelled or reassigned to someone else. All decisions are made at the eleventh hour. Some of this comes with the job--you're always bound by the performance of yesterday's sales--but much of the planning stages is more reactionary than proactive. Hush-hush important meetings are held in secret corners of the building without requiring input from anyone relevant to the task. Emails fly through the night, well beyond the normal person's working hours. (I'm guilty of this as well. It's easy to get sucked in.) There's no clear-cut way to advance or be promoted. I earned a perfect score on my review, but I've had several people leapfrog me for next-level positions. It's easy to be pigeonholed into a certain role or function. Oh, and if you're in one of those elevated positions, they will put you to work, honey. W-O-R-K. I've spent many a weekend monitoring performance on the website to track inventory and dole out reports. We're told time and time again that we're trying to double our business, but we don't invest the time in increasing our headcount. They'd rather double-up on your workload than spend the money on salary and benefits for others to help spread the load. Systems and technology are pathetic and old. Everything at VS.com is managed by a 1970s, Atari-looking Mainframe. I KID YOU NOT. There's some serious Konami code magic built into that system (Bonus points for those of you who know what that means. All you non-gamers can Google it.); it hasn't been refreshed since the dawn of mankind. It's rigid, inflexible, and doesn't allow us to compete on the same level with other retailers with a solid online presence. I spend more time doubling back on broken systems and processes than I do ideating. Don't expect new hardware or software. The brand can be scrupulously cheap and conservative on key initiatives. In summary: Only the strong and belligerent survive here. The turnover rate is ridiculously high, if you make it more than a year and a half, you're either doing something right or oblivious to the struggle.

2.0
Jul 24, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There are many pros about this job from my time working here. One was obviously the discount that we got. You get what you pay for, so thankfully I can say I didn't pay full price because well it's not really worth that much for a bra in my opinion if its made in China where they probably make it for like a dollar or something. The other pro was my some of my coworkers. They are what made coming to work enjoyable. We all were knowledgeable in the product after a while because well we are around it all day so I hope we would be eventually, so it got fun to joke about it once we got to know each other and come up with new ways to entertain ourselves to make time pass easier. Victoria's Secret is an instantly recognizable brand, so whenever I mentioned that I worked there people were excited and surprised and it made me feel proud to be employed there. Coming from a male's perspective, I had so much more respect for women after working here because I learned what they have to go through. Bras are expensive as hell, and to get the matching underwear to go with them....ouch. Seeing a customer light up when they found out they have been wearing the wrong cup size made my day sometimes, because it makes a tremendous difference or so I have been told by my female coworkers. It's the little things that count in life and making someone happy with the littlest thing can have a huge impact and I loved to see people happy so I tried my best to do so. Most women when I worked there were surprised at my knowledge in bras, and once they were reassured that I actually knew what I was talking about they were open to hear my suggestions and ideas for them. I did as much as I could possibly do as a male associate there, and handed them off at appropriate times if they needed to be measured or such. I learned a lot from working here ranging from customer skills (selling, handling situations, etc.) to how to run a business effectively to a certain extent (There are always flaws, no matter where you go), so for that I am truly thankful. I certainly am not a jaded or bitter employee, it was simply time for me to move on as I had found a better opportunity.

Cons

Hours. Let me first start off by saying that I was hired on part time so I knew what I was getting in to. I had been with the company for two years when I decided to quit. There had been times where I had a lot of hours and then there were times where I had none or very little. My main complaint is that I wish the hours would have been more consistent so that I way I had somewhat of a predictable income. Also, a set schedule would have been nice, not one that changes every week to something completely different and I have to readjust my plans every single week accordingly. They were still hiring on masses of people whereas they had the current staff willing to work more hours but they wouldn't let them so they just hired new people. I understand their reasoning behind hiring a bunch of people and cutting hours for those currently existing, is because it is cheaper to hire a new worker rather than to retain an older one who has been there for a while so they in my mind were kinda hoping all the old ones would quit as a result so they'd have a newer and cheaper labor force. But what I did find funny is that oftentimes the new hires would be earning slightly more than the people that had worked there....funny and insulting. Pay. There has been plenty of discussion on this topic relating to VS so I will keep it simple. For the amount of work that they require you to do, I think you are simply not paid enough here. Overworked and underpaid is a good way to put it. There were days where I worked 12 hours and realized at the end of the day I just earned enough to buy one bra, but wait...that was before taxes were taken out so I was just kidding about working that long and still not being able to buy a bra from there with what I was being paid. Part time vs Full Time. No benefits for part timers but plenty for full timers. Part time employees are offered absolutely no benefits here, not even the option to purchase stock. I have heard of other employers that offer medical insurance to their part timers as well as other options that they can opt into if they want. Working here part time sure does take up a lot of your schedule as they will often schedule you to where it would be very hard to fit in a second job in the day, as they most likely schedule you during peak hours or for hours to where it would overlap into a good starting time for another job. Full timers are treated with a little more respect by management from my personal observation, which is kind of sad and discouraging once you realize it is happening. If you want to be full time here then they expect you to be devoted to them 24-7 and practically have to give up working anywhere else just to be full time here. But once again even though full timers get paid slightly more, the pay still isn't enough to make it a sustainable income for most people so I sure hope you have money on the side or a rich spouse or your parents to fall back on or to make ends meet. It would be nice to see atleast something offered to part timers as a benefit. Management. I do not want to mention too much about management, so I will keep it brief once again because I fear if I say too much it will only lead to a rant, which is not what I want this review to be. Gossiping is a huge problem I have found to happen amongst management at Victoria's Secret. I have heard them openly talk about other employees saying they were too fat, not that pretty, weird, etc. Hearing that as an employee is discouraging because I thought management was supposed to be older and wiser and fair but it turns out they're just as immature as high schoolers but on a more adult level if that makes sense. The manager I had was amazing, super cool and fun to be around. She made coming to work fun and that was one of the reasons I loved my job. Some managers had their perks but others were just plain different. Some were super strict rule followers, whereas others knew that in order to get stuff done the rules had to be bent. Management also seems to pick favorites A LOT which is discouraging to the morale of the team knowing they favor some over others. I also felt like management kept secrets from the employees about the company and how it was doing or news within the company. The best policy I think is to have an open policy, so anything you learn you should let regular employees know as well so that way we know what is going on as well and won't be surprised when something happens and work collectively as a group to fix them. They had an open policy, but only at certain hours and days of the week so not everyone could be heard. Management always seemed to think that they knew what was best, and would sometimes but usually never listen to employee suggestions for improving business. If they did they would often fakely say oh that's a good idea and pretend to care and write it down but just forget about it later.

2.0
Sep 7, 2023

Obliterated my self esteem. AVOID!!!!

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I loved working here when I first started but over time I saw it for what it was and it completely destroyed my self-esteem. there are some very kind people here but at this point they are very few and far between. Most of the things that made it great don’t exist anymore, or the people who made it special have been laid off or quit.

Cons

Some senior and middle-managers are extremely toxic. Blatant favoritism, excuses for why they won’t develop you, and the company has a very shiny exterior when in reality the culture is rotting from the inside out. You will work long hours and not get paid enough. Bonuses are low unless you are high up. A lot of misogynistic behavior in a company that should be supporting women, and not even some of the women support women. I can’t even tell you how much therapy I needed because of this place. If they like you, your career will be a breeze and if you don’t, there is nothing you can do to fix it.

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Glassdoor has 13,861 Victoria's Secret reviews submitted anonymously by Victoria's Secret employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Victoria's Secret is right for you.