Anita is rolling in her grave - Recensione dipendente - Dipendente anonimo presso The Body Shop

The expectations of management are extremely high – and the amount of operations work is outrageous. Your day will be spent trying to finish endless training, reading endless communications from head office, move signage and products around in seemingly circles on a weekly basis, and learn an incredible amount of product knowledge. All this in between serving customers in an over-directed manner – you will be told exactly what to say, how to say it, to add on, to up-sell and take every spare cent your customer has to offer and give explanations as to why not if you don’t achieve their results – because it will always be your fault, even if you stick exactly to their methods. Strict dress codes must be adhered to; zero visible tattoo’s, facial piercings and specific black clothing make it very apparent that you are working for corporate L’Oreal, not the vision Anita had back in 1976. For this, you will be paid minimum wage, and despite hours and hours of learning everything and anything to do with the products, you will not see a penny of commission. Regardless of having spent time in three other locations, two of which were in the UK, I was treated as if I was a new starter and my experience and knowledge were never given any credit. The interview process is long – even for a customer consultant (someone has spent some time with a thesaurus – you are a sales associate; nothing more, nothing less) you will first have to pass a shop floor pass-through when you hand in your resume, then an interview with the store manager (or in the store I worked at, a team leader), then a shop floor interview that will get you nowhere if you don’t already have product knowledge or a used car salesman type sales technique, and then a phone interview with the district manager, and then fill in two hours of paperwork on the website for your file. Then you will sit in the backroom with DVDs for your first two shifts and fill in a booklet – and if you are a really good girl, you will get stars beside your name on a wall chart for completing the training. Only then you can start actually working, but there is yet more training, set out as bronze, silver and gold work cards - and yet more stars for the wall chart. You will then be expected to be on par with others staff members right out of the gate. None of this training set forth by head office gives any detail about product knowledge- it is all down to available knowledge of current staff. You will not, however, be given any training on cosmetic application, but you will be expected to apply it like a pro, and apply it like a pro on customers. You will also have to wear five pieces of TBS make-up (that you buy for yourself, no less) every shift. The make-up look you wear is not your choice, you will be given direction based on whatever the featured product/event is in store that month – there is little room for artistic impression. And you must wear a dramatic look – and you will feel more than a little bit like a clown. The discount is a joke, since the same and better discount is given to customers on a regular basis, and constant promotions cheapen the product value – nobody is fooled by the high prices when they are regularly sold for 50% off. Applicants beware! This is not the cute, ethically based company you hold in high regard. You are a number; a replaceable automaton in a giant, greedy corporate machine. A hippy store no more, this corporation will consume your soul if you are not careful.