What is a typical working day like at Aritzia?

Amazing discount and fun coworkers

Very competitive and left every shift feeling drained

Good opportunity’s to move up. Good discount

Extremely physically demanding. Sometimes almost 20k steps in a shift. Got yelled at for sitting down (when I expressed I was having knee pain) but was allowed to crouch? lol. Majority of people would leave the Inventory associate role after 6 months because of neck/back/knee problems from standing at the long table we had in the back (called the line). This position is a glorified sweat shop role. We would get yelled at daily to ‘work harder and faster’ and being tired and human wasn’t acceptable. Many injuries occurred in this role too such as being burned from steaming clothes, pricked by security tags constantly (especially under fingernails), constant paper cuts. Refused to give benefits until you’re fulltime. Full time hours are also refused until 6 months to a year of working there. Managers will watch every move to find a reason to build a case against you, then you’ll get fired when you least expect it. Their contract allows to fire without cause at any point in time so watch your back. Many times shifts are only 3-4 hours long, so if you have to drive far/commute, you’re wasting that on gas. Shift hours are very up in the air, most employees only get around 2-3 shifts a week to keep you under full time hours to avoid offering benefits to all their employees

Simple and easy tasks to follow

Same job every shift and very dependant on season

very good pay, fun city (Vancouver), good discounts, welcoming and professional treatment until the first day on the job

- worst job I ever had - toxic atmosphere, humiliating communication , dehumanizing treatment by managers and directors - insane work hours from day one: weekend and late night work always expected, weird looks if you want to take vacation - they have certain protective rules in place but your manager will get mad if you actually point those out. (At the beginning you are not to work at the weekends, you won’t get access to servers, but they make you work nonetheless) - getting „scolded“ like a child in front of collegues for not behaving exactly the way your manager envisioned - directors with obvious social disorder, making people in meetings so uncomfortable they start crying. Nobody dares to ever speak up because it is known such people get terminated - reports of unprofessional, psychologically abusive behavior to management will be reportet back to the abuser instead of protecting the person who suffered - abusers are being protected at all costs - management uses fear strategies as tools to make employees work even harder - praise is given to people in team meetings who sacrifies a vacation, a birthday of a loved one, or a bank holiday for a semi-urgent task - they describe their toxic work culture as high „performance culture“ which serves as a great excuse to create unhealthy competition between „team“ members - they make you sign an agreement to not work at any competitor for a year after Aritzia which makes it impossible to work anywhere within the clothing industry afterwards unless you switch careers (lol) - they make you sign NDA‘s to shut you up about mistreatment - they want every employee to use their special Aritzia language with lots of abbreviations and specific words no other company uses. Like this they can spot how fast you shed off your personal style and become one of them - you will probably develop ptsd, a sleeping disorder, loose social contacts - you might develop paranoia because they try to control every aspect of your personal life, wanting to know what you do at all times, why you have to go to the doctor, why you want to book a vacation, why you need any personal time etc. - your manager might share personal details you told them in private in team meetings - your director might create impossible scenarios to ridicule you in front of others to teach you a lesson and make you obey better - don’t ever question anything, you are nothing, you know nothing - don’t show any personal needs, you are not supposed to be human, you are a working robot who always agrees to whatever task outside your job description

Great discount, 40%. Great to say you work(ed) there.

- Hourly goal to sell product, if you didn't hit it, you're now expected to sell double that in the next hour (and so on, and no you did not get commission despite being pushed to make sales) - Was not treated equally to other workers (had an inkling it was due to skin color...) - The best workers were awarded for ignoring "poor looking" people and only going after those dressed well or eyeing expensive products (many people would sit and wait until someone comes to look at coats, they'd make the sale and be awarded promotions) - Insane standards (everything must be buttoned, zipped, perfectly folded and folded by it's unique style, you should already know the names of all clothing) - You can't leave unless all criteria is met (your assigned cubby needs to be perfectly clean, which is hard when customers shop while you're cleaning. It ends up in a never ending cycle of zipping/buttoning while customers keep shopping. Often will spend 30 minutes after my shift just fixing my cubby.) - Culture of "that was my sale/client" sets you up for sabotage and catfights. Management will step in to "resolve" this, and often favor seniority or their favorite worker. - If you try to reduce bottle neck by bringing things from the change room racks back to the sales floor, you're going to help all your colleagues but then get talked to by management for not selling $200 in the hour, and now have to sell $400 in this hour. - If you successfully hit your quota, congrats, now it's increased even more on your next shift ($150 > $250).