The process started off pretty straightforward. A recruiter reached out, and I met with the hiring manager soon after. Everything seemed to be going well until the in-person interviews. The team came across as pretty stressed, and several people talked at length about challenges with leadership. From their perspective, expectations around growth felt unrealistic. What stood out was that the brand actually was growing, which is impressive given how tough retail is right now, especially for legacy brands competing with newer ones bringing a fresh take. But the team still seemed pretty demoralized because it apparently wasn’t growing fast enough.