DAVIDsTEA Reviews

They give terrible pay and promise it will go up in 3months, then 6, then a year and on and on. They pay their managers garbage and dangle a carrot that soon they will make more (a more that never comes, not even in 4 years). You are expected to manage your team, sales, store marketing, admin, train other managers and asst managers, help open other stores; with no compensation for it at all. Managers can get paid as low as $30,000/ year! They lost SO MANY managers in the past few years they may offer more now (still way below market value) but the abuse continues. The DMs for Ontario are a joke. They repeat exactly what they are told by head office and do not stick up for their managers. They say they want feedback, but only if it doesnt contradict upper mngt. There is a hard top-down approach. The company didnt start like that. David sold his shares to big-money American investors in 2011 (CEOs from Loreal, LuLuLemon, Staples, Starbucks, and more) and everything went downhill. DavidsTea is now American owned since 2011 but they dont want anyone to know that. You will love the peer managers, and your team; but if you have any self-respect and are not willing to be over-worked and wayyy underpaid- you will get pushed out and told you have 'a sense of entitlement' for asking for a fair pay. Upper management and head office is like high school. Very cliquey, catty. Hiring our (National Sales Manager) was the begin of the downhill. She has no people skills and is an egotistical tyrant. She got the job because she is the bff of the former COO. What a disaster. Dont let them screw you with money saying it will increase later. That is their scam. Ask them for 45-50,000/year and get it in writing or walk. They HAVE the money but can get away with it because so many young people are in debt and need jobs. No ethics at all. SHADY business people. Zero integrity. What does it matter they buy a few fair trade teas if they exploit young Canadians here. All of what they show to be is strategic, planned, and insincere. Sharks.

Work life/balance was incredibly poor. Working open to close or more than 40 hours a week is common in many stores no matter what lies are said by Upper level management and/or corporate. When you are salaried it is an unspoken rule. Many Store Managers do work at home or stay longer because the computers in the store are incredibly slow and old and are not conducive to doing work for long periods of time. The computers are the register computers and even if you are doing an important admin task with a deadline if a customer comes in they are your focus. Hours to schedule or based on sales targets more money you make the more hours you have but also is the inverse. This leads to a lot of one part coverage on SMs and ASMs so you can have more coverage hours for high peak days like weekends. Burn out and turnover are high due to low pay versus the amount of responsibilities. The job can be labour intensive especially when it comes to the cleaning aspect of the job. People can get hurt doing things like shipment because they have to race to get the product off the floor so customers don't see. Shifty corporate personnel who don't take feedback or concerns as seriously as they should. The field has the most contact with customers yet that resource is not utilized enough and it shows. DT trades on the NASDAQ for less than $2 which. They expanded too rapidly and want to quietly close some stores to offset the losses. The lack of transparency and chaos at corporates also breeds distrust for retail employees. The former CEO sued the founder when they could not agree on what their vision for DT's future. With all this chaos the company took a hit of 10 million dollars just this quarter to add to the previous lackluster quarters. So much pressure on sales by DMs to the stores because it now becomes the responsibility of the field to pick up burdens from big mistakes at the corporate level which is next to impossible when there's not enough marketing invested for stores. Favoritism and gossip does take place so always be mindful of what you say no matter what even in times of frustration because it can bite you in the end. DM emphasize taking ownership but could not do the same for their mistakes and instead shift the blame to stores. Creates a work structure that breeds distrust and ultimately will effect productivity. Pay versus your responsibilities was poor. When you are salaried it starts to mean nothing when you break it down to how many hours you work versus how much you are paid you will see the disparity. Ridiculous wage makes it hard to retain talent. It is slightly above minimum wage and the amount of work that you do versus what you get paid makes it hard for the job to be attractive. If its your first job you won't know better but it does give you a foundation for good work ethic. Quality of merchandise has taken a hit and many customer returns due to defective product. Sampling in extreme weather is a mistake and lead to dangerous outcomes. Outdated technology and training program which employees have to basically unlearn when they get in store for in-store training.