Toxic work environment- not worth it - Sales Associate Ambiance Employee Review

1.0
10 Nov 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The person who hired me was the best manager I worked for, but she gets obviously stressed and under pressure. The clothes discounts are okay. The locations are okay , I worked on Haight. I will miss a couple of my co workers.

Cons

TOXIC MANAGERS AND OWNER , RUN The place relies on ridiculing and criticizing the employees, perhaps to keep their self esteem low to keep them all at part time, minimum wage, and no benefits. They blatantly, very fake, will treat their customers like VIP at the four seasons and then Immediately 180 to tell you you messed up, most often it’s unwarranted, incorrect, or you have all ready done what they asked. The revolving head staff and managers will yell at you in front of customers which is SO embarrassing and awkward. They treat you like middle school students. There’s no team morale, and the pressure to make sales keeps managers in a horrible, offensive funk that they take out on their employees. The Craigslist ad I saw for employees was totally misleading, saying full time options and benefits are available, but after almost two months it’s clear that they never intend to make you full time. Also I believe nobody gets benefits.(at least the sales associates that I did encounter) 90% sure of that. After averaging more than exceptional sales as a beginning employee I was hardly recognized and there is no commission even after making them thousands of dollars a week, and sometimes even a day! Granted I had some trouble with punctuality, it still seemed like whatever chance they got the would nit pick any reason to criticize you for something. Some of the merch team were extremely catty and weird. Other than the one buyer who always said hi, and the visual merch (thank you for this) Also, strangely, the head staff and long term employees that I’ve witnessed 10/11 were of one specific race and do believe they are the only ones writing good reviews on here. They all had the best positions or were employed the longest and had the authority save one manager I worked for, but who was also extremely high strung and stressed out. There are so many better jobs to be had, I wanted to work here because I loved the shop since I was young and wanted to be a part of a staple SF company, but left knowing that it was totally an unhealthy environment meant to jab their employees into believing they should put up with the disrespect and condescending, patronizing, horribly humiliating behavior their managers put their girls through. All the employees there plus the manager who hired me deserve so much better. I walked out because the day I meet the owner she had nothing to say to me other than a complete criticism and scolds me for not engaging in conversation with two parties that I had all ready talked to and asked if they needed attendance, she came up to me scolding me for straightening the clothes because I wasn’t harassing the customers after they all ready said they didn’t need help, then when she said the exact same things to them and they also walked away almost immediately after, she said the difference between my approach and hers was her “vibes”... although she didn’t even witness me talking to them and the two girls I had to re-approach looked at me with the same look many have after overhearing the managers ridicule the employees ON THE SALES FLOOR... painfully awkward and pitiful. It immediately clicked that this was the source of all the lame treatment and shifts and interactions and weird passive aggressive, and aggressive aggressive manager behavior and head staff behavior came from. I walked out immediately after, something I never thought I’d have to do, but I don’t have a low-self esteem, which may warrant me unreliable to that business. Not sorry. Ive never, ever had that kind of experience with a company owner after working for many reputable companies from sf, to New York, LA, Paris, Mexico, etc. I came to this business to work on my credit and to contribute to a cute environment. Don’t let the quality of the clothes fool you, this place needs a major wake up call. They are not high fashion.

avatar
Ambiance Response
6y
We are very sorry to hear you had this experience. If you would like to talk to me about it directly I would be very happy to have this conversation. Donna@ambiancesf.com. We would like to correct some missing information. We offer Kaiser and dental to full time employees 30+ hours a week. They have to pass their probationary period of 3 months to be eligible. Part time employees if not covered elsewhere are covered by Healthy San Francisco which we also pay for. This employee had only worked 2 months. We are not sure what is meant by low pay. She was working for $16 an hour. We do not pay commission but if you are a great salesperson with a good record we raise you after 3 months. Our current management staff consists of 3 Chinese , 1 Filipino, 1 Korean, 3 Hispanics, 2 African Americans and 2 whites. They are all women. We are saddened that this gal who loved Ambiance, saw it this extreme negative light. We have many 5-10-15 year employees. Over the years we have employed 100%E2%80%99s of people. This employee to my knowledge never requested more hours because she had a full time job for another employer. My door is open to this type of review and constructive criticism and I will be investigating her other claims. I hope she takes the time to contact me.

Explore other reviews about Ambiance

5.0
15 Aug 2023
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Loved my managers. Had a fun atmosphere.

Cons

I was only part time so can’t think of anything

3.0
21 Oct 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- discount - entry level

Cons

- strict dress code -

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All