Exploitative / cool vibe - Department Manager Urban Outfitters Employee Review

2.0
26 Oct 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Excellent vibe, great culture, interesting product, great discount, varying tasks and responsibilities, creativity encouraged, open, modern, liberal, artistic, fantastic teams of educated, passionate, hard-working and motivated individuals; made good friends for life great opportunities for growth at store level, respected experience in the retail industry especially when coming from a high volume store

Cons

Hugely exploitative, super high turnover on management level, ridiculously low payroll and unrealistic expectations for the means the company supplies. Terrible working conditions: 80s technology, no cleaning services: staff wastes a lot of time cleaning high volume store instead of focusing on operations. Extremely long hours, bad schedules: ex: closing very late at night (before corporate visits often 2 or 3am) then opening at 6am the next day making for no work/life balance whatsoever and inexistent quality of life. Dept and store managers salaried: 10-30 hours of unpaid overtime a week depending on time of the year. Bad division of responsibility, no security surveillance in stores, on top of being a retail manager and taking care of one's department and business tons of pressure put on management teams to prevent people from stealing + professional shoplifters who make a living out of Urban Outfitters.

Explore other reviews about Urban Outfitters

5.0
24 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Loved working in the middle of campus, meet lots of fun people

Cons

Can be boring at times working retail, repetitive but have to be busy.

2.0
24 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- nice employees - freedom to choose music from playlist - pretty good discounts (60% off in-store items)

Cons

- horrible and immature management - minimum wage tondo more work than i've had to do in other sales positions (for more pay) - rushed and confusing sales training - forced to empty all bags and pockets before leaving store to prove you didn't steal

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