J. Jill Reviews

J.Jill is a toxic environment, very cut throat, kill-or-be-killed mentality. Everyone throws everyone under the bus to protect themselves and that's acceptable. Management said point-blank in a meeting that they expect you to stay after hours and it’s the norm to NOT see your kids, “if you want a job and you want to leave at 5, this is not the place for you, if you want a career it is”, “You either have it or you don’t and if you don’t your time is going to be up”. Once head exec walked the halls and stated “it’s 6:30 where is everybody?”. I mentioned I needed to leave at 5:30 to pick up my daughter and its been hard to leave to do so - "too bad" they told me, "I don't see my kids either". Late and early meetings are the norm, 8am meetings and 7pm meetings happen almost every day. They don't develop and support their good people and then drive them out. The President of the company is always confused on what she asked for in prior meetings and has everyone run around in circles back and forth to appease her. Decisions are made on the fly with no regards to what needs to get done and the impact on the employees, creative work suffers and it results in a lower quality outcome. There is A TON of turnover. They place unrealistic expectations on their staff and everyone is overworked, departments are understaffed, folks are miserable and unhappy.

Where do I begin? Working at the J Jill corporate office is a nightmare. Virtually no training for new employees. Dated, sub-par systems. Management is very "hands off" and disconnected from employees. No support from management - constant finger pointing; direct reports constantly "thrown under the bus" in order to alleviate being blamed for wrongdoing by company president. Speaking of whom, the company president is an out-of-touch "has been" who has no clue of the actual J Jill clientele. Management is incapable of making firm decisions in a timely manner, leading to constant re-works. Ineffectual HR department. Absolutely no room for growth - the company has "leveled off" in growth & will never be a "power player" in the industry. Salary is below industry standard, particularly for East Coast companies. Many positions that are "bonus eligible" at most other companies are exempt here; yet management is given substantial "secret" bonuses. Finally, if you relocate, be prepared that they do NOT "gross up" in terms of the relocation $, it's retroactive, and takes months to be paid out.