Stephane Rinderknech suppresses and gaslights female, male, and non-binary L'Oreal executives to the point of them quitting or terminating their contracts.
Everyone at Urban Decay prior to 2016 began going on disability or medical leave due to the toxic, racist, classist environment perpetuated by co-founder and Texas alum Wende Zomnir, who is on record as saying things such as "Lizzo will die because she's obese" and "L'Oreal's racist; they hate Black people."
Executive leadership, with the exception of very few DMI + USA leaders, is a toxic environment of cis white women who do not care about anyone but themselves and their corporate coaches and their LinkedIn profiles and their personal branding/PR.
Red tape, abusive leadership, and incompetence at all levels prevents people from getting the resources and personnel they need to lead. You are set up to fail before you even arrive for your first day here; IT literally will not have your email set up nor a work computer available for you. There is no such thing as onboarding; L'Oreal dictates busywork that means you will be working nights, mornings, and weekends, especially on a global timeframe with a drive timeline that is designed to make you go to the hospital and go on long-term disability.
Deadlines are arbitrarily changed by AVPs who do not do any work; the ad agencies, vendors, and creative teams/creative ops teams are set up to fail regularly, 24/7. Do not continue to reward and promote longtime Urban Decay + L'Oreal male and female AVPs/VPs who do nothing and speak condescendingly as if they are qualified for their roles as Digital Marketers, PR, Ecommerce, or Social.
This is a classist, toxic, cis white female environment that does not support, listen to, acknowledge, or learn from its cycle of abuse. No human in their right mind should work for L'Oreal USA or Urban Decay. Individuals are fired while on maternity leave; non-binary, neurodivergent employees are gaslit by middle management and AVPs who do nothing except gaslight their direct reports into being on antidepressants.
There is no accountability here; there is only gaslighting, white female fragility, racism, elitism from racist, self-hating people who went to state schools or USC who feel entitled because they "know everything," toxic leadership, toxic middle management, and an inverted pyramid of middle managers that expects everyone else to comply.
You are expected to be on 24/7 while underpaid in Orange County, undervalued, without promotions, while global teams (DMI) and the U.S. teams are siloed from one another. The most qualified, empathetic, talented, and brilliant operators and leaders quit within 6 months to 3 years. There is no growth for you if you are good at your job. The bamboo ceiling is real. DMI Global Executive Team fails at protecting direct reports. The overturn rate is 100% for individual employees. AVPs continue to gaslight their direct reports through intimidation tactics, Microsoft Team messages at 2 am, and abusive language and extreme negligence.
LGBTQIA+/talented Creative Freelancers quit immediately because of cis white female AVPs blaming them when it's really the AVP that needs to be fired. AVPs belittle VPs regularly. This is a known issue that has never been fixed. This is a personality flaw that can only be fixed by firing and termination of the toxic AVPs/VPs.
Personal social media messages and personal text messages sent at all hours during weekends and weeknights are used to gaslight direct reports/employees into participating in activities they otherwise feel averse to or guilted into working when their AVP is not working—it's easy to figure out who is toxic based on their direct report overturn %. L'Oreal does not comply by its own PR messages. Google "L'Oreal Daily Beast Toxic Abuse" to confirm all of the information that is being suppressed by Urban Decay and L'Oreal.
Regular phrases used by AVPs and the "pets" of VPs:
—Let us do our job.
—Stay in your lane.
—This is your fault.
—This isn't our fault.
—We're not responsible for this.
—We didn't approve this.
—It's your job to get this done.
—Give this to X; they're faster and are willing to help.
—I can't pretend I didn't see this but I won't say anything.
—I know everything.
—You owe me.
Instagram's watchdog account, Estee Laundry, (instagram.com/esteelaundry), has some of the best up-to-date information on what companies in beauty are toxic and which are PR/HR nightmares.
It's a revolving door between Urban Decay and TooFaced employees because they are the equivalent of the Sharks and Jets in "West Side Story." Everyone in middle management/AVP/the inverted pyramid protects themselves and then *maybe* their teams next.
After interviews with executive organizational psychologists from L'Oreal, the data showed this quantitatively and qualitatively. When forced to admit a mistake, individuals have to rationalize this: "If I tell the truth to my toxic, abusive manager, I will 100% be blamed. Even though the mistake was caused by the cis white female AVP ignoring my emails and blatantly blaming everyone else. If I lie to leadership, there's a 50% probability that the truth will come out and leadership will lie and throw me under the bus. So, given that 100% of the blame will fall squarely on my shoulders, I have no choice but to lie to protect myself, my low salary, my health benefits, and my salary."
Employees here only stay due to extenuating needs, such as health insurance and medical needs. Everyone who is talented and an operator goes on disability at least once, but then is gaslit to believe they are not talented because they aren't being promoted. The Bamboo Ceiling, where Asian-Americans and International Asians are not promoted to leadership positions, posited by Harvard Business Review and Stanford Business School, along with numerous other organizational psychology journals, holds more true at Urban Decay than at any other cosmetics company in Los Angeles, Orange County, or New York City.
It has a startup mentality trapped in a corporate matrix, which is a recipe for mental health + medical emergencies caused by negligent and toxic leaders at the AVP/VP level. AVPs routinely sabotage and disparage fellow AVPs/VPs/executive on Microsoft Teams chats (public and private channels) and the "Mean Girls Mentality" mentioned in other reviews is absolutely true, at every level. This is one of the most racist, classist, abusive, enabling environments and is a trigger for anyone with a beating heart and an ounce of empathy or competency. Do not apply here. Do not work here. Join a monastery instead.
Consultants who have come in from L'Oreal USA Executive have administered extensive surveys, one-on-one interviews, and NEO stress tests. This is the worst company in Orange County/Los Angeles, because it takes advantage of the most competent leaders and drives them to seek mental health/medical resources, while forcing them to be accountable for AVPs and VPs and Presidents who report to Patriarchal French Men who are overpaid, such as CEO Stephane Rinderknech. Harvard Business School Review has deemed L'Oreal a toxic workplace; Estee Lauder Companies have a much healthier culture.
When the Heads of L'Oreal/UD Recruiting, SVP of HR, and the entire HR department turn over in less than a year, you leave. This is no place for a human to work. Everyone is set up to fail.