Avoid at all costs! This is not the job or company you think it is.
Firstly you are taken into a nice showroom for your interview to Wow you, promised to work on some of their bigger accounts/brands yet when you start you are put on Sports Direct team to “learn” and then move up. This never happens. SO expect fast disposable fashion as your real job here.
One of the biggest issues is there is no HR person or team.
No one to turn to if you need help or advice, leaving management able to bully and gossip about their employees.
Management gossip about owners & other employees openly in the office. Sometimes to other employees which makes you wonder – what do they say about me when im not here then? Management once gossiped about a girl in the office not realizing she was there. They got called out by her and did nothing except try and laugh it off. Another more serious incident was a girl called in sick realizing she was pregnant and this was shouted out by management in the office, word got around before this girl had a chance to announce it herself. She was treated as though she was selfish for being pregnant and not thinking about her job and career path. Most shocking treatment!
Other gossip resulted in another girl being ambushed by management and targeted as a formal complaint for someone else’s gossip about her. There was no evidence or warning to this girl, ambushed, shouted at and bullied into signing the formal complaint.
There are also a couple of mean girl types who seek management as friends so beware, the only reason you put up with this place is the few nice people on your team who are real friends.
No management training – They are people who started at the company when it was really small and have been bumped up quickly with no people or management skills. They act as though they are the “originals” and everyone else deserves to be treated badly as they are new to the industry. They underpay and treat Design Assistants as interns and quote “THIS IS HOW I WAS TREATED AS A DESIGN ASSITANT”. A lot of who struggle financially and could earn more working in a supermarket now a days. One girl got into debt by working at this job! You get no sick pay either. So that severely affects your income when you are really ill, it then spreads around the company because people can’t afford to be ill.
Management constantly throw people under the bus to the owners, only give negative feedback or telling’s off, expect lots of overtime (even when its due to lack of work delegation on their part), some working up until 10pm and you get no thanks and often that work is then wasted and thrown in the bin due to the buyers not actually wanting to see that anymore. There is no team when it comes to them except the management team. You are on your own!
You are treated as a robot by other robots with no emotions. You have no life outside of work and are expected to fill out a workload every morning and evening so they can check up on you.
There are fake appraisals to boost the horrifically low team moral. Owner quoted a girl saying this while verbally abusing her in his office, while her manager sat and said nothing. (Throwing her under the bus) Resulting in her crying and eventually leaving. He quoted in stronger wording “YOU ARE A POO DESIGNER AND WILL NEVER MAKE IT”. She left to a much better company within a few weeks but got a bad ref from them, they tried to sabotage her better job. This was verbal personal abuse and she couldn’t take action due to having no HR in the company and being there for less than 2 years. (You can seek advice from ACAS but you can only take legal action after 2 years of employment)
This place makes you depressed, frustrated and very unhappy. They try to knock everyone into pawns and if you are a strong individual then you will clash. It leaves everyone questioning - Do I want to even be in fashion anymore? (Note. Don’t give up! This place is nothing like the real industry. But they enjoy taking in newbies and taking advantage.) Low pay across the company and favoritism promotions from the owner. Someone who starts there as a design assistant straight from Uni could win over the owner and be promoted quickly to junior and then designer over other juniors and designers with years and years of experience. Very strange system. All secretive and not made as a celebration to the team. (more than likely cause it will upset others with longer experience)
Don’t expect a good ref. Anyone who manages to escape and have a decent enough job to go to will be given a bad reference as management hate the fact they are stuck there and others are leaving to do better. Especially if it’s a big/good move – the jealousy sets in. You end up wishing you had left sooner and see it as a massive black hole on your CV.