Pros
Great co-workers, can have a good salary, good benefits, good training for many
Cons
Where should I start... It is sad to say, but most of the not so positive reviews here are spot on. Why do we read that there are management issues in Dallas, Houston, Paramus, New York, Chicago, and so on. In the beginning Kip and Garrett had a dream, a dream of a great workplace where "Everyone would thrive." In this place there would be mutual respect, honesty, great business practices and a "Yummy Culture." And it happened, a great company was formed, great employees were hired, great products were sold and then something started to happen. The company started to grow, the "outliers" were harder to "contain." But rather than attempt to corral them the executives wanted to believe it was not happening. Because of this looking the other way and hoping/believing that the good in others would prevail, the opposite happened. The uncontrolled grew, and then we began to see the discontent in the full and part time employees. It is so sad that this great company has fallen. It is sad that the CEO, President and Vice Presidents do not take a stance and say the problems need to stop. How many reviews must be posted on this and many other sites before change happens. Garrett would have a heart attack if he heard what is said by store managers on a daily basis. It is all posted here and is emblazoned on the Fortune survey but it is only reviewed. Sure some management plans have been made after egregious behavior, but those managers are mostly still in their positions. You started LDP because of the survey but it is fast becoming a failure as have many in house, untested programs have. At least 50% of those"invited" to be involved have no desire to be there, a good 25% only say what they think you want them to say. Even the Area Directors have no clue as to what should be happening, and make some amazingly ignorant statements. This is yet another failure to be recorded. There are far too many expectations placed on store changes (campaigns and reworks) that it takes away from the look of the store and the ability to make sales. The amount of money wasted on many useless changes is astounding. Many added changes cost payroll. Payroll is another issue in that it is in part how bonuses for managers are rewarded. This disinsentifies adequate staffing. Bonuses should be entirely based on sales performance if we were truly employee first. Managers have even taken it upon themselves to determine that the new compensation guidlines were meant to make it more difficult to attain an excellent review thus ensuring their qualifying for bonuses. Kip has repeatedly said current salary should not determine percentage of increase but managers repeatedly say "you are well compensated."