Pros
Great people. Not much else.
Cons
This is a Fortune 100 company, but you wouldn’t know it from the way it treats its employees. Leadership recently mandated a five-day in-office workweek for all corporate staff, ignoring the fact that most companies in this industry and in general now operate on hybrid schedules. The CEO likes to say “there are no cash registers at corporate,” a comment that alienates the very people keeping the company running. In reality, computers and iPhones are modern registers, and e-commerce is how many customers shop today. Moreover, corporate employees chose professional careers, not cashier jobs. They went to college, many earned advanced degrees, and pursued careers as knowledge workers. Comparing these roles to hourly retail work is insulting. Will the next VP of Finance really be plucked from behind a register? According to the CEO’s rhetoric, it’s all the same. Dismissing corporate contributions in this way only reinforces how little leadership understands the evolving retail landscape and further underscores their dismissal of the very real differences between corporate and retail associates. Benefits are just as outdated, salaries are well below market, and time off is appalling low. Corporate employees receive just two paid holidays per year, a policy far behind other Fortune 500 companies and completely out of touch with worker expectations. Similar sized companies in this industry provide at least the bare minimum of 6, with most granting 8-12 paid holidays. Corporate employees are required to work on New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day unless they use vacation time or one of their four floating holidays. Those “floating” days seem designed to offset what most employers provide as standard paid holidays, effectively leaving employees with no true floating holidays or flexibility. It’s a clear signal that leadership places little value on work-life balance or family time. Add to that a refusal to offer even hybrid work options, and you have a leadership team and CEO who are completely out of touch with the modern workforce, the emerging workforce. evolving expectations, and basic corporate fixed holiday norms. And these aren’t just any holidays: they’re some of the most meaningful, family-centered days in American life. The CEO recently stated outright he doesn’t care about associates' work-life balance. Combined with his reliance on a small circle of C-suite yes-men, this has created a culture of alienation and resentment across the corporate workforce. Leadership knows it, yet chooses to ignore it. This strategy is also short-sighted. Gen Z (the very audience the company claims to target) values hybrid work, flexibility, time off, and leaders who understand modern consumer behavior. Dismissing this outright will make it nearly impossible to recruit or retain the next generation of talent. This is no longer a company for the long term. If you need a paycheck, fine. But if you want your education respected, your contributions valued, and leadership that genuinely cares about your time and your ability to spend it with family on major holidays, your health, and your growth, you’d be wise to look elsewhere.
