Zara reviews

Support from corporate is horrible. Managers and corporate staff being long time friends with HR gives some people in the company invincibility. Clique environment. Your managers will tell you that you're getting promoted and that you are in training, but you'll never see any formal documentation and eventually your managers will "forget" they promised you anything and/or tell you you're simply not working hard enough to be promoted. Essentially, the idea is to milk the hardest working people for all ZARA can before having to pay them more. Still, after you complete your training, HR will "forget" to input your raise. I watched this happen to many hard working associates who saw ZARA as a potential career, which drove them to eventually leave. Managers refuse to promote part timers to full time, but still have those who want to be full time work 37+ hours. As a result, ZARA gets your full time work without having to provide you benefits. Corporate harasses the managers constantly, which leads the managers to take out their frustration and anxiety on their staff. One of the regional visuals (corporate) gained access to my store's cameras, and COUNTED the pants on a table. This corporate individual then called the store and asked why replenishment was not being pulled, and commanded the department manager to go pull replenishment. It's a very hostile environment. So hostile, in fact, that in my region alone, 16 managers quit at the same time. Zara is a fantastic place for someone who doesn't see it as a career, but the threatening and unsupportive work environment makes it uncomfortable and miserable for those of us who care about our jobs.

There are lots of cons with working in Zara, one would be the managers (NOT ALL) who can be very condescending and belittle you. As most of their first language are not English, they sometimes can be rude to the customer and not understand what they say meaning the customers sometimes get angry with you. The head cashiers can be very rude to you and you just have to take it! As someone who has worked in 3 different Zara stores I can tell you that some store managers are honestly the rudest people you will ever come across. On my first day at one store I vowed not to finish my week there due to the manager clapping in my face and being condescending to me as if I was a small child being told off by a teacher. They just don't listen to what you have to say! Some employees take advantage of you being new aswell. Another major con is the lack of store equipment like iPods which you need to check items for customers. Then the managers get angry at you for not being able to help the customer and expect you to find a non-existent iPod out of thin air to help the customer quickly. As a store that makes so much money I have to say the technology in the store is rubbish! Old and slow so prepare for customers to get angry with you when its not your fault! Also working in Women's is the worst, if you can choose work in Men's as the customers are the nicest and don't give you as much attitude as the women customers. The environment in Men's (tills) is much more relaxed too as the head cashiers are all in ladies. In women's the workload is soo much more and if you're on the shop floor or fitting room it can become impossible to do everything the managers expect you to do (you have to be nonstop). The last major con I experienced is the fact that the managers just expect you to do overtime without the decency to ask if thats okay, especially when you are working the closing shift. So if I was finished at 11, overtime would mean that I would get home very late which is scary to travel that late from central London.