Avantages
Wonderful forward-thinking fashion. Friendly and professional people running head office in Montreal. Open lines of communication with head office and in-store management. The few staff that have managed to withstand the pressure there are very dedicated and hard-working. Really do believe and push internal promotion within the company. If you are an external management hire - they will fly you to other cities to train you - they definitely invest in their management staff.
Inconvénients
You are worked to death. Twice weekly you must do 'truck' - which means you must be at work at 7am in the morning to unpack, label and sensor countless boxes of product before the store opens at 930am. You must work at warp speed with the aim of everything new being placed and merchandised before the store opens. No room for work/life balance - your body is absolutely killed by the end of the day - you are not allowed to sit down (and there is NO office to do any paper work - the customer and the staff can ALWAYS see you and access you). You're emotionally exhausted from dealing with some of the most difficult customers I've ever encountered (in 10 years of working in a retail environment). But the most challenging thing is dealing with the many insubordinate and disrespectful sales staff. A few diamonds in the rough can be found - and when they're good, they are AMAZING - but all it takes is 1 cancerous, negative individual and it brings the whole group down. Also, the hard workers end up being so heavily leaned on, they tend to be over-worked. I have never experienced a negative group-think mentality with such ferocity. New management figures are not respected and consistently undermined. Turnover rate is extremely high. The staff is constantly changing because the work for a sales associate is FAR greater at ZARA than at any other retailer; the fiscal compensation is low and the hours are long. For management, you are basically guaranteed to work a ton of overtime without any compensation. It is a constant struggle to staff your store properly as it is so big, yet head office is constantly wanting to cut back hours. It's cyclical - the store is messy because there is not enough staff on the floor to maintain it (and many are exhausted with the several tasking duties that are mandatory), because it is messy it is harder for customers to shop, which results in lower sales, and because the sales are lower the budget for hours drops - so less people work. It was a feeling of constant drowning.