Good vision and goals, but poor management to execute those principals
This is going to be long as I want to make sure those who decide to step into lululemon with visions of advancing within the company are given an insight in what can occur. I understand this is just my one experience, and I encourage those reading this to take this into account, but continue to do research and create their own decisions:
I stepped into lululemon believing in their philosophy, and the vision they expressed. One specifically being around leading the industry in leadership development. I am always looking for ways to further my personal development when it comes to my professional performance. Lululemon also speaks highly around the Educator (salesperson) being the most important piece of the company.
I felt during my time at the store and with the company, that none of these principles were consistently executed. As a member of the floor team, I felt accepted and appreciated and reciprocated these sentiments with my fellow sales force. When I stepped into my work with the management team, I felt that my leadership development lacked authenticity, which is a core value of the company. I did not feel like I was able to develop my own leadership style, but was being forced to copy that of my management team. There was not a space to collaborate or discuss matters, but rather it felt like "do as I say or you will be logged." Overall, the lack of ability by the management team led to micro-management as they were not able to successfully manage their people -
Great company but unfortunately your asked to give your availability then once you give your schedule times your told that you have to work regardless what your availability is … why ask fir an availability if management requires you to work beyond what you can. Was there for a few years but felt forced away after having a baby and not being able to stay past store operating hours, daycare is not available after 6pm. It’s unfortunate because there were higher management with children who worked from home mostly and didn’t stay past 6 or come before 6 am either. Management does not really care about your availability after lifestyle change when having children. Also when someone says they feel left out of a conversation at store you may get in trouble so just don’t have personal conversations or build friendships with employees because some people take it personal and tell management that they don’t feel included so then you have to explain why they weren’t included and watch a training on inclusive behavior and read some articles and have a follow up meeting of what you learned in some ways it makes you feel bad as a person … not a place to easily grow… to many employees with potential but not enough positions to make them leaders. Most time your potential isn’t even noticed unless you say "look what I did "
No paid vacations if your not a store manager even if your full time!! Ridiculous especially because you accumulate vacation time and don’t end up using it because it’s n
ProsBonus pay great! Sweaty pursuits program and discount
ConsNo paid vacation if your not a store manager or ASM even if your full time, No access to view a request off calendar to see or plan time off, you must sit with a manager and plan together, Must have completely open availability, store is not flexible with time you work when they say regardless of your availability
Hurts to do this, but I feel like I need to be heard.
Going to try and apply the “sandwich method” to this review. Oh, Lulu. I appreciated this place as I came across some really awesome people. The employee discount on clothing was incredible, although I feel like just because you work part-time doesn’t mean that you should recieve less of a discount than a full-time employee does (trust me. I told them I wanted full-time. It really isn’t my fault that there wasn’t enough room for me to be full-time). I am appreciative of the [paid] training I received. The company actually took the time to train their employees for five days prior to starting. I loved that I was coached on what it’s meant to work for a “luxury” brand. I also liked the fact that they give their employees money for their “sweaty pursuits” monthly. It allows the employees to wear their Lulu gear to sweat and be able to talk to the company with fluidity and authenticity. However, I don’t like nor do I think it’s fair that part-time employees received less money for their sweaty pursuits than the full-time employees do. Moreover, holy cow was the hiring process very inconvenient of time. Talk about ‘Asteya.’ When I started working for the company, I did not see the things that I was trained on be carried out by the managers and employees at my store. I won’t go into detail about that. Although I was hired as a (seasonal) part-time employee, I averaged working only about 7.5 hours per week, which is only one days worth. How fair is that? Now do you really expect an
When you have a passion about a job and really care about your co-workers and what you do on a day to day basis...its a harsh reality to find out, they dont feel the same. While I was an employee at lululemon they have their own language, that I will admit I started speaking as well. They use Yoga terms for their Rules Book, which in all honest is quiet disturbing since yoga is so genuine and they are not.
Upper management has favorites, they do not give you the time of day if they dont like you and they hire based off looks. My manager, during the Seasonal hiring for holiday, hired a college boy specifically to stand at the front door and say hi to the guests because he "looked cute, even though he was not very attractive"
If I could give this company an over all rating with the stairs above, they should give an option not to fill out a star because thats how awful they are.
My old manager continues to have babies to live off the 6 month maternity leave. Not only does she take the 6 months, but she has told a part time educator that she plans on saving all her sick days and vacation days since her due date is in Oct for her to get out in August.
But, if you are a part time or full time educator, or even if youre an ASM. IT DOES NOT MATTER. When you call the integrity hot line it goes straight to PEOPLE POTENTIAL basically HR which is a joke because the HR person is best friends with my ex store manager so nothing is ACTUALLY reported. Oh, and to top it
Prosnothing
Conslazy, favoritism, lying, abusing time, taking advantage of hard workers, faking their knowledge, teaming up against 1 person, i could go on forever.
Fun work environment. We have a private gym and yoga studio.
I have been working for lululemon athletica DC in Sumner, WA for four years. I have been cross trained in all almost all the departments here.
I started out as a temp in April of 2010, and was hired in August of 2010.
I have been in my current role in the Invetory Control department for almost 2 of those years now. I am they "Hypo" for my lead, and also the admin for the department. A typical day for me, is sending out excel reports to the managment team, updating daily logs, putting together cycle count audits, managing time cards, scheduling meetings on outlook. I work closely with the finance department in Canada as well.
I put together investigation reports for SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley Act), which is a company that makes sure that all of our data is true, and that we are completely the neccessary audits.
I created a whole inbound audit process for our retail DC. Which includes grouping each of our vendors into four different grades based off of errors that we find from them. I also log all information in an excel sheet that i created. It includes vlookups, and formulas that show me which po's have and have not been audited. We are responsible for auditing every PO that comes into this building.
The people that i work with on my team are really great people. They look to me for leadership and i rely on them to help get the job done as fast and efficiantly as possible.
Culture is really important here at lululemon. We are a company of health and fitne
Support from Human Resources + Regional Manager was a joke
As a manger I was faced with several heavy employee situations (some ever turned legal) and did not receive support from Human Resources or my Regional Manager. I was told to handle the situation and not to talk about it with my co-workers. The said "problem" employees were allowed to continue and work in the store while they were being investigated creating a toxic environment with the rest of the team and managers. I documented several instances with these employees and submitted them to HR and nothing changed. In both instances it was clear as day that these employees were creating a lot of issues and had committed acts that were out of integrity according to our Pramana handbook but still nothing was done. It is not a company that practices what they preaches. I saw several people move up through the company that had friends in high positions. I also saw people come into higher positions after one interview when others were expected to interview 2-3 times for positions. The company definitely plays favorites and looks out for it's own. I feel a of relief being away from that world. Looking back I can see that I was not supported to handle situations with my employees and had to standby while employees mistreated me because I was a manager and I had been coached not to take things personally. In my current workplace people aren't allowed to say or do the things my coworkers did, they would be instantly disciplined. I did not get recognized for my hard work or time. The HR
Proseducators are treated well
Consmanagers are treated poorly and too much is expected from them.
Great ideas and philosophy but lack of implementation
Overall an amazing place to work at with incredible support and benefits for employees. The pay is good and employees receive nice benefits, however the job is not completely stable and it is difficult to maintain a specific number of hours. Employees either barely work or work all the time. Preference is given to Key Leaders which they hire often on favoritism and give the most hours despite them typically having very limited availability in comparison to educators. The organization and corporate have a lot of great ideas such as promoting inclusion and honesty however they are not always adhering to these mindsets that are promoted during training and instead put up a fake front. There is an extreme lack of diversity within stores, making minority guests not always feel welcomed. Guests often feel surrounded by “skinny white girls” in store and it is often that stereotype that only can make any advances within the business. Many of the hiring questions and requirements are specifically fit for this white girl stereotype. They’re often looking for people from privileged families that already have knowledge about lululemon and the qualities they are searching for rather than seeking those with the potential to learn. While Key leaders and above are often looped into all business communication, educators are left out and are simultaneously expected to be obedient followers but must show leadership at the same time if they want to become a key leader. They make it very difficul
ProsPay, PTO, money to exercise, development resources
ConsNot enough hours, favoritism, lack of diversity
Great place to meet like-minded individuals, good benefits, inadequate pay for work expected.
Met some of my greatest friends here.
Depending on your role, your main focus is on the guests. Being sure that they are educated on the product they are purchasing/ trying on. This is to be expected and definitely reasonable.
However, many things happen behind the scenes/ off the sales floor, that requires additional work outside of your hours. They want you to do work while at work, but it is nearly impossible, especially at higher-traffic stores. You find yourself working while at home or checking your emails late at night or early in the morning.
This is a retail job, but it is much more than that.
You can not take ANY time off from Dec 15 - Jan 15. The holidays are insane (at least at high-volume stores), fun but insane! It is hard to enjoy the holidays like your friends and families get to do, just when things slow down for them, they really pick up for you.
You must be available to work the weekends, no exceptions for people working in the store. The most frustrating thing is watching management (Asst and Store Managers) take time off the floor on busy days. They do have things to do that are beyond your job requirements, but they get paid way more (sometimes, depending on who they are) and often everything is left on your shoulders, or so it seems.
This is a create company, with a great mission, but sometimes you can end up in the wrong store. I never regret working there because I learned so much and met many great people, but I do regret how lon
ProsFree Fitness Allowance, Great Discount, Rewards, Benefits for Full-Time
ConsWay too much expected at specific levels, cult-like and popular/ cool kids club. Hard to advance, even when you put way too much into a retail job.
What really brought me into working at lululemon was the culture. Which at higher positions in the company is evident but not as a part time or full time educator.... By the way multiple stores are managed it seems as if its all fake. Managers and leaders say things like "they care" but never fully commit to the statement with such poor treatment. They treat you like children who don't understand how to handle a task on their own. But on the other hand leaders will give you task that they are very capable of doing in the moment like helping a guest...multiple leaders will walk around the store to ask someone else to help a guest that is right in front of them. You do more work that is required in the job description and once its done you will get very little to no acknowledgment for doing a managers task. Very condescending and rude and demand of you to speak highly of every situation even if the situation was unfair. Leaders breathe down your neck to make sure you are talking to every person in the store which the guest find annoying. We are told to connect but it is never honest and transparent if they're forcefully making us talk to a guest who doesn't want to be talked to..If you think lululemon managers/ leaders are saying hateful things about you behind your back then you're probably right. I am very disappointed in my experience and wish I saw better from such a high volume store with such amazing educators. Leaders choose when/where and who they want to apply the ru
ProsFree Workout Classes
ConsHorrible Management, not flexible with scheduling
I work as a sales floor manager and at lululemon, there is no real source of hierarchy. We are given a daily goal from our corporate headquarters, which we keep track of on a quarterly ledger.
A typical day looks anywhere from running the sales floor fluidly: meaning, I'm coaching our salespeople (a.k.a. educators) through some best sales practices and making sure all guests are provided with a great experience, to working on growth and development with each team member.
The culture of our business is based on helping everyone achieve their goals: personal, health, or otherwise. We spend a lot of time with each member of our team to talk about personal development and how they can grow within the company. Also, we like to have fun, so as leaders we are responsible for creating the space for our employees to be vulnerable with us and to enjoy the place in which they spend a large amount of their time. Essentially, we become the best friends we've ever had!
Something I've learned in bother being a manager and a salesperson with the company is to give and take feedback. This is a huge aspect at lululemon, and another reason I used the word hierarchy earlier, as our entire company is based around feedback. I've learned that if it's coming from a good place, it isn't personal and it's an outsider's observation. You can take from it what you want and leave what you don't. The idea is that someone cares enough to try to help you grow.
ProsUnlimited free workout classes, great health insurance, fun work environment, short work days, open communication, room for development, goal setting, many opportunities for commission
ConsShort breaks, limited opportunities for advancement, vacation time paid into paycheck, retail hours
Questions And Answers about Lululemon Athletica
I applied at lululemon about two weeks ago. How long does it normally take to get a call back for an interview?
Asked Jan 27, 2017
2 days later, I got an email for an interview
Answered Nov 27, 2021
I got a call 2 days later. My advice is apply to many stores not just the one you want to work at. Once you’re in the door you can pick up shifts at any store
Answered Nov 9, 2018
Do men work at Lulu or is that weird?
Asked Aug 29, 2016
Yes! It’s not weird at all and you won’t feel excluded. Sometimes people think that only gay guys work there, but that is not true. Having male team members really helps our male customer base, and it helps ladies looking for their dad, male pals and boyfriends.
Answered Sep 9, 2018
Yes!! not weird at all.
Answered Jun 4, 2018
How would you describe the pace of work at lululemon athletica?
Asked Sep 23, 2016
It depends on you stores volume
Answered Sep 11, 2017
Moderate pace.
Answered Aug 22, 2017
How long does it take to get hired from start to finish at lululemon athletica? What are the steps along the way?
Asked Aug 30, 2016
You go into a group interview and if you are hired they ask you to come back, after completing the two initial meetings then they set you up with an HR meeting and schedule you for four days of training, you are then set to go after the 4 days of training.
Answered Dec 3, 2018
For me that's what's the fastest hiring process I've ever been through, the management team was helpfu,
thoughtful, attentive and genuinely interested in getting you hired. Thank you Lululemon, Groveport Oh.
Answered Sep 15, 2018
Looking at your staff photo, everyone appears to be very fit and attractive. Is this a prerequisite to being hired into this company? If I am overweight, do I stand a chance of being hired, or should I not waste yours or my time?
Asked Aug 6, 2016
You can most definitely apply and get hired if you’re over weight, they don’t hire based off of the they hire based off of work ethic.
