sales associate (Current Employee), Albany, NY – May 8, 2013
great place to work while in school. Mostly greeting and helping customers, Managemnet is good, the hardest part of the job dealing with angry customers but hardly ever happens, the most enjoyable part is the shoes and helping customers.
Sales Associate (Former Employee), Toledo, OH – April 30, 2013
Pros: amazing shoes and great associate discounts
this company is awesome at working around a school schedule. its a very basic strait forward job. mostly you ring on the registers, walk the sales floor, straiten the product, clean, sign people up for there free rewards points program, and sometimes pull product to the floor for sale and do mark downs. not to hard, normal work. However i was not there – more... long enough to know hoe long it would take to advance within the company. but im sure that like any job a minimum of a year if your lucky. – less
Sales Associate (Former Employee), Geneva, Il – April 23, 2013
Pros: great work enviroment
Cons: dsw rewards program/ hours
Loved the management team, always had my back. My coworkers were always nice to me and overall the environment was very good. Offering the rewards program was the only con along with the hours.
Great place to work especially for your first job.
Sales Associate (Former Employee), Manhattan, NY – April 16, 2013
Pros: wonderful co workers
Working at DSW I've come across many different people and I feel like working there helped me grow up. DSW makes you more responsible and they train you with the values that you can relate to life and I loved working there. The management team their just awesome they aren't fake in any way they are like the big brothers and sisters you can talk to about – more... anything. Your fellow coworkers are great very inviting and it’s a wonderful environment. The hardest part of the job at DSW had to be when we didn't make our goals at the end of the day. DSW makes you apart of the business; to them you aren't just an employee. To DSW you are a part of the family. Throughout the day they would let you know how much we were making and what we could do to make it better. So when we didn't make our goals it made me really sad and it makes you want to work harder to do so. The most enjoyable part of working at DSW had to be being around everyone there. From the customers to the mangers, it just was a happy atmosphere and I feel many people would really enjoy it. – less
Full time sales associate (Current Employee), Virginia – April 8, 2013
Pros: relaxed environment and employee discount
Cons: rewards system, lack of asset protection, pay, no work/life balance
The rewards system is flawed. A lot of people don't want to give out their personal information to DSW due to the LAST incident of people hacking into their information. Associate purchases are frowned upon because they count as a 111 (non rewards member) which affects our signup:no ratio. They need a completely different system for employees. Each – more... employee should have their own rewards number in a series of numbers that does not give them rewards, but keeps track of their purchases and doesn't count against the signups for the day.
The store has a 'no apprehension' policy. With no store security people rob us blind DAILY and repetitively because they know they can get away with it. It's ridiculous.
They don't pay us enough for the amount of work that we do. We do maintenance in the store...everything is done by the associates. It can be a very demanding job
As a full timer I have to have an OPEN availability. That means that I have to be available for work from 7:30/8 am-whenever we close for the night. No one leaves until the store is COMPLETELY done. If you're scheduled off at 10, you're most likely not leaving until 11:30/12. I want a life outside of work but I can't have one. I can't even have a couple hours out of the week to do something else. That's what I hate the most.
Other than that I love my job. I stay because of the management and my co workers. I love them to death. I love working with them and seeing them every day. So even though I feel trapped by not having a life, it's almost worth it because I'm surrounded by the same people I know every single day. My store manager is literally the best. – less
Assistant Manager (Former Employee), Illinois – April 4, 2013
Pros: nothing other then discount
Cons: poor company not something looked as career just work a year or two and move on out.
The Store Managers are all female who are hired for their ruthlessness and cruelty. They rarely leave the office unless they want to yell at an assistant manager or employee. The more horrible a store manager is to her employees, the more she is praised and recognized by the district manager. If an employee calls the Safe2Say hotline to complain about – more... mistreatment, that employee is typically fired or retaliated against. Because this is well known most stores are run by fear and threats of corrective action. There is zero potential to advance if your an associate. If your a good assistant manager you will most likely be fired. lf your a lazy and cruel assistant manager you have a 10% chance to be promoted if you can drum up enough drama with misconduct toward associates, get enough customer complaints and throw enough people under the bus. internal promotion is extremely rare. – less
Sales Associate (Former Employee), Modesto, CA – March 30, 2013
Pros: 30% discount
Cons: everything else
This job is for teenagers who don't have life responsibilities. The hours were horrible because the managers are scheduled 10 hr days when the employers on a good week might get 20hrs a week. The managers claim hours are given by the amount of sales, but that is bull because every single time i worked we made our sales goal plus more! The company is – more... too cheap to pay for a cleaning service, so the employees have to do all the store maintenance. Ridiculous! Seriously unrealistic to think an employee will be happy and motivated when you are scheduled for 6 to 8hrs a week. DSW GET A CLUE! – less
Sales Associate (Former Employee), Oak Brook, IL – March 21, 2013
Pros: great discount
Cons: pay for associates is not that great you eill have to work weekends
Great place to work can be fun, if you like shoes and fashion you will like this place. The schedule is nice plus around holidays they dont do insane 4 am sales and open until midnight and any of that crazy stuff.
Sales Associate (Former Employee), Texas – March 15, 2013
Cons: everything
First of all I did not want to give this company 1 star, But something was required. Working for DSW has been a horrible experience. The hours are terrible, because most of the hours are given to management.your lucky if you can get 12 or 15 hours for the week. There policy's are ridiculous. The district managers can care less. Phone calls are never – more... returned. Shoephoria sucks altogether. With there rude and ghetto employees. This company pretends to be at your best interest when there not. They say they offer growth but in reality they don't. And there so call store managers don't know a thing about customer service. I can see this company going under unless they fix their mistakes. Corporate can care less, they never take the time out to really see whats going on in their stores. And that unnecessary rewards program they offer is a joke. Why not offer the customer something for just signing up. $5.00 off your purchase when you sign up is not going to break the company. It would actually get more people to sign up. Everyone loves to save a little money. There prices on shoes are a rip off. There are plenty of other stores that sell the same brands and same shoes at a much cheaper price. This company is just bad all over. I will never ever ever recommend anyone to work for this company. Your better off working at McDonald's at least you will get more hours there. – less
Prior Store Manager in PA,Terrible upper managment. They strive so hard to say they are one of the best retailers to work for and they are far from this! They promise great monthly bonuses and can't even make the sales goals achieveable! They really need to revamp their company! Also be careful when purchasing shoes there, alot of them are defective!!!! BAD place to shop! DONT DO IT!
DSW Inc.
Compensation/Benefits
Management
Job Security/Advancement
Job Culture
Job Work/Life Balance
Horrible company to work for...
Assistant Merchandise Manager (Former Employee), Lincolnshire, IL – March 13, 2013
Worst place to work. Managers are corrupt and get away with EVERYTHING. They do not value their employes what so ever. Way to much Drama from everyother store within the district. For one stores in Chicago South are at the top of the list for corrupt Store Managers. DON'T WORK for DSW in Chicago area at all...
Typically in retail, your job is just that, a job. I am just a cog in the machine. I am replaceable, and thus compensated as such. But I still I give my customers and managers all that i can.
Sales Associate (Current Employee), Frederick, MD – March 5, 2013
Although the compensation and benefits could be better, the people and values are super great. Everybody cooperates and shares necessary information with each other.
Assistant Manager (Current Employee), Shreveport, LA – March 2, 2013
Pros: nice compensation and fun environment.
Cons: days off are rarely together. advancement in company was not as accessible as originally promised.
I am responsible for all office paperwork. Over the past year I have learned how to collaborate on a daily basis with my peers and associates to ensure the daily goals of the business are met or exceeded. The hardest part of my job has been the schedule; days off are not together, in retail we don't have the weekends off but having two consecutive days – more... off would be more refreshing than always having split days off. The most enjoyable part of my job was working with the people; DSW has great energy and a fun vibe. Another thing I enjoyed was having control of the office paperwork being able to organize things the way I wanted them. – less
Delaine – March 24, 2013
Prior Store Manager in PA,Terrible upper managment. They strive so hard to say they are one of the best retailers to work for and they are far from this! They promise great monthly bonuses and can't even make the sales goals achieveable! They really need to revamp their company! Also be careful when purchasing shoes there, alot of them are defective!!!! BAD place to shop! DONT DO IT!