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In light of the recent layoffs at Nasty Gal, we read through the company's page on Glassdoor, a site where employees can grade their companies anonymously. The results are absolutely scathing. While there are some positive reviews, others are titled things like: Great perks, Awful management." "This place is rough." "Favoritism wins every time." "There's no such thing as 'growing' in this company, unless you are friends w/ the CEO." "Nasty Gal, Nasty Boss, Nasty Business."
The universal pros listed for working at Nasty Gal are free snacks and lots of parties. Those are the biggies. As for the cons, employees note massive turnover and overwhelmingly call out Nasty Gal's poor leadership from senior management, including CEO/founder/creative director Sophia Amoruso. Only 42% of reviewers approved of Amoruso's performance, and only 30% would recommend the company to a friend. That could be a problem for the #GirlBoss movement. Read on for choice Glassdoor quotes.
· "PR and hype can't mask what's really going on here. You drink the kool-aid for the first few months working here, then start to realize it's all just smoke and mirrors. Terrible leadership, some extremely condescending managers and employees, and people that try too hard to be "cool". There are of course a handful of people who are fantastic, super smart and well intentioned, but they are probably soon to leave. I have never worked in a place where so many people talked so poorly about their co-workers. There is a complete lack of teamwork and willingness to help each other and work toward a common goal...but there really is not common goal at all, because the company lacks any sense of direction and has no clearly defined goals."
· "If you are looking for a career path and a chance to grow within a company, you shouldn't look here. Talking to HR about it won't help you either, they will just smile and nod and seem like they care, but their concern for your concerns is just as shallow our Instagram career account."
· "No employee appreciation. Unless you are one of the select few that is close to the CEO or close to the friends of the CEO, then you'd be guaranteed job security and promotion. Salaries are way below market value. Human resources is controlled by management and doesn't really listen to employees or care about them."
· "Instead of focusing on the image social media projects out to the world about the CEO and the company, focus more on what is really happening internally, talk to your employees to find out why there is pervasive low moral, work toward solutions. Promote from within, pay people who have built the DNA of the company a fair and competitive salary."
· "I don't understand the logic of the company anymore. Why are we continuing to be more and more top heavy while all of the worker bees are to bear the load of the work? Leadership has been in meetings for a month. There are smart people here, we get it, no one is being fooled. We know what is happening and it is ridiculous that it is being dragged on for as long as it has been."
· "UPPER MANAGEMENT & HR. Executives have an 'every man for himself' attitude and the politics and power plays are out of control. In my years there, I saw 2 Presidents, 2 CFOs, 3 Controllers, 2 H.R. Directors, 2 Attorneys, and 5 Executive Assistants to the CEO roll through. Mind you, there is only one position for each of those roles at Nasty Gal, and I wasn't there all that long."
· "The CEO is wildly disconnected from the reality of the business. Her story makes an interesting topic on Good Morning America (though the interview was so painful to watch because she has zero public speaking skills), but she should've been focusing more on the operation and critical decisions instead of going on a book tour."
· "Absolutely beautiful offices but it depends who you work for if you'll actually be able to enjoy them. Offices are like the company—a show. The story was once great but at this point everyone has heard it a million times and it isn't even successful anymore. No one talks about what the sales are TODAY. Not 2 years ago but TODAY. Guarantee not good enough to justify that space."
· "Huge disconnect between the main boss (IE the one that takes constant credit for it all) and the rest of the company. Unfortunately because she has no business experience and has never run a company (nor worked for one), it became apparent she felt threatened by all the talent that worked there. She constantly seemed as if she had to prove herself and convey she knew everything since hello she is the one that built the business by paying her friends with cheeseburgers.
Cool story, Hansel, but that doesn't mean your little minions who work very hard and are extremely talented want to be your slaves and hear from you at all hours of the night and on the weekends. They don't owe you their lives and they have worked for real companies so they know what to expect and what they deserve. Creating jobs is great but treating people like they owe you is another."
· "This place is filled with nothing but tension, anxiety, and morose faces. If a friend, or even an acquaintance asked me whether to apply for a job here, I would tell them to burn their application and run the other direction."
· "Second major con I noticed was what executive management viewed as important. Even back when I was there the entire company was already shifting 90% of their manpower to the marketing of that book. You know the one I'm talking about. The one that is plastered EVERYWHERE and I believe has some egotistical Boss title. Fitting. Personally if I were an investor I would be quite upset.
If you know business, you know that sales of that book isn't effecting sales on the Nasty Gal site. And at the end of the day I'm happy to give kudos to the big boss for creating something and having a vision. It's definitely more than what most will accomplish but that doesn't give free reign to be disrespectful to people and pretend to know how to run a company. Personally I would say it's time for the face to step aside and let someone come in who knows how to make it profitable again."
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