Hot Topic Employee Reviews about "dress code"

Pros

- Great Discount - Relaxed environment and Dress code

Cons

- Minimum Wage - Managers do not communicate with each other - Not many hours - Not much training - Never given breaks - Store is super dusty and impossible to keep clean - No cameras to prevent theft

Pros

Pretty lax dress code, Great atmosphere, Understanding management, very nice employee discount! ZERO tolerance for bigotry, it felt like a very safe space for people from all walks of life.

Cons

Part time hours can be seriously lacking, consider full time if you need the money.

Pros

Relaxed "dress code," get-what-you-give kind of environment, relatively fun considering it's a mall job. You can go far with this job compared to other retail. If you find yourself in the situation where retail will give you what you need, HT is the best place to work in the mall.

Cons

High turnover rate, lack of actual benefits if you are looking to invest in yourself and future (like wanting to get away from apartment life by buying a house, invest in your retirement, etc). Favoritism is shown in some stores, but thankfully not all of them. I had a pretty good time working for this company for the multiple consecutive years I worked there. Not great hours, but it is to be expected working in retail. Good stepping stone kind of job for me personally.

Pros

Dress code is relaxed, accepting of piercings, tattoos and hair color. Lots of opportunity for self expression.

Cons

Management is extremely aggressive and also gaslights their employees. They write you up, punish and even fire you if you cannot force people to go through with credit card applications, loyalty signups or web orders, and then makes you feel as if you’re a bad employee and bad person for not being able to force people to do what you want. Regardless of how many people you’re getting into the store, they blame you personally for lack of sales, and lack of the KPI indications.

Pros

1. 40% off discount at Torrid, Box Lunch, and Hot Topic 2. 30% off discount at Pop Culture 3. Occasional 50% off discount at all previously mentioned stores few times a year 4. Immediate family (applies only to parents and siblings) can use your discounts as well 5. Basically no dress code

Cons

1. Filthiest. Place. EVER. You can make actual bunnies out of the dust bunnies in there. Nobody ever sweeps, there are stickers, gum and food all over the floors and fixtures. 2. The clothes are always dirty from being on the ground. When we have orientation, we are told never to put any merchandise on the ground and never sit on the floor. During opening or closing everyone and EVERYTHING is always on the ground and it gets filthy. 3. The stockroom: it is so scary back there. It is not meant for anyone who is either claustrophobic, chubby, or afraid that there will be an earthquake anytime in the near future. Most days it is impossible to open the door more than a crack, you cannot reach the bathroom, much less the back to get to the other merchandise, which is scattered about the floor, may I mention. 4. It is very dangerous. They leave the ladders lying about, there are always hooks sticking out in obscure places, not to mention on my first day, there was a bucket of pins and sensors out on the floor. Yes, the bucket got knocked over, yes I did get a foot full of pins, and NO, I did NOT get a break or a chance to even look at my injury. 5. They neglect giving breaks. It IS Hot Topic policy to give a PAID 15 minute break if you are scheduled to work for 4 hours, a PAID 15 minute break and a 30 minute UNPAID lunch if you are scheduled to work for at least 5 and a half hours, and two PAID 15 minute breaks and a 30 minute UNPAID lunch if you are scheduled to work for 8 hours. They only give breaks when they want to give you a break. I would have to ask multiple times, to all managers if I would be allowed to take a break, and on more than one occasion they would all "forget". 6. "No Breaks After Closing" I would be scheduled for 4 hours and be kept there an extra hour and a half to help with closing, but I wouldn't be given my break I was supposed to have because the managers would "forget" yet again, but then I would be working the amount of time where I was supposed to get a break and a lunch and would be told I was not allowed to have either. 7. Management is horrible, like I said, I would have to chase after multiple managers just to ask for a break. Multiple managers would tell me to do different things and would get angry if I wasn't doing the thing they told me to do. They also do not resolve issues with clocking in and out in a timely manner. I had an issue with my log in to clock my hours, and informed them the minute it happened, it took over two weeks for them to fix it. They told me to write my times on a piece of paper and tape it to their computer and they would manually clock my hours. They never did, then they would blame me for not telling them. I had to wait an entire month to get my pay because they couldn't do their job and listen to their employees. 8. They do NOT care about you at all. YOUR problems are not THEIR problems. I would be treated like a nuisance when I would be on the clock and treated like a saint when I would cover for someone, only to be treated like a nuisance again when I would clock in. 9. The pay is AWFUL!!! I got paid only $8.25 an hour. I worked at Hot Topic for 6 months, in the whole 6 months I worked I only made around $400. For the first 3-4 months I worked there, they would only schedule me for about 3 to 6 hours a week, and some weeks they would even cut my hours to nothing. On average, I would make around $24 over two weeks. That is definitely NOT living wage. That is an INSULT. 10. There is no making friends. I moved across the country, I knew nobody, I had hoped I would be able to make friends with some of my coworkers, but management would not even allow us to speak with our coworkers, much less get to know their names. When a few girls decided to get together outside of work, and management found out, they purposefully scheduled everyone at different times so we would not speak with each other. 11. Turn over rate is EXTREMELY high. One girl I went to orientation with, called the store an hour after it ended to say she quit. Most people can't even last a month. 12. They NEVER close on time. If you are scheduled for 4 hours, always tack on an extra half an hour, at LEAST. If you are closing, expect to stay an hour later every day. Don’t even bother bringing food either, since you will never be allowed to eat it, even after closing or during your breaks, if you are lucky enough to get those