Hot Topic Employee Reviews about "upper management"

Pros

Great environment and fun people to work with.

Cons

Not a fan of upper management

Advice to Management

Be more friendly to lower employees

Pros

Discount, awesome coworkers, laid back customers, good music

Cons

Upper management is to interested in employees personal lives outside of work, completely unprofessional, awful training, awful hours, unrealistic sales goals, cares more about ADT and loyalty then customers experience, they don't care about their employees, I was told I would never move up in that store because of who I knew in personal life outside of work while also being told I had all the makings of a store manager.

Advice to Management

Take the time to train your employees correctly, give your employees their breaks, get rid of or correct your district managers unprofessional behavior, listen to your employees greivences, stay out of your employees personal lives if it isn't affecting their work, less employees so your current employees can have livable hours, do not under any circumstances blame a current employee for a former employees actions, focus more on sales as a whole rather then individual transactions, do not under any circumstances tell your employees to kick out their roommate if they want to move up.

Pros

Cool people & customers

Cons

Upper management very secretive. Doesnt share alot of info with stores

Pros

Pay, benefits, customers, employees, discount

Cons

Communication, Goals, Policies, Upper management, Reviews

Advice to Management

This company is amazing to work for, but upper management (past District Manager level) does not seem to really care about the employees, especially once they've reached a certain age (30+). They will mask an employee having reached their "expiration date" behind performance numbers that are tenuous at best compared to the numbers accessible by store level staff. Also, company policies and procedures aren't adhered to outside of the store level it seems. This is an excellent company to work for as a young adult, but move on before you hit your 30's. It always seemed strange that there wasn't news of people retiring from Hot Topic and now it's obvious why.

Pros

Work is simple and, if you are patient with good people skills, easy. Keep your area clean and promote as many sales as possible. Because of Hot Topic's Punk and Geek branding, it's pretty easy to tell which customers are going to be cool and which will be a handful. Managers are more than willing to help with the more difficult ones.

Cons

Upper management works hard to make sure you don't work enough to receive benefits. Local managers will get punished if employees clock out one minute over the limit, so they try and higher several employee and give them as few hours as possible. I was hiered for full time work and was lucky to get 8 hours a week. A bad local manager is usually made from the stress of upper management. They want you to "engage" with customers ALL THE TIME, which would be fine if it didn't bother the customers. I've been punished for not engaging with a customer after that same customer asked to be left alone to browes in peace. You're caught between a rock and a hard place trying to please your bosses, and respect the customer. Stickler for t-shirt folds. I would constantly be left feeling like if I couldn't fold a t-shirt like it just came out of the box, I would eventually loose my job for it. If any retail store says they are "known for having the best folds in the state," RUN.

Advice to Management

You are way more conserned about your "brand" than you are your customers and employees. Unfortunately, being such a large chain I doubt you care or will even see this. Your sales are low because your target demographic (young teens and adults) arnt making enough money in this economy to justify buying unnecessary fan merchandise. Please don't punish our local management for that when you are contributing to the problem by avoiding employee benefits and paying so low.

Pros

Fun environment, good employee discount.

Cons

Poor scheduling & work life balance. Poor upper management.

Pros

Fun environment and the product rocks

Cons

Horrible upper management Core values are lacking

Pros

You get to have your own individuality and the customers are great

Cons

Not a lot of support from upper management