Aesop Reviews

If you work at Aesop you are expected to work every weekend, not get paid for any breaks, and constantly get micromanaged on every shift. If you don’t have the same customer service approach as whoever is manager at the time, they will constantly hassle you until you change your “approach” aka personality to be like theirs. All while claiming they value a diverse range of personalities and everyone bringing their own unique touch to their customer service - this was all talk. Store managers are always taking advantage of their position. For example - giving themselves the best rota while all other consultants never get a weekend off, constantly leaving early, taking breaks to “take calls”, etc. Regional managers are supposed to be who you can go to for any issues, but in my experience they have never actioned anything when concerns were raised to them. Rather they “empower you” by putting concerns back to you to sort the issues out yourself. The company is making a ridiculous amount of money, and its depressing when you are getting paid so little, while all the people higher up are taking it all for themselves. Aesop bragged many times about how well they were doing despite the covid pandemic, and how much money they were making off hand washes etc. They mentioned online sales had never been busier, while leaving their staff on 80% furlough salary for the majority of the year. They never took covid seriously, and had their employees work across different locations throughout the pandemic, not keeping anyone in any sort of “bubble”. This issue was raised multiple times during online staff meetings throughout the pandemic, as more and more people kept getting Covid. Every time it was raised it was brushed aside, and they claimed there was “no government guidelines for this kind of thing, so we will wait for the government to tell us how to act.” It really just took common sense to know what to do. The company has barely ANY diversity, and they do not tailor their products to anyone who isn’t white. For example bringing out a new range of hair care products and being unsure if it worked on Afro/Kink hair. Actually during a staff training call when questioned on whether these products would work on different curl types, the trainer didn’t even understand the question. Goes to show how much of a lack of diversity training there is in the company. They can’t even create products that aren’t only for white people. I have never worked for such a toxic company before, and couldn’t emphasise enough not to work here.

- Everything is a numbers game, and although in the interview it was explained that Aesop does not force sales, and is a soft-sales approach, is completely wrong and off. It is a hard sales game, and management are strict with KPIs as you get used to the role. - Staff complimentary products like free returns/written off products is in fact wrong and management alter this to make advantage of KPIs and also to gift to their favourited personnel. - You have to regularly cover other stores and this can be a drag, and impact your plans/travel. - You are judged, and although you might think this is a personal take, I have discussed this with other retail consultants at other london stores and we all feel like this. You are just a number instead of a someone with a name. - Its business as usual, which I know it has to be to make profit for the business etc. but the core values mean nothing. - Lake of actual recycling also internal, there's a lot of wastage which again, goes against Aesop ethos. - A manager has expressed several views which are xenophobia against a certain culture, which is seriously wrong and I was gobsmacked when I heard this, but this will just be brushed under the carpet.