Great opportunities but a slightly toxic culture - Design Assistant Mint Velvet Employee Review

Employee discount and sample sales are great, but the only reason I stayed as long as I did was because of some really kind and caring colleagues, who made difficult days manageable.

The culture in head office is extremely toxic - it was not uncommon to see someone walk out in tears, followed by another colleague to comfort them. The biggest issue is the complete lack of leadership training. There are people in management positions who are young, inexperienced and clearly unsupported in how to manage people effectively. Throughout my time here, my manager was often patronising, dismissive, and rude in both tone and body language. She was never apologetic after an outburst and had a severe lack of empathy. Mistakes she made that negatively impacted my work were never acknowledged, and any mistake on my side was treated as catastrophic. I would get long messages criticising my competence and framing minor issues as “a big miss”, creating an environment where I constantly felt anxious and undermined rather than supported or developed. I tried reaching out to her manager, to explain how unsupported I felt, only to be told “You need to think about whether this is the right place for you.” and “if you get upset cry in private because it's not a good look". All of this had a significant impact on my wellbeing, so a year in, I raised concerns with HR, but was told there was nothing they could do beyond offering “counselling” sessions between myself and my manager — rather than addressing the obvious and providing much-needed management training. Many of us have left and are much happier now, there are plenty of brands to work for that will make you feel supported, respected and motivated.

staff are all lovely, the pay is good, slow paced and not very intense, it’s fun playing around with displays and seeing what works. good location in the centre of town, good food options in staff area.

you’re often working alone on the mat, my experience there was more just as a general retail worker as opposed to a style advisor- maintaining mat standards, maintaining the stock room, new stock intake, re organising based on brands monthly vision and guidance, checking stock for customers etc. can be quite slow and often left with nothing to do. it may have been more retail assistant than style advisor as it was in a small mat inside john lewis instead of a whole shop.