The Shade Store Reviews

There is no room for advancement as a Design Consultant. This is a retail position. Design Consultants have no real voice in the company. Changes are made frequently without advance notice. The Design Consultant position consists of nights, weekends, holidays and LONG hours. The interviewing process is tedious. Negotiating the largest salary possible is necessary because you will see very few raises. Poor Management. Over 200 Design Consultants report to little to no management. The management of the showrooms requires a professional demeanor and leadership tools. This management lacks both. The incompetence of the showroom management is general knowledge but nothing can be reported to the owners because of fear of backlash. TSS has "regional managers" but they have no real pull. No proper HR department. HR consists of 1 or 2 people depending on the day. All other HR issues are expected to be reported to showroom management. This is a conflict of interest. Self Management in showrooms. In theory self management is a dream for responsible professionals. The issue with this management structure is that Design Consultants are responsible for their co-workers behavior. If a co-worker is unhinged this company is very slow to act. Poor company morale. Most showrooms experience a lot of conflict. The conflict stems mostly from a hands off approach to managing disgruntled employees. The Port Chester Dream. When/If you are hired on to this company TSS will fly you to New York to meet your "team". This whole process is very moving. The company itself seems to stand for everything anyone would want to be apart of. This company is so easy to believe in and support but sadly the truth is when it comes down to it..it is all smoke and mirrors.

If you are considering working for The Shade Store at their headquarters, save yourself the agony. This company has the worst work culture you could imagine. The company prides themselves on being a modern work place, but they don't implement any modern elements into their structure. There is absolutely NO work/life balance, you will be treated like property and be expected to work long into the night and weekend. PTO is 10 days (including sick days) but forget wanting to take a day off, you will still be expecting to work on the go regardless of your situation. You could be the best employee, give it 110% 24/7 and management will still find flaws in your work to criticize. There is no recognition given ever. You can and are always expected to do more. The company is essentially a startup, they haven't worked out the kinks in their departments or basic work process. They are growing at an incredibly fast pace, which at first makes it seem like a great company to be a part of. (That's what they try to sell to new employees). However, everyone makes it up as they go, management has no clue how to run the company. Every day involves putting out fires that you have not created. Training is non-existent because no one knows actually knows the policies or processes. There is no mutual respect between employees, all staff members are bitter towards one another. This is probably due to the fact that each employee is so visibly stressed and overwhelmed. This is "Devil Wears Prada" without a Hollywood ending.