At one time, I thought I would grow with this company, but the recent changes made me rethink that decision. - werkgeversreview Store Manager bij Maurices

You always have to be dressed in Season and on trend no matter what climate you live in. If it's fall styled clothing with boots and layers you have to wear that, even if it's 85° outside. It also means you have to constantly buy clothing to wear even though in the policy and procedures it says you do not have to wear Maurice's just be in trend. News flash trends repeat themselves. No need to force associates who make $7.25 and hour to spend constant money on clothing every 2 months. They give a card load to you when you do well, which is "free" money they add onto your employee discount card so you can buy clothing. What they don't tell you is you actually pay for that yourself. It comes out of your paycheck. It's a line item no one pays attention to on their pay stub called FUN CARD. They make you pay for winning a prize out of your own pocket. Which is why now that I think of it, the company was so generous and wanted to give things away. Shady Business practices. They have introduced new operations called SOP (standard operating procedure) that hey claimed tested great and rolled them out to all the stores and made them the LAW. The problem is every store is not the same and every customer demographic is not the same as well so some SOP's were not practical or efficient in certain markets. Like mandatory set schedules for SM's and ASM's. They are only allowed to work certain days and certain shifts no matter what their home life requires. They said it was to give better home life balance, but in reality The SM's were expected to be in their stores for a shift of 10 to 7pm every day ( the store closes at 9) which is relatively and open to close shift. If a manager had responsibilities for their children and needed to leave easier they were instructed to tack on the extra hours to another day or split the difference and work 6 or 7 days straight to get their Mandatory 40 a week. Work Life Balance is a joke. The work life balance was better when the managers were Exempt and paid salary instead of Hourly. They are trying to expand too fast. They are making bad real estate and business moves by opening stores in too close proximity of one another. There was another store 3 miles down the road from the one I worked at. That store was thriving until they opened my store and in the first 2 years its sales have decreased and declined and they hold the managers accountable for their poor business acumen when it came to their market expansion. They've done away with the District manager role and have made up a new position called ASL ( area sales leader) who are supposed to be another SM from a sister store within your market to be your peer partner who will help you grow and develop your business better. They really are the new DM's. They are salaried positions that make over 85k per year depending on the market. They initially were SM with leading stores but now they have made a new position within their stores so they don't have to run them anymore. They travel store to store and run the other stores in their district pod. So if you have an ASL essentially you're their First Assistant manager and they are the SM of your store. With ASLs in place and "DM's" a thing of the past, you will not move forward in your career anytime soon. In order for you to move ahead or get a promotion your ASL has to step down or get promoted. Or you have to relocate to an area where one is needed. If you have a family and roots set down in a particular area, you better get used to the idea of being an SM your entire career because that's all you'll be able to be. Your professional growth is now contingent upon someone else's life choice and not on your performance or merit as it should be. HR might as well not exist, and Open Door Policy is now obsolete. They have inducted a phone tree system where any issues or questions you may have, HAVE TO go through your ASL first, then they in turn tell the Market Leader, who then goes to HR who then reaches out to the next party needed. It can take up to a week and a half to get the answer for something one direct phone call could do. If you feel uncomfortably with going to your ASL or have an issue with your ASL and you call HR ( like any other company in the world ) your HR Rep will direct you back to your ASL and tell you it's not their issue to handle. Even when the issue is with that ASL they leave the decision to the ASL. Who very rarely take accountability for their actions. There is no one to mediate the issue. Market Leaders are not even in the picture. They run entire states and are rarely around and will not support anyone but the ASL's. The only true open door policy that is intact is the confidential email that goes directly to the president of the company.