Taking Shape

Management will chew you up and spit you out. They only treat you well and show appreciation if you drop everything for them and never complain. They will cut your hours and give to other staff members from other stores, but tell those staff members you said no to the shift (but you were never asked or was taken from you in first place). They will pay you less than your normal worked hours on a public holiday and try to get away with it. 
Management has favorites and even though you are forced to do an appraisal every year and talk about what you want to improve on and manager says ok we can do that but then gives the tasks to other people. Forced to work weekends, every weekend and penalised if you say no to anything. Expect you to be on call every day at short notice, if you say no to these calls you are given the cold shoulder and/or penalised on the next roster. 
Only get paid store opening hours but can't close register until store trading hours finished, and register must be in and opened before store opens. Never get tea break unless you ask for it.
If you are going to work here make sure you join the union so you have some form of protection, know your rights and be prepared to stand up for yourself. 

Don't do it.
Area managers will promise you progression but never give it to you.
Managers are lazy, incompetent and spend most of their day standing around gossiping about their staff, their customers, or their area managers. 
Kiss any respect goodbye. 
They do NOT provide any form of training to new staff. The pressure to push 3 items minimum on every single customer is incredibly unrealistic considering how over priced the product is. If you don't meet that target shifts will be taken away.
The level of bullying that goes on in this company and is completely accepted by the area managers AND the CEO is absolutely appauling. This place completely ruined the self confidence and mental health of eight different women JUST in my time there. 
It doesn't matter who you talk to, they will flip it back onto you and make you the bully for seeking help. 
Area managers pick their favourite managers and allow them to get away with everything and then bully managers who are performing well because of personal dislike for them.
I have witnessed area managers telling managers they are old, ugly, "looking rough", too fat for certain items (it's a plus size brand).

I thought I had landed my dream job. A beautiful store environment; good product & lovely customers. Turned out to be one of the worst companies I have worked for. Hours were horrendous; pay was poor; constant pressure to sell, sell, sell including the expectation to cold call customers at home or work constantly. Garments are expensive and no sooner had we harassed someone into purchasing multiple items, when everything went on 40% sale for a few days. It became tough to keep customers happy and hard to sell at full price. Stores are micro managed by area managers with much criticism and little praise. We lost 6 staff over 6 months, some who lasted weeks only.  We were treated like naughty children and training was minimal. We were expected to read online training manuals outside of work at no pay and often worked outside of scheduled hours at no pay. Our store manager wrote to management but no one from head office ever bothered to follow up. Staff are treated like fodder - steer clear!

Setting up the days trade for my staff and customers! Actions and focus for all staff to follow.
We are there for our ladies that range from a size 12 to 24, i try to help the ladies walk out with the outfit they need and to make them feel good about themselves.
I have learnt that i am really good at my job and love to serve.
As a manager i will always lead my store/staff to excel to be the best.
Staff will aways be treated as i like to be treated with respect and trust.
Hardest part of my job is when i am unable to help my customer find what she is after.

Most enjoyable part of my job is being around my co workers and helping my customer to 110%

Working with Taking Shape gave me the opportunity to develop my own skills whilst working with a great team of women. I loved getting to meet and have fun helping women develop their own dress sense and improve their self esteem. Taking Shape has clothing to fit every body shape and that makes the job of helping women to dress in a manner that makes them feel good so much easier. The clothing is bright and cheery, or subtle and conservative, depending on what your taste is so that is a great plus for the plus size women of today. Just because we are plus size doesn't mean we don't enjoy wearing colour to express our individual personality.

Ok company but management micro manages everything, they don’t ask you about roster changes and you are expected to spend your own money on clothes.
Must wear ts clothes, if you don’t meet budget there’s no clothing allowance.
Culture is ok but everyone is quite negative about management. Focus is on how many items you sell rather than the value so better to sell more cheap items than one expensive one.

Assisting customers in choosing outfits to suit their needs and lifestyle. Learned a lot about customers problems in dressing for larger ladies.  The focus is very much on customer service however the pressure to sell multible items is real and can detract from the experience for the customer.
Hardest part is trying to sell each customer 3 items,
Most enjoyable part is meeting customers and helping them.

To be a part of this organization means to love your curves and they show you how to do it in style!
The managers are supportive and always there to help you out. They show you what customer service truly means. 
The hardest part of the job is standing long hours but on a busy day with amazing customers in store, standing long hours isn't that big a problem. 

I have been working in the ecommerce/digital team for 3 years and there is still so much I am learning on a weekly basis about retail, ecommerce and digital. Great place to learn as the business is open to new ideas and testing new initiatives.

Say goodbye to your weekends if you aren't a manager at this company.  Terrible rate of pay and so much pressure to sell sell sell.  I left on bad terms and I didn't receive a single phone call.  I miss the lovely customers but don't miss the terrible hours and the slave labour.  You're expected to wear the current season styles without getting a clothing allowance.

Working at Taking Shape: Company Overview and Reviews

Taking Shape

Taking Shape Ratings

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected