sales assistant

retail sales associate

sales associate

department manager

store manager

ZARA

Pros
A select handful of the people at this store specifically were the only thing that is worth sticking around for longer than I should have.  I made forever friends out of this store

Cons
Basically everything. You wonder why there’s all these customer reviews about Zara staff looking depressed? That’s because they are. The amount of work that is put onto staff and there is little to no reward for the effort..  
Customers do not make it any easier, there is no respect for the product or the staff. I often wondered that if this was how our customers were treating the product and the store, is this what their homes looked like.. 

Management will take all the credit from head office on a good day, but on a bad day that blame gets put onto the retail team and no responsibility is taken from the managers. No matter what it is - budgets, big deliveries, heavy foot traffic meaning a lot of recovery.  There is no worthy incentives. There used to be a profit share system, this was scrapped years ago. And team motivation has been down ever since. 
Some of the busiest periods at this store are the most mentally and physically draining, the only reward is simply being able to leave at the end of your shift.  The most that you might get is a Thankyou message followed by some emojis in the group chat, that’s it.  There are so many companies out there that will provide you with an atmosphere that makes you want to stay, incentives are huge for the retail staff where I now work.  Forget about store staff Christmas parties, who cares if you just worked the last year or so and went through however many busy sales periods. But the head office teams will absolutly spoil themselves, doing half the hard work for all of the reward.  

The current store manager is racist. Very specifically will only offer promotion in store to staff of her own demographic background, if you’re not from the same country or speak her first language then you’ll be forgotten about and cast aside. Possibly even treated poorly aswell.  Some of the strongest team members of this store, simply because they are not of her own demographic, are essentially bullied. Hard work is not recognised in this store if you are anything other than her own background.  Opportunities would be given to certain staff by their department managers but the store manager would take it away, to then give that offer to another staff that suits her demographic profile.  
Store manager is responsible for massive neglect towards one of the departments in this store, which it’s become known is a company wide issue by the store managers of other stores aswell. The staff in this specific department at highpoint get treated as if they are children who don’t know what they are doing (as a former manager of a different department I can confirm the team often worked hard and always prioritise their customer engagement), and overall support for that department is nil from the store manager.  

 I’ve since moved to a new company in an office type role but where I provide store support, and I see how much my company loves their store teams and the incentives that are provided are incredible. The differences they get as retail staff versus what Zara staff get is astounding, there should not be this big of a gap. The way our office gives praise to our stores is incredible, and it doesn’t just stop at the kind words.  

There are better options for your career progression AND for your mental health. Zara is not worth any of that. You WILL be over worked. You WILL burn out.  You WILL be unappreciated and under valued, no matter how hard you’ve worked.  And you WILL be under paid in both salary/rate and incentives.  Seek other employment, please.

Casuals are mistreated and management is dodgy. Management doesn't care about rights of casuals even when you are with the company for years. Mangers force casuals to be available for shifts even when they have other commitments. Mangers will call a couple hours before your shift to cancel when the store is quiet. Casual hours will be cut back if budgets not made. Management expect workers to do everything with no benefits (no staff discount for casuals) and lack of basic respect. There is a level of hierarchy and favouritism. So full timers will be treated better and those with close/good relationships with your floor manager will get better shifts. Occasionally you will get rude customers, lack of staff to save money will mean you will work twice as hard. Mangers are told to change the clock on sheet because casuals are only allowed to work a max 20hrs a week. If you are called in and do more than 20 hrs a week there is a chance that you will be underpaid. Lack of communication between floor managers and staff e.g. changes to procedures. For some reason everything is a secret e.g. managers leaving, new staff arriving so you will only find out on your shift. 

There is a chance for career progression at Zara but only if they (management) like you. You are either at the company for 5 years trying to prove that you have what it takes to be a visual coordinator or floor manger OR you arrive at the company and within 2 months you are training to be a floor manager. 

Training for new staff is 50/50 depending on your manger sometimes you will either be thrown in the deep end or  you will be throughly trained on how to do your job.

Full timers only receive a 25% discount and will only be activated after 3 months. As a Christmas present employees who have been working at the company for longer than 1 year will get a $100 voucher.

Every negative thing about this company is due to management (HR and others in office) managers are either too scared or don't care enough to stand up for their staff. This is evident in the extremely high turn overs.

The memes are true, Zara employees are rude because they are under-appreciated and disrespected at work.

I've worked at Zara for a year now. And lately, it’s been awful. 

There is a high turnover in staff (managers included) which is something I didn't expect, but now I absolutely understand.  I think anyone would leave if they were unappreciated and overworked.  

When I first started, the store was amid preparation for the Mid-Year Sale so everything was hectic. The worst time to be hired.  I wasn't trained but instead thrown in the deep end and had to learn as I go. 

Those who try and do their jobs well get ignored with their efforts completely unacknowledged. However when other coworkers who do less and make constant mistakes with tasks that are easy, somehow never get spoken to.

I'm often left with the workload of 2-3 people with unrealistic expectations from managers. When I barely manage to finish everything, I don't even get a thank you. There was a two week period where I felt nothing but exhaustion and had to take a day off mid week as a result. You definitely get left feeling burnt out. 

On one particular day I ended up in tears after I was spoken to about not completing enough the previous day. A day that was a public holiday in which I was left completely by myself for three hours with the responsibility to close too. My friend informed my manager that I was upset and she didn't even bat an eyelid. Absolutely not a care in the world. 
So, would I recommend working here? Absolutely not.


Worked on shop floor and occasionally supported stock room. Out of all the retail jobs ZARA had the most toxic and unwelcoming environment. New employees quit after a day or two so the workload falls back on existing employees. Very often the store is understaffed and you are pushed to hit unpacking or picking targets or maintaining tables and replenishing the shop floor. Hard work is not recognised. Not enough managers to coach or check in on new team members. Management always busy with other tasks and very often look tired, are unapproachable or are always on their phones. Conversations are rushed and communication very poor. On my first day I was told by multiple sales assistant how bad the company is and not a single assistant seemed to be happy. There is no benefits for casual employees. Company talks a lot about being harassment free workplace yet gossiping is a common practice including managers. The company seems to struggle to fill in positions with professionals which is evident and results in poor culture, low engagement and high turnover. 
My advice: the less you get involved in, the healthier for you. Do your hrs, tick off your tasks and go home. Casual work (though no benefits) seems to be the best option as it gives you a lot of flexibility to maintain healthy work life balance. Otherwise it’s a repetitive toxic day to day routine 5 days a week 

They don't give more than 30 hours only in the case that you been in the company for over a year. Inditex prefers more people working for 30 hours than less people for 40 hours. This is how they work.
you will work 30 hours a week 5 days a week 6 hour a day with 20 mins break to eat. Is very difficult to get another job in the meantime as the hours are not much. 
 The management is very poor. There is a lot of competitivity and bad vibes between the managers, they are not professional in any aspect, no with the customer and no managing the staff concerns, 90% of the staff is Spanish and the other 10% Italian. 
the actual work is not much, just fold some t-shirt or charge customers by the till. Is very intensive because the managers are trying to show of all the time, besides that the work is not difficult. 
The payment is not much, so is very difficult to make a living. Also, there is a lot of staff damaging competitivity. There are groups and people speaks all the time bad to each other, is just not a nice place to be, you can feel the bad vibe all the time. 
The managers are very strict with what they know, each of them are in charge of few things, they are a lot of managers by the way. They are just not qualified and experienced. 
I am giving three stars because the work was not difficult.

Managers or positions higher dont care about you. Zara is a cheapskate employer as there are little to no benefits for employees. They’ll DEMAND casuals to give 3 days minimum availability, which would be reasonable to a degree, but then somehow gives some people zero hours while others get all 3 shifts. They play favourites and will gives shifts to people who give full week availability even though minimum requires 3 and those who do should be treated the same. Managers over work supervisors to make them do any little odd job they wont wanna do + the job of managing the floor + the job of a normal floor staff. They ask for casuals to have 1 full month notice before any time off. They demand that thick blazers to be worn (especially during visits) even if the day is very hot, white the managers walk around in nice cool short sleeve shirts. Only a handful of people are decent enough to put themselves in the shoes of regular staff. Communication is terrible - one manager will tell a sales assistant to do something and then another manager will come and tell of the sales assistant for doing the very task they were told to do. Turnover is crazy as only a handful can survive long term at Zara.

I was excited to work at Zara until i found out what a horrible place it was to work. 

- Bad management - they have no patience with sales assistants/blame you when something goes wrong / always criticizing  you / make you do all the work without resting between. 

-Staff - as the new person they didn't make me feel welcomed (only one or two people did). During the staff meetings they would use Spanish words because its a Spanish company and most of the staff understood except me . 

- work load- During the sales you are expected to be on your feet non stop carrying heavy around of clothes on your arms , waling up and down the stairs. I stared to feel dizzy and dehydrated most of the time . If it looked like you were resting they would tell you to get back to work ASAP.

-Overtime- you were expected to do overtime even if you never asked for it. Sometimes i would stay behind an extra 1hr/1hr 30mins because there were still customers in the shop and we had tidy the shop and made sure it was perfect for the next day. 

Unless you want to be unhappy every day you go to work i would recommend finding another job - it inst worth it , trust me !

A very every man for themselves mindset and a lot of asking constant questions to get on the same page rather than proper training. As a new person you are thrown into tasks without proper guidance. A lot of the management are lovely with your best interest at heart, however a particular person was quite rude and talked down to staff, would make unnecessarily hostile, snide comments which made the workplace vibe so unpleasant and many staff were targeted. There was also disorganisation where management would read and ignore an unavailability message with proper notice and put me on anyway, also calling me in to work on my period of absence. Also there were several instances i was texted very late at night come in early next morning, shifts were also cancelled with only an hours notice at times.

As a casual shifts are inconsistent and scarce despite it being understaffed. There is lots of pressure to get hefty tasks done in unrealistic time frames that 2 people should be doing together realistically. For a retail position, it's on the lower end. At work you want to feel supported and encouraged and like part of a team which was unfortunately not evident. 

The most disrespectful management I have worked for to date. For a company that preaches about intolerance of workplace bullying, they do not apply those ethics in store. I have been bullied heavily twice. My mental health has deteriorated because of the inconsiderate management. The amount of shifts that are shared between Casuals are not shared fairly some have more than others which I do not understand why. The managers do not do anything other than walk in and out of the womans and mens store, and or are looking at a company Ipad doing god knows what. I was at zara for almost 8 months as a casual sales assistant and I didnt even receive the full uniform. Some employees of the Zara chadstone store in Melbourne also feel they have a sense of entitlement to treat you the way they want to treat you which isnt right. If you are looking to work in the fashion industry for a company that applies the rules of no work place bullying , Zara isnt the place for you. They lack respect for one another and they do not even try to understand where youre coming from and what you do everyday to get to work.

- Some days the work is heavier than others, depending on the number of clients depending on the day. Some systems make the work slower, for example: in the fitting rooms we have to scan each item to know in which sector it goes, I think they should implement an easier and faster system, because, on days when many people go and the fitting room is full, it takes a long time to sort and fold the clothes, so that the rest can take them to the right place.
- You learn to work under pressure, which is very useful for future jobs/challenges in life.
- My colleagues in the store are all friendly, we are a team and we always support each other.
- Full time have discount, if you work as a casual worker you don't have discount.
- If you want to improve your English, working at Zara is an excellent choice. You communicate with customers, you learn something new every day, your colleagues will always help you.
 - I've had my shift cancelled with less than an hour's notice, which is annoying because you're already on your way to work. 


Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Sales assistant 12 salaries reported	$30.58 per hour
Retail sales associate 9 salaries reported	$28.48 per hour
Sales associate 4 salaries reported	$27.50 per hour
Department manager 2 salaries reported	$80,000 per year
Store manager 1 salary reported	$80,000 per year

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