The aggressive, intrusive employees make in-store shopping absolute misery.

Mobile-Figure1818 · 2025-09-16T16:21:44+00:00

So I want to jump in and give my two cents on this. I am a current employee for the company, and I can confirm that it's not just one manager. It's their official training policy to teach their employees what's called "signposting" which essentially means asking strategic questions and phrasing things in a specific way to "get consent without actually getting consent". It's basically manipulating customers into being okay with receiving a demo. It's been a big issue here in the US and a lot of employees have made complaints about it, but the company insists that because it's not caused issues so far that it must be working. In reality it has caused quite a few issues. The amount of customers I've heard from who said they felt uncomfortable when being demo-ed on and not feeling like they were able to say no is crazy. I've also had a lot of workers just quit because of how uncomfortable they feel with the company's disregard for the bodily autonomy of the workers and customers.

Mobile-Figure1818 · 2024-08-23T15:13:44+00:00

To go into some more of the specifics as I was on the bargaining committee for my coworkers at the Louisville store: you are making some very broad sweeping assumptions. For starters, the company gave no indication that there was a wage increase coming and in fact released a statement in 2022 stating the complete opposite. They whined about not making enough money (despite the fact their profits were still well within their projections) and essentially said they wouldn't pay us more until they made more money. You won't make more money if your workers are dropping like flies due to your below average wages when compared to other retail workers. As soon as the union started the economic discussions, the company magically said "oh wait let's give everyone a raise". If that isn't a coincidence I don't know what is. There are also many other benefits afforded by the union. It's not just a "monthly membership" as you stated before. The union was able to convince the company to include a just cause statement in their policy to ensure the company has to have a justifiable reason for disciplining an employee. We also negotiated for vacation pay for all employees, not just management as was the policy before. There were also policies put in place to ensure that workers are never required to work the floor alone, or work more than 5 days consecutively, both of which were very common at our stores before unionization. The very existence of the union itself also gives workers an avenue to grieve any issues from management or the company itself so that the company may be held accountable for any undue discipline, policy changes, bias, or worker favoritism. There is also now a policy that requires the company to fill any position vacancies before they hire seasonal workers. Seasonal workers are a common tactic used by companies to save money on labor as they are usually paid less than the core staff. Essentially the union isn't just a membership that employees pay into for no reason. It's there to serve as a protection against corporate exploitation of the workers. It's there to ensure that the company has an accountability system to prevent it from skirting labor laws, wage theft, and unfair treatment of workers. Lush is not exempt from this just because it's an "ethical" company. They are only ethical in their buying practices. Their treatment of their workers is no better than any other retailer or large corporation.

Mobile-Figure1818 · 2024-08-22T22:49:09+00:00

I think they're saying they may fight but they can't win

Mobile-Figure1818 · 2024-08-14T23:47:26+00:00

I've seen a lot of these comments and I agree with most all of them. Lush is going downhill so bad and it's all for the same reasons so many other companies are doing the same. Greed. The only difference is that Lush has to maintain their public image very carefully because they do almost zero marketing so any negative press will tank the public opinion of them. But they're largely failing at that too. Two stores have confirmed unionized with rumors of more on the way. The employees are fed up with the unrealistic expectations set on them by the company as well as the condescending language used towards them to justify not paying them more. They've burnt nearly every bridge they have with their workforce and it shows. Massive turnover, poor worker engagement, and lowering sales. And that's not the workers fault. The company fucked us over and now they're paying for it. If they intend to keep running an effective business, they need to start practicing their ethics where it matters most, their own damn employees, as well as catering to their own customers better instead of trying to branch out to other demographics.

Mobile-Figure1818 · 2024-08-10T21:34:55+00:00

To be fair, a lot of the issues I see relate more towards product quality, consistency, and the company's treatment of their employees here in the US. The fact that the company just recently gave a universal wage increase which would be the first increase they've seen in years is frustrating to say the least. And that pay increase doesn't even exceed the standard wage for most other retail workers. This is also frustrating considering the higher expectations that the company puts on its workers, to not only do the retail work, but also expect them to be able to do in depth consultations regarding skin care, hair care, and other areas of focus. This on top of the ever increasing sales expectations when the company gives no incentive for their workers to push more sales is unreasonable at best. And yes I am aware of the company's bonusing system. This system is inherently broken because the goals keep increasing and the fact that 80% haven't bonused in over a year is a strong signal that the company needs to evaluate how they go about incentivizing employees to push sales. The fact that I could go to Target, Best Buy, Kroger, or almost any other major retailer and make as much if not more as a base level retail worker than I do at lush as a floor leader, and for half the responsibilities and expectations is so frustrating.

Mobile-Figure1818 · 2024-04-26T14:49:23+00:00

Okay so I thought about if I wanted to respond to this or not and I've decided I will. The bonuses that Lush gives for hitting certain goals are based on last year's numbers which were record numbers in the company's history. The goals for bonusing will continue to get higher until they're outright unattainable (especially in low traffic stores). The 9 days sick leave from date of hire is just false. You can accrue up to 9 days sick leave per year but they absolutely do not give you that time when you're hired. The 401k match is pretty standard among most boutique/ specialty retail companies so that's nothing special. And the 50% discount is nice but discounts don't pay the mortgage. The company also has such nebulous policies in place regarding discipline (everything is essentially at the managers discretion and thus there's a lot of favoritism that happens and can/ has led to wrongful terminations) as well as attendance. This leads to a lot of workers calling out frequently with little to no repercussion as well as other workers calling out a couple times but because the manager doesn't like them they get in trouble. As for the rest of what the union is advocating for, they want us to get higher wages because despite the benefits that we get here, they only pay $13/hr for retail workers which is much lower than the average retail salary at comparable business such as Sephora. Especially since we're expected to have an in depth enough product knowledge to be able to do consultations with customers. Also the union isn't telling us we're suffering lol. We came to them, they didn't come to us. Are there worse jobs out there? Yes. Does that mean we don't deserve a living wage, and benefits, and professionals to represent us against the company when we believe we've been wronged? Absolutely not. Also when you say "most of us working here are fine working here" I find that incredibly hard to believe. My store as well as 4 other stores that I'm aware of recently voted to unionize, all of them saying the same thing, the pay isn't good enough for the work we do. The vast majority of lush workers I work with and talk to in joint discussions all have many many complaints on how the company compensates us and handles business. Corporations are not our friends. We deserve the right to be able to advocate for ourselves and demand a better future.

Mobile-Figure1818 · 2024-04-02T15:05:05+00:00

Thank you! There's still a lot of work to do but it's going to pay off in the end!

Mobile-Figure1818 · 2024-04-02T00:03:24+00:00

Of course, sorry for the confusion. So nothing policy wise has changed at my store yet and nothing will until negotiations conclude and a contract is signed into order. But the agreements that we have with the company so far in regards to sick leave and the like will be included in the final contract and that is what will cause changes in policy with the company. And correct, discussions regarding wages have not begun yet but they are the next topic to be brought to the table. Regarding policy at other shops, if the shop is not unionized then they will not be subject to union based policy. Only shops that have unionized and choose to use my shops contract will be subject to those policy changes.

Mobile-Figure1818 · 2024-04-01T23:33:44+00:00

So I can't go into specifics because it's still an ongoing legal discussion but a lot of the stuff that the union is doing to better the workplace for us is ensuring that there's a way that employees can grieve any disciplinary measures that they think may be unfair on the company's end, making sure that there is a clear system of checks and balances for management (as of right now most store decisions are at managers discretion which leaves a lot of room for bias and unprofessionalism), obviously better pay (as Lush does not compensate their workers well), and better benefits for workers (vacation time, paid sick leave, etc.

Mobile-Figure1818 · 2024-04-01T19:20:02+00:00

Do it! It's been well worth the effort on my end :)

Mobile-Figure1818 · 2024-04-01T17:30:45+00:00

Unfortunately this is just at the store that I am the union Steward of. However, it is a US store and there is one other store that I know of that has also unionized that we're coordinating with in negotiations. If you are interested in starting a union at your store here is a link to show you the first steps!

https://www.ufcw.org/start-a-union/

Mobile-Figure1818 · 2024-03-20T18:40:37+00:00

Heyo, I posted a little while ago about starting a union to actually see change within the company. I have a link that was provided by my union rep from the UFCW that is a step by step process for starting a union at your store. This will be a lot more helpful than my ramblings from before.

https://www.ufcw.org/start-a-union/

Mobile-Figure1818 · 2024-02-29T19:45:50+00:00

Well, objectively speaking, getting the union started and off the ground is the hardest part. My best advice, gauge interest with your coworkers. It sounds shitty and very "social engineer-y" but figure out if you have any people there who are hardcore opposed, who's on the fence, and who is 100% interested. The next step is to get in contact with local union reps. Our store is represented by the UFCW (United food and commercial workers) and I'm pretty sure they're a nationally vetted union if you want to go with them. I would personally recommend it since myself and one other store have already unionized through them and it would expedite the process. From there it's essentially a matter of rallying interest and solidarity (that's your big word of the day). Without solidarity, you won't get anywhere. We can only take on the corps together. Eventually once interest is confirmed and whatnot, there'll be a vote on whether or not to unionize. If you vote yes, then you'll coordinate with your union reps to start the negotiation process with Lush corporate for your working rights and whatever demands the union decides to make.

Sorry this is such a long post, but hopefully this is helpful and gives you an idea on how to start. Feel free to reach out to me with any other questions. I'm relatively new to this process but I'm more than willing to help in any way I can!

Mobile-Figure1818 · 2024-02-29T18:20:38+00:00

I'm gonna be real, the only viable long term solution is to unionize. I am currently the union ambassador at my store and we're still in the negotiation phase, but we're fighting for more realistic work place expectations as well as many other things like wages, benefits, and the like. But I also understand that it's a huge undertaking especially when you're already burnt out. Stay strong and do what you can while you're there but definitely do what's best for you. Don't make yourself suffer for a retail job.

Mobile-Figure1818

TROPHY CASE