My Experience Working For Lush

Tuesday 14th February, 2017.

It's been 3 months since I last left Lush. You'd think I'd be full of 1000000 happy stories about bunnies, love and how fantastic that place is to work for... In all honesty, this is really not the case. Sure, I enjoyed working for the place (at one point) but towards the end, I couldn't think about anything better than the sweet release of leaving the place that made me feel so unhappy that I was almost in tears at the thought of just going to work.


I'd like to first of all say that Lush as an overall company really do have great ideas and have a lovely thought process behind all of the products that they make, ensuring that the people they source their ingredients from are well paid and looked after. I love what they stand for and the way they fight for animal, human and environmental rights.

With that being said, I'll tell you about my two year journey working for Lush (hopefully it wont be an essay). 

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When I first started working for Lush it was fantastic. It was fun learning new things and was a great place to help gain confidence and make brilliant friends. It was a friendly environment and I never sensed any weird vibes between staff members - it really was like a family.

The Christmas period went quickly and before I knew it, it was January and me and the other two girls had been kept on to work permanently for the company - success.

Working as a sales assistant was probably the best thing for me in that store. I was unaware of anything deeper going on in the store and I could go to work, do my thing, make friends and then go home without knowing about any behind the scenes drama within the store. As far as I'm aware, there wasn't really much drama in the store at that point and it was a nice and breezy place to work.

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Months had passed and the previous manager had left, leaving a new one to take place. A lovely person who was always there for staff whenever they needed help. Unfortunately that manager was left without extra help through the Christmas period and with the help of the supervisors who worked there at the time, they worked hard to make sure that the shop still stayed afloat and everyone came together as a team to make sure that it was a successful Christmas. The supervisors at the time really stepped up and helped the manager, taking on roles larger than what they were trained for and really helped the store pull through. Unfortunately these supervisors left shortly after Christmas, leaving the store with just one supervisor and Manager.

A trainee manager (amazing person) was shortly hired and then another two supervisors were hired (that's where I come in - hello, one of the three supervisors now working for the store.)

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed the first half of being a supervisor. It was such a fantastic experience. I learnt so much about the store, more about products, managerial experience and gained so much confidence (that without, I wouldn't be working for such a great store and group of people now - so for that, I am thankful).

I went through a pretty hard time during the first few months of being a supervisor for the store. I had unfortunately lost a couple things closest to me and was finding it hard to deal with this loss, as well as dealing with a minor eating disorder that had started to get out of hand. I couldn't concentrate at work and just needed a break. Everyone within that store who knew about what was going on in my personal life were the most amazing people with helping that you could imagine. I received help and advice and had the most incredible support and without their help, work would have just pushed me over the edge.

(With all of that aside, I'd like to say I'm doing much better now)

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Months had past and it was heading towards summer time (2016). This is where I had noticed that things were changing within the store - and not for the best. I guess there were many things that I had noticed before but never really picked up properly until talking about it and realising that things weren't in my head and in fact, the store wasn't all the great things I thought it was.

Parts of the store were becoming increasingly lazy and it was becoming highly noticed. Members of staff were being left on the shop floor for hours without help and people who should have been there to help never were. Favouritism within the store became a huge thing and those who weren't the favourites were being left to fend for themselves - like a mother leaving their child to fend for themselves against a pride of lions.

There were many a time when the store was overrun with customers and staff members just couldn't keep up and those who were supposed to be there to help were downstairs (as always - literally... always). I can't remember a time from that summer to the day that I left that the person who was supposed to be there to help was ever on the shop floor for longer than two hours. Even when on the shop floor, fuck all was being done (except constant complaining, bitching and moving the store about).

The store became an awkward place with bitching being a no.1 pastime and making people feel small was a favourite.

Everyone was being ragged on for the smallest things and no one was really safe from the harsh and hypocritical words that were being said. It was becoming an increasingly harder place to work. It was like treading on egg shells 24/7 and never being sure on what was the right thing to do. The worst thing is, due to there being no help (EVER) and people never being around, some things would just have to be done and 9x out of 10 you would be bitched about or moaned at for doing it wrong.

Team meetings were becoming a one hour session of bullshit sass and fakeness, telling people where to improve, when really... It wasn't them that needed improving.

It wasn't long before staff members were dropping like flies and I knew I had to leave to or end up being the way I was at the beginning of the year and I can't tell you how it was the best decision I made that year.

My hate towards working for the store was becoming increasingly obvious and starting to care about the place was starting to decline. It was a daily battle of being left alone for hours whilst people would be downstairs (not working... just talking to anyone who passes). Not to mention all the endless 15 minute cigarette breaks every five seconds. Keeping an eye on all customers with such little staff became harder, and even after asking for help, it never came.

I eventually lost my rag, and after a tearful phone call to my dad about how I couldn't handle working for a store that was making me so unhappy, I wrote up my notice that night and handed it in the next day. I cannot tell you the amazing feeling of release the day I handed that notice in. It was like Christmas came early and I had been gifted a thousand pug puppies.

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I had a very interesting two years working for Lush, and despite the many downs that I had come across whilst working there, I had met the most amazing people you could ever imagine. People will amazing personalities, life stories and people I remain great friends with and could imagine being friends with for the rest of my life. 

I'd also like to say that this is my own PERSONAL experience with working for Lush and this is just a snippet of things I could say. I can't talk for anyone else who works for Lush (anywhere in the world) and everyone will have a different experience. 

This is a post that I have been thinking of making for a long time, and after everything, I feel like I owe this to myself. To not always keep quiet or be pushed around and let people get away with it.

This is for you, the quiet me.