Week 1: Free People

One of the really cool things about all URBN companies is that there is a universal open door policy, so you can (hypothetically) walk into anyone’s office at anytime. Obviously, it’s always better to plan a meeting/time, but even the existence of such a policy really helps to enable an open environment, where everyone feels like they are heard. The way the office I’m in is split up into various teams (around 7 in the whole office). There are 3 executives who are in the office, and then below that heads of each of the teams (like international stores, dept. Stores, or operations (where I work)). The style of the team leaders differs based on their individual personality as well as who they are interacting with. My specific team is one of the smaller ones, with it just being my supervisor and two other full time employees below him. Colin is super nice and definitely abides by the open door policy- and is always willing to answer any questions or help clarify any of the tasks at hand. Overall I would say the executives obviously have a lot of power, so the structure is centralized in terms of them, but then decentralized by the team leaders. I personally feel like this is an effective way for the office to function, because it allows the executives to streamline goals/tasks, and then the team leaders can assess and assign based upon their specific team/task. I can’t say that I know all there is about their management structure, but from my limited time in the office thus far it seems to work well for them, and I look forward to learning more about it and perhaps seeing if it has any shortcomings/room for improvement.