Where L'Oréal falls short is on its toxic culture that it has tried for years and years to change, with little to no success. Its reputation is notorious both inside and outside the organisastion. I joined as a grad, with around 30 other grads (many of them were my good friends) and I would say now only around 10% are still working there for this exact reason. Working extremely long days, with unrealistic deadlines and timeframes is not only commonplace, it is expected and demanded. I would sometimes get to my desk at 7am and not leave until 11pm. Having breakfast, lunch and dinner at your desk is something you just have to learn to get used to. Although it is worth noting that it is very much a 'work hard play hard' culture, so long hard work is sometimes offset by socials and work events (although I hear this is few and far between these days due to budget cuts).
The long hours and demanding work is not the worst aspect of the culture, however. Having only spent my professional career at L'Oréal I thought a culture of bitchiness, bullying, humiliation and disrespect was normal of every big corporation. I had no idea how wrong I was until I eventually left to go and work for another large conglomerate, which couldn't be further from this. General managers will humiliate you in large team meetings by challenging and criticising your decisions in a demeaning and derogatory way, and colleagues will throw each other under the bus to get ahead in their own career. General managers will pitch you up against your counterparts in a way that is so obvious and uncomfortable, it makes you permanently anxious and afraid that you are not living up to expectation. Despite the division being made up of majority females, CPD has a toxic masculine culture where males within the division will roast other colleagues in things like team quizzes, large email threads etc in the name of 'workplace banter'. Often this can be uncomfortable to witness, as its clearly borderline bullying, but everyone is complicit and says nothing in the name of not 'rocking the boat.' HR are fully aware and do nothing about it. At a more junior level interns and grads are given inexperienced managers who are trying to flex their new managerial muscles and make their interns miserable with harsh words, unrealistic expectations and passive aggressive emails. Personally, as an intern I would walk home nearly every day in tears, but again just thought this was part and parcel of 'normal' corporate life.
Of course its not all bad, and I worked with some lovely colleague and managers. But for the most part I would strongly recommend you do NOT work at L'Oreal unless you have an outrageously thick skin, and if you're happy to give up your entire life to the job.
