Former employee’s ‘toxic workplace’ claims at top jewellery company Lovisa

When Marissa Tukuafu made Tik Toks detailing her “awful” time working at Lovisa, which she claims ended in heart palpitations and therapy, she was swamped with shocking claims.

Former employees of a top jewellery company have made claims about a “toxic” workplace, with one woman revealing she had to seek medical treatment for heart palpitations due to stress and anxiety from the job.

Sydney woman Marissa “Trix” Tukuafu has come forward with shocking claims about her “traumatic” experience working for retailer Lovisa, which began in Sydney, and the “abuse” she claims she and colleagues faced, in a series of viral TikTok videos with over two-million views and 2000 comments.

“It was toxic, as a whole it was just not great … it was awful,” the former store manager and employee of four years said.

“I knew it was at the point where I had to leave when I had to get an ECG put on due to constant heart palpitations and while I was getting the monitor on I was called to come in,” Ms Tukuafu told The Daily Telegraph.

“I had to go to therapy.”

@fuckitstrix Replying to @KaseyHolleran #Inverted♬ original sound - Trix

The 22-year-old claimed she was asked on multiple occasions to travel three hours to open the store on her day off, despite another staff member “living five minutes away.”

“It was kind of the norm,” Ms Tukuafu said describing how employees were expected to work outside of their contracted 38-hours a week and often had to take “mental health weeks off”.

Marissa Tukuafu claims she suffered stress and anxiety from working at Lovisa which lead to heart and health complications. Picture: TikTok

Ms Tukuafu re-enacted the bizarre conversations with her former Lovisa managers in a series of viral TikTok videos. Picture: TikTok

“I was easily coming into work one hour early every morning and staying two hours after, working through lunch, we didn’t have enough staff and the workload was quite intense,” she said.

“I stopped going away on my days off because I knew I would be called.”

“I passed out one day at the train station from exhaustion, during the Christmas period when I was rushing to the store.

“On Christmas Eve I was there until 2am.

Former Lovisa employee Marissa Tukuafu (known on TikTok as "Trix") said she “passed out from exhaustion” due to overtime hours worked.

Ms Tukuafu also claimed she was told to work when she was unwell “throwing up behind the counter”, turn music up against centre management orders and untangle fifteen necklaces in her spare time.

The ex-retail worker also said another former employee claimed to have urinated “behind the counter” on shift due to no staff coverage available and a long line of customers.

“We bond over our trauma,” she said revealing another ex-worker “still gets anxious when she walks past the store.”

Ms Tukuafu says this is an industry wide issue and highlighted similar claims other TikTok users have come forward with.

The video captioned “working at Lovisa was the worst four years of my life” sparked an influx of comments from other former Lovisa employees, with horrifying claims.

“I have nightmares about working there. Can we all join together and do a class action against Lovisa to pay for therapy,” user Susan Ramsay said.

“200% the worst company I have ever worked for. Don’t get me started on the unrealistic targets that had to be met,” Yolanda Alexis agreed.

User Angelique D said the TikTok gave her PTSD.

“ I only worked there for one month and lost 5kg from the stress,” she said.

Ms Tukuafu is “sad” to know her experience was not unique.

“Overall, it’s an issue within the industry in Australia, a lot of people are young so they don’t have a lot of work experience … it’s easy for managers to take advantage of them,” she said.

The Daily Telegraph has contacted Lovisa for comment.