Build-A-Bear Reviews in Saint Louis, MO

I have been working at Build-A-Bear full-time for less than a year

Pros – Great benefits, great work life balance, great respect for employees, a great opportunity to learn new things. They truly respect family values and have bent over backwards to accommodate my schedule to allow me to work and take care of my family.

Cons – The most meeting happy place I have ever worked. Often you can have 7 1/2 hours of meetings in one day!

Advice to Senior Management – Not really anything to add....still love working here.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Build-A-Bear full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Fun product, creative environment, casual dress

Cons – Lots of big egos, harsh attitudes. Lack of respect.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at Build-A-Bear full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Great hard working people! Opportunities for advancement if you work hard.

Cons – Management wasn't the best at times. All about the bottom line.

Advice to Senior Management – Listen to your employees.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Build-A-Bear

Pros – Good atmosphere, great discount, friendly people to work with

Cons – Not much mobility within company, hire mostly externally since the company is so small

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Build-A-Bear

Pros – - Casual work environment and dress code
- Can bring your dogs to work
- Good employee discount (30% most of the year, and 50% twice a year)
- Some of the charitable things they do make you proud to work for the company
- It looks good on a resume, because other company's know that to work at BAB you have to be an extremely hard worker

Cons – - No work/life balance. All of the executives work 60-70 hours a week, and they expect you to as well. That is fine if you are making $500,000/year like they are, or if they rewarded employees for hard work. But non-management staff is paid very poorly, and it is almost impossible to get an adequate raise.
- VERY high turnover rates due to this fact, leading employees to quickly get burnt out. This makes job continuity impossible. Some departments have had 50-60% turnover rates the last few years, but because the manager of those departments is considered a "favorite", nothing is ever done and the departments just end up being revolving doors.
- There is no communication between management and non-management staff. Employees often find out about major company events and plans through press releases. It makes it extremely hard to get behind company initiatives when you do not know what they are.
- Upper-level management has been entrenched and surrounded with "yes-people" for so long that there are no checks and balances within the company. This is concerning because every executive has been with the company since it began, so there no one in a leadership position that has been in the outside business world in the last 15 years.
- Morale at headquarters is much lower than the Best Places to Work awards would indicate. Most of the votes for this award come from the store level, not from HQ. If you look closely at that list, BAB does not offer the majority of the benefits that the other companies do.
- It often seems extremely random how the company chooses to spend their money, and their seems to be no rhyme or reason to most of it. One minute they are eliminating positions or not replacing employees, and the next they are giving millions of dollars to consulting company's that don't end up providing any benefit to the company after they are gone. I used to work on some projects with the IT department, and it is honestly scary how short staffed they are, and how few people they have trying to keep the critical computer systems up and running.

Advice to Senior Management – - Reward employees that work hard for you and have helped you get to the position that you are in
- Take the time to get to know your employees and what they are working on. This would help substantially in lowering the turnover rate. In addition to being extremely under paid, one of the main reasons I left was because I felt my bosses had no interest in me or helping me grow as an employee
- Communicate with your employees and involve them in the decision making process, especially if it is something that is going to directly affect them

Even though it didn't work for me, I would still consider BAB an ok company that could be saved. But it is going to require a major change of attitude from the top down.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Build-A-Bear

Pros – A company with heart.
Teddy bears and kids are fun.
Great product to sell.
It's hard work but a lot of fun.
Ok to wear jeans and bring dogs to work (at BQ).
Good and hard-working team of people in stores and at BQ.
Some cool and interesting perks.
Lots to do.

Cons – Lots to do.
Uniforms are questionable.
Salaries can be low.
Benefits good but not great.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Build-A-Bear

Pros – Fantastic people with a true dedication to their work. Everyone is happy to be there. Management is open and has a great direction for the company.

Cons – There were no downsides when I was there in my position. The only downside may be that some staff members work a large amount of hours.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep doing what you are doing! I have never heard of a negative Build-A-Bear Workshop experience. Guests are truly happy.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend