Cutter & Buck Reviews

Pros

One of the best resons to work for CB is my work/life balance. We do work really hard, but we also are allowed more than enough time for family obligations, unexpected events and go-home-early days when we need it. We can also arrange work from home days at a moments notice. Fremont is also a terrific area to work in for shopping, food and after work drinks.

Cons

There are some cons of working here. The first is that the recession has reduced the already small workforce by about a third. Thus, everyone has acquired the roles of several people. The most successful of us have enough legacy knowledge to be able to cope with the workload. Any new employee would easily be overwhelmed. Another con is that everyone, no matter their title, has their own office. This creates the definition of silos especially in this turbulent environment. The last con I would like to mention is that we don't really have a company culture or identity. It seems like we have been so driven to make money, that we forgot or lost track of who we are and what we stand for.

Advice to Senior Management

The leadership has listened to the employee concerns but they need to move faster to implement changes. They need to look harder at what other top companies offer their employees and add some of those to retain good employees. They also need to somehow infuse the soul back into CB.

Pros

-Great locaion in Fremont
-Decent work/life balance

Cons

-Horrible benefits: expensive health care, expensive parking, no 401k matching
-Severly underqualified middle management
-No sense of community between all departments
-Executive management doesn't seem to be movitivated to improve sinking morale
-The brand is still not really known or recognized. To this day I still have to explain to people what Cutter and Buck does, which is kind of embarassing.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus focus focus on keeping your employees happy: improve benefits, get better middle managment (just because someone does a specific job well doesn't mean they know how to supervise or lead other people), get better benefits, get employees excited about mingling with other departments, figure out your brand, and get a better marketing strategy so employees can be proud to work for a company that is well known and respected.

Pros

Flexible work schedule.
The building is nice.
Great location for lunch and after-work activities.
Decent life/work balance isn't difficult to make happen.

Cons

Management decisions are made without thought of the impact they will have on people that actually get work done.
The benefits are not great and are expensive.
Major disconnect between what management says they are going to do and what actually happens.
Management will spit on the ground and drown their own mother in it if it will save a penny.
Morale is at an all-time low and getting worse.
So much time is wasted because management changes their minds over and over again and often at the last minute.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat your people better. If someone works hard you should reward them. Compensate your employees fairly and morale would probably get a lot better. Be more decisive.

Pros

time off is pretty good

Cons

bad pay and worse benefits

Pros

- Location
- Decent work/life balance

Cons

- Employees are considered expenses, not assets
- Talent isn't valued
- Pay is very low for the market, benefits are sub-par
- No opportunities for growth unless you want to do more without a promotion, new job description or pay increase
- CEO aloof, out of touch with employees, a poor listener and worse communicator
- Executive management assumes you're incompetent unless you prove otherwise— there's little trust or respect
- No strategy for the future— it's all day-to-day chasing revenue and cutting costs

Advice to Senior Management

Take care of your people and they will take care of you.

Pros

Small company
Great location
Free bus pass

Cons

Haven't received raises in 4 years now
Workloads are getting bigger and bigger with no compensation
Aloof CEO that is not in touch with his employees
Horrible benefits

Advice to Senior Management

Show your appreciation for your dedicated employees by compensating them fairly. If not, good people are going to leave. Get rid of poor and ineffective management.

Pros

- People are great
- Small company so it's easy to get notice
- You will get great a experience learning a lot since is a small company
- Great work/family balance

Cons

- Benefits are terrible
- Pay is very low
- No much job security
- Management care for their own pay
- Not easy to grow at all

Advice to Senior Management

Invest more to the people who provide great success to the organization. Times are tough but balane cost cutting with rewarding hard working employees

Pros

Being small company has it's advantages

Cons

Run by accountants until Jen Petersen from Sweden took over as CEO, still budgets are tight. Fine job so far.
But they are failing to invest in the workforce.

Advice to Senior Management

Retain, promote from within. Assistance with tuition and training would help.
We have an amazing product don't let the quality slip, Promote the golf more within.