Pros

Good people overall. Great to be a part of the heritage of this classic American brand. Mecca for a guitar player.

Cons

An absolutely bizarre culture that top-to-bottom seems to revolve solely around trying not to upset the CEO. Meanwhile the erratic CEO seems to always be upset or flying off the handle about, well...anything. I've NEVER seen anything like it. So many smart people, who want nothing more than to give it their all, and do great work for this company that in many cases they were huge fans of before coming to work there; are reduced to keeping their mouths shut and keeping off of the CEO's "radar" by any means necessary. You will hear the phrase "stay off Henry's radar" echoed again and again by all sorts of folks top-to-bottom in the company.
Smart, creative thinking (or just plain logical thinking) is completely stifled in this environment. Through this culture Henry has cultivated, talented folks will routinely choose NOT to do what's best for the company/product/brand, but instead will choose what is most likely to keep them from incurring Henry's wrath.
The degree to which nobody seems to be willing to make a decision about anything is staggering. NOBODY wants to be the one to have to take the blame for anything. Doing so might make them accountable to Henry, and who knows what he might do on any given day? As a result, the buck gets passed indefinitely. Either that or employees begin cutting each others throats so as to avoid blame. Seen that happen WAY too many times, and it's always ugly.
Very often important decisions that require immediate attention by management simply get "submitted to Henry" directly which is a vague, nebulous, meaningless gesture. There's rarely ever an answer from Henry, and if there is you may be waiting months for it, at which time the situation will have long since turned into a crisis.
Information does not flow in this company. Strategies, goals, sometimes even basic product information are NOT communicated.
Morale is generally very low. I've heard the phrase "the land where nothing makes sense", repeated by employees from two different divisions in two different cities. That is not a coincidence.

Advice to Senior Management

I honestly don't see anything getting better under Henry's reign. He's been running the company this way for so many years, there is little hope that he will change. I've watched SO many smart, talented people walk out of this company in complete frustration. The best and brightest leave for better opportunities and better work environments. He needs to understand that the culture that exists in Gibson right now is sick. Not unlike the "sick culture" that Henry himself says existed in the Norlin-era Gibson when he first bought the company and took over. He remedied that by firing everyone at the time. Well, it's sick again. Really sick. Only this time, Henry himself has cultivated the sickness. That toxicity has trickled down to every fiber of the company. He needs to understand that he's got a LOT of smart people willing to do great things for this company, but it's all for nothing unless he positively affects the culture from the top, down. Unlikely to happen, but that's what it will take.

Pros

Great people to work with. Wonderful to work around such a great product and heritage

Cons

Poor management communication. Report directly to CEO but have never met him

Advice to Senior Management

Please consider moving to a new CEO to insure sucess of company

Pros

Good people overall, great heritage, great brands and potentially great product without interference by CEO.

Cons

Truly evil CEO with absolutely no business sense or ability to empower the talented employees who only want to make the company successful. If you go to work there you will either lose your sanity or be fired quickly. There are dozens of job openings now due to repeat firings of key execs who only seem to last a few months. There is no continuity or ability to get things running and the environment is toxic. The CEO is highly abusive and micromanages every detail running the business into the ground. The joke of it is that he is actually being honored soon by the Ant-Defamation League at an event in NYC later this year. If they only knew the lack of respect he has for the people who work for him, his customers and his vendors and the unethical way he approaches everything and how is killing the company and the brand. It will be interesting to see if he is still CEO when this event happens in November. He somehow gets involved in charity work and pulls the wool over people's eyes only to stroke his huge ego, but the artists have wisened up and think he is a joke. Well, the banks are about to shut you down Henry and force you out! The company will be a better place when you are history.

Advice to Senior Management

Remove the CEO before it is too late to recover. Trust your people to do their jobs. Gibson can be great again but bold action is required at the top..

Pros

product was known brand and respected. people had passion and talent for doing a great job. some leadership was great

Cons

CEO was not consistant. delayed projects. demands of CEO to create last minute success without provding the tools for success

Advice to Senior Management

CEO should step away from day-to-day operations and let senoir mangement handle and report back to him and the board

Pros

Top guitar line in world

Cons

Inertia to the point no new projects move forward in a timely manner. Lack of respect for employees. Culture unwittingly causes own bureaucratic bottleneck.

Advice to Senior Management

Roger appears to have a better handle on the day-to-day operation of the business. It may be wiser if the board were to look in that direction.

Pros

Reknown name as maker of famous instruments.

Cons

The company stifles any glimmer of employee morale through constant micro management. The quality and direction of the products is suffering, the reputation of the company is falling.

Advice to Senior Management

Take some training courses and learn how to interact with and manage people.

Pros

Donut Fridays and the 12 month severance!!

Cons

The whole experience was horrid! Not a place that I would recommend to anybody, unless they needed a short term assignment. HJ and DB have left their mark in Nashville and it is not a good one. New executives take the blame for HJ's and his trusted side kick RM's constant lack of poor decisions.

Advice to Senior Management

Hey HJ, Karma is a b*tch ain't it....You deserve what you get!!

Pros

Pay, making the coolest product in the world, the people are great. Wouldnt be worth working there if not for the people.

Cons

Leadership, CEO seems to hate everyone around him. People at the top are treated terribly, then fired without warning. Entire company makes all decisions based on fear of what Henry will think, say, or do.

Advice to Senior Management

Pray, hang in there, hope for a change. Cover your butts, be prepared to devote ALL your time and energy to this place.

Pros

Requesting time off was never an issue.

Cons

High stress, low pay, and nothing makes any logical or common sense. Management is so far removed from the real world, they don't even have a clue, but to them it is all in the sense of "forward thinking." Continual negative almost hateful feedback and never any raises or reviews with also very unrealistic goals and expectations. Extremely bad policies towards customers and dealer base that are detrimental towards business growth and are borderline illegal. Company puts out sub-par product, but really exploiting the Gibson same to it's fullest degree. Trust me, the "mystique" of working at Gibson wears off really quickly when you realize that you are in Office Space, but even worse.

Advice to Senior Management

Change your dealer policies, have more positive reinforcement, and hire managers that know how to deal with people. For the CEO, let the managers do their job and stop micro-managing everything. Listen to sound advice when those below have good ideas. Some of the best ideas of businesses come from the bottom up not from the top down.

Pros

A good name to have on your resume. There is no other reason to work for this company.

Cons

No raises, reviews or feedback.

Advice to Senior Management

Considering this is a private company, and the only management that matters is the CEO (one of the owners) my recommendation is for Henry to sell the company before he ruins the name any more.