Oakley Reviews

Pros

Fun environment, awesome products. Deep culture of fanatics and a level of technology that rivals any company. Every quarter employees receive a paid staff dress which is always a plus! Full Time employees may recieve full health/vision/dental insurance as well as a matching 401k plan. Plus no drug testing can be positive.

Cons

The company firm Luxottica now owns Oakley and is affecting the style of the products which takes away a lot of what Oakley really is.

Advice to Senior Management

Look for inside promotions! Look for inside promotions! Re-evaluate the shipping process to stores!

Pros

-40 hours a week. Max.
-Great health insurance package
-Cool music, relaxing atmosphere
-Free clothes to wear to work
-Freedom to merchandise the store as you see fit
-Nobody breathing down your neck
-Can't use gift cards online, keeps business in stores
-Great discount

Cons

-Some HQ departments are difficult to get a hold of
-Long delay for new employees to get on to RetailPro
-RetailPro in general
-No web access from the sales floor (to look up products on Oakley website/Vault website)
-High turnover, due to the prestige of the company. Everyone wants to recruit from Oakley.

Advice to Senior Management

-Go with an IBM or a wireless POS system. RetailPro makes you take 4-5 extra steps from other Retail Operating Systems out there. Will save money in the long run by decreasing payroll and time wasted on non-sense.
-Too many things are still not digital. E-Receipts are great, but an option to not print a receipt if they opt in for it would be nice. Also, electronic signatures for credit cards would be nice.
-Make Payroll/HR easier to get a hold of. Seems like you have to try to call all day to get them to answer.

Pros

Discount and the location, that's it.

Cons

Upper management's unrealistic goals and fantasy world mentality.

Advice to Senior Management

spend a day or two a month to directly deal with customers.

Pros

Great work environment! Fun people to work with that are passionate, energetic, smart and make things happen. We are busy but we get things done and every day I feel like I really make an impact at this company.

Cons

I don't know everyone and I want to. There are so many cool people here and its hard to meet everyone.

Advice to Senior Management

Recently you've continued to make sure to communicate with us about the business, our athletes, our employees and the industry. Its awesome! Keep it up, we are all excited to know. There are awesome things happening!

Pros

Very entrepreneurial environment that supports outside the box thinking. It's nice to work for a company that believes what it produces. The company makes a lot of effort to make employees happy with the perks (free yoga, in-house gym, athlete speaking engagements, parties etc.)

Cons

Lots of red tape. The process to get things done feels almost impossible at times, which contradicts the nature of the company to act fast. There may be more perks, but the culture is slowly dying after the departure of the Mad Scientist. The culture is the number one reason I've stayed so long and it's sad to see it slip away.

Advice to Senior Management

Oakley has always been "dedicated to a purpose beyond reason", but now it feels we're less focused on designing badass products and only about profits. Don't let the suits ruin the brand!

Pros

Cool place to work
Nice and relax work culture
You get to work on cool projects
You get nice perks from others companies within the industry

Cons

Really unrealistic expectation for products delivery
Most managers don't care about their employees and they only care about how they look to their superiors
Incompetent managers that got their rise to the top by being with the company for a long time or by being a kiss ass.
Super low pay.
Parking is a pain

Advice to Senior Management

Get your head out of your a$$. Learn to treat your employees better and may be you won't have 50% turn over rate to deal with.

Pros

It is casual and fun environment with job security as long as you get your job done. Benefits and Pay are average but the atmosphere and leniency is a definite bonus.

Cons

Possibility of drowning in the crowd and getting stuck in a position for 10+ years, very few people grow. Communication between departments is lacking, senior management spends more time chasing problems than preventing.

Pros

Flexible, fun, Understanding, Family like, relaxed

Cons

inconsistent, lack of structure at times

Pros

-Awesome discounts
-Gym in the facillity
-laid back atmosphere
-fun people to work with
-no dress code
-Long breaks

Cons

-Low pay compared to other care rep jobs, however it is not a stressful job and the perks make up for it.
-Customers are really incompetent when it comes to warranty. ( if you can manage dealing with idiot customers on the phone for 6+ hours then its not as bad. )
-Too many changes, need to stand firm on policies with customers and not give in to customer deamnds.
-No upward mobility, really hard to get into other departments. Depends who you know ,not what you know or what you did.

Advice to Senior Management

Make a playbook and stand by it. Educate customers and list guidelines on the website with clear policies for customers to understand so they dont call in frustrated or confused.

Also focus on a career path for employees to follow so they can have some goal to move up in the company. Worked with many taleted people there and they feel like its a deadend or stop and go type job. Too many talented and positive employees to lose to rival companies if Oakley doesnt make some career development path for them.

Pros

-good consumer brand awareness
-employee discount on eyewear and apparel (makes for great gifts to friends and family)
-fantastically talented designers and graphics artists - tons of potential for creativity
-excellent resume builder

Cons

-no clear management structure
-completely disorganized as far as corporate priorities and initiatives to reach goals
-conflicting orders from supervisors and managers
-sees itself as an action sports brand, but is getting lost in the corporate structure so there is no clear perspective and no clear understanding of how to navigate for long-term success
-reactionary "drop everything and do this" attitude
-total disrespect for teamwork - teams are not encouraged in reality
-tons of whispering in the office - have never worked in such a negative, backstabbing environment and have been working for 10 years!
-constant finger pointing by managers out of fear that they will lose their own job
-not an environment that fosters professional growth or loyalty within the company
-27% turnover rate during my employment (a little over 6 months!). when I asked about this in my interview knowing Oakley had a high turnover rate in the past, I was told they'd restructured and now it is stable. That is not what I experienced at all!
-very low morale among employees. sad because the brand is a good brand and their product is quality.

Advice to Senior Management

This is where the problems start. There are some knowledgeable leaders on the VP/exec level, but the environment is such that their inspiration only goes so far. The trickle down effect is completely washed out on the assistant and associate level workers who are doing most of the grunt work. It eludes me what the managers actually do.

There are some real duds below the VPs, and it leaves little room for wanting to take the initiative or put any added energy into the job. Gut the lower to mid level management and start over with the VPs and bottom people.