Overstock.com Reviews

Pros

Pleasant mountain view. Benefits aren't bad.

Cons

Management has no idea how to run a company and it is embarrassingly obvious to everyone. They are arrogant, even mean. Expect constant knee-jerk decisions and huge directional changes. Managing by fear and threats is common. You'll fear for your job all the time, which is exhausting and toxic. The company is behind in most areas and is getting lapped by its competition. Talented people leave. It's awful. Don't work here.....you've been warned!

Advice to Senior Management

Where to start? Step aside and hire serious people with legitimate experience.

Pros

Great work/life balance
Salt Lake is a nice place to live
Lot of tech resources available, fundamental business is sound
Pretty healthy gross margins and top line growth is impressive

Cons

Very poor upper management
Middle management is inexperienced
Horrendous expense management
Almost all of the gross margin is lost due to irrational operating, marketing and G&A expenses
Organizations are redistributed too often, business strategies are transient and shaky
No strategic vision whatsoever, company has an identity crisis

Advice to Senior Management

There is a stark contrast in Overstock's management team. If you were to draw a line down the middle, you would see a group of bright, ambitious go-getters on one side and a group of execs with no real experience outside O.co on the other. Product innovation is virtually stagnant and capital management is poor. Overstock's story reads like a b-school case study of a company with sound fundamentals that's handcuffed by poor management.

Pros

- Growing Company
- Profitable
- Work/life balance
- Smart peers
- Ability to do solve very complex problems

Cons

- Senior Management very reactionary when making decisions
- Not allowed to do things the right way, have to do what Senior Mgmt wants
- Many of the leaders only have work experience at Overstock; not enough to know industry standards and best practices
- Senior Management is over departments they should never even be allowed to get close to. (i.e. SVP of Customer Service also over Marketing)

Advice to Senior Management

Start listening to your employees. This is the least bureaucratic bureaucracy out there. Just because you know a lot about one subject, does not mean you know a lot about everything else. Stop making decisions on an employees job when you know very little about what they do.

Pros

The pay seems to be competitive. The job can be fulfilling if you don't mind staying in the position you are hired in to.

Cons

There can be a lot of drama in the Customer Care Department. If you try not to get involved in it you are seen as uncaring and you get passed up on a lot of opportunities.

Most of the advancement seems to be within a certain type of crowd. If you aren't part of the crowd that "parties" with middle management you won't get far in the company. There is little support for an employee that works hard and knows the ins and outs of their position when their direct supervisor doesn't know how to do their job.

Advice to Senior Management

I would recommend taking a look at the team lead if the entire team seems to be falling behind.

Pros

Nice coworkers and one of the better views.

Cons

The bureaucracy is insane. You practically have to get your hands stamped everytime you lift a finger to do something. Senior management is getting better, but it feels like only a handful are qualified to run a billion dollar business.

Internal supporting technology is at least 10 years behind, and there is a tendency to just pay the most expensive bidder to make a problem go away.

Most of the qualified merchandising talent has left in the past year. Most businesses are run by recently promoted lower level employees trying to not screw it up too badly. Everyone is scared to death of layoffs, which happen with no rhyme or reason. Did I mention the bonus structure is nearly non-existent?

Advice to Senior Management

Fix your reviews process. It is pathetic. Everyone is afraid of more qualified employees taking their place. Low performers are given low goals that any baboon can reach, but high perfomers are given impossible goals to keep them in their place.

Hire better. With good talent, you don't have to have pay a bunch of number crunchers and consultants to tell you how to run the business.

Senior management spends zero time at ground level. The occasional 15 second hello in the hallway is useless. Middle level employees are at the mercy of the the kings and queens of their fiefdoms. There is no safe way to bubble up concerns privately.

Spend one day a month sitting with employees, privately and at their desks You'll learn a lot more than you ever will talking to other management.

Stop jumping on the next big thing every month. We need to get it right the first time. Non-stop training for processes that change every quarter kills productivity.

Pros

* Good people to work with
* Corporate Office is in a nice spot near the canyon

Cons

* Salary is below market rate
* No raises company wide 2 of the last 3 years, no bonus companywide this year
* Projects are given very little ramp up time, which leads to half-done projects and band-aided solutions
* All ways chasing the next shiny thing that usually ends up a bust

Advice to Senior Management

Allow for project solutions to be thought out instead of being rushed

Pros

Fun relaxing place to work. You can be challenged as much as you want to be. Lots of opportunities to advance within the company. CRAZY CEO!!! (But he's usually right)

Cons

Can be high stress depending on the team you are on and your position.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep doing what you're doing.

Pros

Good learning culture is one thing that it has.

Cons

None that I can think of.

Pros

easy to take time off, daily food trucks, great co-workers

Cons

promotions are given randomly to those not exactly qualified, while passing up long-term hard working employees. management seems removed from lower-rung workers and doesn't understand what exactly people do. few incentives, little praise when doing well but swift when someone makes a mistake. the feeling of being monitored constantly (online and offline); not being treated like adults. The benefits are also pretty expensive and terrible (Select Health - I had an HSA - I paid $30 a month, deposited $50 a month with no monthly employer contribution)

Advice to Senior Management

give more advancement opportunities to those who have been there longer/worked hard, rather than hiring new, incompetent managers. give more monetary incentives (as opposed to embarrassing field-trip-esque 'concerts'). Monthly contributions to those with HSAs (customary at many smaller companies). Don't send out emails warning staff of spending "up to 15 minutes a day" on non-work sites - we are adults and we have BREAK TIME. Seriously, we can do our jobs too.

Pros

No politics and there are some very smart people. There is no micro management in the group that I am in. Excellent knowledge sharing.

Cons

Development group seems to be bloated at this point, not sure how that is going to play out in the near future.