Wayfair (formerly CSN Stores) Reviews in Boston, MA Area

Pros

Young crowd
Free food
Lax dress code
Good benefits for entry-level job
Good work-life balance

Cons

Pay could be better
Little to no benefits for part time employees

Advice to Senior Management

Offer more room for advancement and listen to your employees.

Pros

Young, fun environment
Flexible with time off
Opportunity to advance your career
Emerging e-commerce company
Great location
Increase retail and e-commerce expertise

Cons

One of the cons of this position is that some entry positions are very simple and based around data entry. There is not a ton of contact with upper management.

Pros

Having joined CSN after working for several years in finance, I have perspective on what it can be like elsewhere. CSN does a great job developing talent organically and supplementing the organization with people that bring expertise from outside the company. In a terrible housing market and poor economy, we have managed to grow profitably in excess of 50% per year, and have emerged as the online leader in hard goods for the home. The company is agile enough to pursue many growth avenues (Europe, private sale, partnerships with other retailers etc.) as they present themselves, while still focusing on the core strength of direct-to-consumer retail.

Cons

In some areas of the company, pay is below market. I think that's offset by very good benefits (particularly for recent college graduates), excellent work/life balance and an opportunity for top performers to rapidly move up in the company, but it's a valid complaint that's been brought up by many other past and present employees. Additionally, I don't think we always do a great job recognizing hard work and results in a timely, effective manner.

Also, if you're someone that needs a great deal of structure/routine, CSN may not be a great place for you. I think that structure is available for entry-level folks, but as you move up in the company, the entrepreneurial environment tends to be more suited for people that can manage multiple, sometimes competing goals and who thrive in a self-directed atmosphere.

Advice to Senior Management

Generally, I think they're doing a great job. They've brought in many highly talented people to supplement the company's core strengths. As the company continues growing and becomes more profitable, it might not be a bad idea to expand the bonus pool/potential - this is one area where I think we're most below market.

Pros

* revolutionary e-tail business model, pulling away from competitors
* concern for culture and meritocracy that beats almost any other non-professional services firm I've ever seen
* relentless focus on entrepreneurialism
* consistent focus on risk/reward and potential to differentiate lens for all decisions
* caliber of team and quality continuing to improve (and to accelerate)
* flat culture (observe many entry-level to CEO interactions every week)

Cons

* operations can seem sloppy to those who have worked at larger firms
* meritocracy means some can be disgruntled
* large customer service base in Boston office can feel disconnected from management
* always too much to do given very rapid growth; if you don't know how to prioritize, you can drown in potential opportunities

Advice to Senior Management

Invest more time in 'walking the halls' and interacting with junior staff; given open floor plan, a few hours a week meeting junior team members seems the least you can do
Move more entry level jobs outside Boston so salaries can stay in line with cost of living; be more open about hiring outsiders - the current story of 'we promote from within' has left some entry level folks resentful. The caliber of outside hires we're making (amazon, wal*mart, kiva, Bain, cowen, BCG, McKinsey, ...) is stellar; the fact that a lot of fairly young folks have the opportunity to work closely with and learn from that team is amazing
* stay closely linked to the day to day business- let's keep riding this success for a few more years!

Pros

Sales are booming, especially through Walmart and Amazon partnerships
Lots to learn from Business Intelligence about generating traffic with Google Keyword bidding
Young energetic company
Work Life Balance is Great

Cons

Lack of real leadership & vision from Founders, most VP's and Directors
Senior Management seems very ADD - We spread ourselves thin chasing a different business model every year like our new private sale site or trying to build an advertising business when there's so much on our main sites that is inferior to the competition.
Below market pay in nearly every department (Though this is getting better)
Culture is very "clicky" and high schoolish.
Management doesn't know how to control Margin (We still struggle to even report on it for months at a time)

Advice to Senior Management

Focus more on the core business
Hire in stronger, more experienced VP's

Pros

Great location,
Young crowd,
Free food

You can talk to the CEO on any given day because he's not stuck in an office so it makes upper management a bit more accessible. The problem being is that they don't tell you who is management and who isn't so it makes distinctions harder.

Cons

Poor management- I had expressed my concerns and I was told that was just how it is and it was unlikely the top person in the department was willing to help me. So I expressed my concerns which everyone I know were valid and basically was told too bad, deal with it. Last time I checked management is supposed to work with employees to make conditions better and get the job done right and they simply didn't care. My concerns were essentially ignored. In fact when I left they hired a second person to fufill my duties once I left....hmm....I guess I really was doing the work of more than 1 person.

Long hours- I was working 10-12 hours per day and still couldn't catch up with the backlog I walked into accepting my position as freight manager (they were behind by almost 6 months when I got there).
This is mixed with poor management in that I needed help to get work done and asked to have an intern dedicated to what I needed done to spread out the work and reduce my time on task that were time consuming/ bigger waste of time in overall picture. I was told that they wouldn't hire anyone and to use the intern that was already overloaded with tasks or use their offshore team. The problem being here is that they constantly make mistakes that I would have to correct and even though I showed them on a regular basis how to do it they kept making the same mistakes. On top of that they loaded unrealistic expectations onto the offshore team. I know because I did what the offshore team does now at one point ans was the fastest/most efficient person at completing the tasks and even I couldn't do what they were gonna load onto the offshore team. The task and quantity of work they expected was ludicrous, especially if they wanted any sort of quality to go along with it.

Pay is pretty measly- I went with a company that gives me better work and pays me 20% more than I was making at CSN and I was doing higher level/much higer quantities of work at CSN. They seriously need to reevaluate their whole finance department.

Advice to Senior Management

Actually listen to the concerns of your employees instead of giving a tough love speech. Also you need to clear out some of the management that is overworking their staff.

Pros

The people I worked with were mostly very friendly and supportive of one another. The benefits package is excellent for an entry-level job, and the company has Red Sox, Celtics, and Bruins tickets available.

Cons

The pay is very low, just barely liveable for Boston, which is a very expensive city. In fairness, if you're both lucky and good, you can increase your salary from $27K to almost $40, but the average is probably about $32K. The biggest downsides to working here, though, have very little to do with the money. I found that there is a lot of generally inappropriate behavior between managers and the young entry-level employees, and I heard several different people say that it made them very uncomfortable. Also, during the time I was working there they decided to change the way scheduling was handled. Now, all CS employees have a variable schedule that changes from month to month. Employees don't know until 10-14 days before what their schedule will look like for the following month, which includes not only hours but also days of the week. To add to the problem, you're required to schedule days off 3 weeks in advance, which means you have to schedule your days off before you know what days you will be on, which, obviously, doesn't really work. Another reason this change was problematic is that, prior to this change, employees could work overtime to supplement the low pay, but since this switch overtime has become virtually nonexistent. While I understand that this helped the bottom line, it was a major blow to the quality of the job. Overall, my time at CSN wasn't terrible, but I was extremely glad to move on. I wouldn't recommend going to work for CSN unless you're desperate, and even then keep on the job search because you are likely to burn out fairly quickly.

Advice to Senior Management

You guys don't need my advice, you're savvy businessmen whose profits grow annually. I would caution that you're probably losing a lot of potentially valuable employees to other jobs because of the high turnover/attrition problem.

Pros

Great informal culture
Laid back environment
Opportunities to take personal initiatives
Good benefits (subsidized gym membership, good health care, subsidized movie tickets)
Equity plan for all employees

Cons

Pay is low compared to similar positions at other companies
Tech resources are lacking which can make work frustrating

Advice to Senior Management

Keep doing what you are to grow the company. More competitive pay for junior employees will reduce attrition

Pros

Good work-life balance. Lots of responsibility.

Cons

Low salary. Not all employees work hard.

Advice to Senior Management

Change CSN's name.

Pros

CSN is an exciting place to work. There is lots of opportunity to move around internally and try new things... if you are a strong performer. I've been in 3 different roles in as many years and each one has been a step up.

Cons

I can't think of any. I love it here. There is a bunch of other stuff written on this site and I know that is true for some people but has not been my experience. It's a great place for hard workers who are smart and ambitious.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay more attention to people--both employees and customers. You are very analytical, smart guys but sometimes too numbers driven and miss the personal connection to people.