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

Pros

CSN has a really great company culture - people care about each other's well being

Cons

compared to the rest of the industry the salaries are really low

Advice to Senior Management

recognize when employees should be promoted and actually promote them (with a salary raise) because it seems like a lot of talent is leaving the company.

Pros

The benefits are decent, especially if you are right out of college.
Pod outings can be fun if you enjoy getting really drunk with your manager and hearing really personal stories about his/her intimate relationships.
The dress code is relaxed and easy (just don't wear a bikini, and you'll be fine). Some female employees wear surprising transparent dresses without a problem.
Some people enjoy the view over Boston, though it's limited to a couple surrounding buildings.
You are in easy walking distance to the Prudential Center (right next door) and Boylston/Newbury Streets, even if you don't have a large enough paycheck to buy anything.
If you work on a weekend, CSN provides a nice soggy burrito lunch.
Coworkers are generally fun and friendly until they've been working there too long (more than a week or two).

Cons

-Managers are incompetent -- most of them worked their way up the ladder when the company was young and have no experience outside CSN. They know the company well but have no clue how to be proper managers.

-Managers are inappropriate and unprofessional -- they form inappropriate relationships with employees under their jurisdiction and gossip about people in their own groups. They share inappropriate stories about their lives outside work and make those who are not their "buddies" feel extremely uncomfortable. (This is especially evident between male managers and female employees.) They describe in intimate detail their personal lives -- drinking, relationships, etc..

-Compensation has nothing to do with performance -- the system used to determine both salary and bonuses is intrinsically flawed and was never tested before implementation. The only way to get a decent (relative term, here) salary is to cheat the system, and this is actually encouraged by managers (when I asked how I could improve, my manager listed a number of ways to cheat). In addition, the program that pulls numbers to determine your paycheck is incorrect 95% of the time and not updated correctly 99% of the time. It is a workplace joke, but no laughing matter when it comes to your salary. (I was repeatedly told me that by my level of service and numbers I should have had the highest salary, but because of the remaining flaws in the system I was stuck near the bottom. But since everything is based solely on the (incorrect) numbers reported, there was no room for him to make an exception in my case. This happened to a number of employees.)

-You might not get paid properly -- 5 months later, I am still waiting to be paid the bonuses that I was told I would get but I didn't receive due to some oversight. I have now been told that I will not be receiving these funds for no justifiable reason.

-Lack of communication -- customer service reps are not kept in the loop. The first we hear about a change is when it is about to be enacted (each change makes a rep's life worse, and there are many changes).

-Schedule horrors -- watch out, as this will change on you constantly (not only the daily start time, but the days you will be working) and you will never be able to plan anything more than a couple of weeks in advance ever again. And yes, you are expected to request days off before you know what days you will be working.

-The "relaxed" environment is cutthroat -- with all the cheating going on, it's impossible for the few honest employees there are to get ahead. When I started there, everyone was willing to help anyone out. Now that all the changes have been enacted, people refuse to offer assistance and instead respond by stealing sales and sabotaging other reps.

-No one is happy -- out of the 40 or so reps I spoke with, only 1 or 2 were somewhat content with the job, and this was only because they hoped to move to another department (which is becoming extremely difficult to do). The level of discontent is so high that employees no longer even hush their voices when senior management walks by.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your employees. Give payment where payment is due. Consider the effects your changes will have before implementing them. Try caring about your employees as you did when the company was small. Crack down on cheating. Look beyond the numbers that mean very little in terms of employee performance as well as how employees promote the company because good numbers are currently based on nothing more than cheating, lies, and tricks. If you continue to treat your employees as expendable, they will continue to use their work time to browse Wikipedia articles, check Facebook, and search for new jobs.

Pros

If you are willing to work hard and be patience, CSN is a great place to work. If you want to do the minimum and expect a gold star and promotion for doing your job, look elsewhere.

CSN has recently hired some outside senior level management, but it was needed. Even with this, there are many opportunities for entry level employees. Yes, no one wants to go to college for four years and then deal with a customer upset that their headboard came damaged. But you have to start somewhere. CSN has many departments internally that many companies outsource; advertising, PR, logistics, etc. If you prove you are a hard worker and competent, there are other places in the company you can go. Many of these types of opportunities would not be open somewhere else for someone who did entry level customer service or marketing for a year. This chance for mobility made up for the lower than expected/deserved pay.

The people are also great at CSN. There are very few I did not care for, but you will find those types of people everywhere. I was lucky enough to have a couple different mentors over the years. And tried to provide mentorship in return. I have worked other places and understand that there is something different about the people at CSN; I think they do truly care about their co-workers and the success of the company.

Most of the employees are young and the open office environment allows you be social. Many of my friends out of college were stuck in cubicles or in offices where the person closest to their age was still 20 years older. If you want to, you can make great friends. There are basketball and bowling leagues, tickets for employees to go to see the Red Sox, Bruins, Celtics, and theater events. I have made many life-long friends at CSN.

Cons

Personal moves were often times shrouded in secretly. So much of the company is transparent, but not when it came to this. Rumors fly around the place on a regular basis.
Priorities changed continuously, which does happen at relatively new and growing company. This could be frustrating at times, since things would flip 180 degrees every 6 month.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more transparent on personal moves and control the spin before the rumors take over and alter moral.

Be clear and honest on why priorities changed.

But overall, keep doing what you are doing.

Pros

Great environment, lots of events, perks and great people. There are a lot of very smart and creative people in this company. If you are willing to work hard, great opportunities are there. Because of the friendly atmosphere and open seating/mentality, even in entry level positions you are able to gain a lot of knowledge and understanding of many different departments. Some have trouble adjusting to the new wave of external hires with experience into high level positions- I see this trend as a smart way to grow the business, and those new hires as people I can use to see a fresh perspective and gain further knowledge on how other companies work- especially useful for the many of us who came here right out of college. You get out of this company exactly what you put into it.

Cons

The pay is below average for most positions. The company is in a constant state of growth and change- this is exciting to me, but for some unsettling.

Advice to Senior Management

I think that management needs to focus on staying grounded in the midst of so much growth and change. It's easy to let the daily tasks seem unimportant when your goals and challenges seem so large, but that alienates employees and often leads to missed opportunities on process improvements.

Pros

CSN provides all employees a great deal of responsibility compared to similar jobs for similar pay/titles. Even at the ground level, our entry-level employees can affect the amounts of revenue generated or the relationships with vendors and partners. Each role offers a challenge; be it in developing the nuanced skills needed to grow the nature of their role, or in the fact that much of what we do is unique or new to the industry.

Cons

As CSN has grown, the employee dynamic has shifted from an "all hands on deck" to a "we need specialized SMEs" atmosphere. For tenured veterans, this often means less movement throughout the company; for new hires, this means entering a company that will ask you to master your role (which can take 1-2 years) before being considered ready for advancement or movement. While this is not inherently a "con", many employees enter the company thinking we are still operating at a smaller scale, only to find that we have shifted to a different strategy as result of our growth and goals.

Advice to Senior Management

Let's nurture the leaders of next year and the year after! More time spent by management with entry-level employees would only foster better retention. Senior leadership, you have more opportunity to keep your ear to the ground rather than primarily operating at bird's eye view. Let's get all management in the trenches more often to help new employees better understand how to invest in a career at CSN.

Pros

Good benefits, flexible with time off

Cons

Very low on salary and not a lot of raises (everyone gets a raise but ~2%). This is frustrating when we are clearly making so much money.

Advice to Senior Management

Give everyone who has been here 2 years + 10K jump in salary, it would make a huge difference in keeping good people.

Pros

It is a wonderful place to learn in your field IF you are lucky enough to get the right manager. The benefits are good and the location is convenient to those living in the city. There are great people working there, it is a shame that all the best employees are leaving for better opportunities.

Cons

I get the oddest feeling that upper management is adding "fake" reviews into Glassdoor to make this place seem like a good place to work with fantastic opportunity for growth. The fact is, that couldn't be farther from the truth.

CSN Stores used to be a place where everyone wanted to come to work. People used to have fun and learn from each other. It changed drastically in the years I worked there. You are paid next to nothing unless you are a new, transplanted director with years of "experience." You are led by these directors that have little to no people skills that barely let you in on what is happening at the company. It feels like you are waiting for this huge opportunity to open itself up and after years there, it seems as though this opportunity will never present itself.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay your employees more, let them know they are WORTH it and are important people! Let them know they are indispensable, because right now, everyone feels they could easily be replaced. The saddest part is that they wouldn't really care if they were. It is such a shame.

Pros

- The benefits package is decent.

- Freedom from accountability. I once spent the entire work day strolling down memory lane via Youtube, watching clips of old Punky Brewster and Small Wonder episodes trying forget that all my post graduate dreams of success were instantly vaporized upon accepting a marketing position at CSN Stores. I was never spoken to about my eight hour mental vacation; a small victory.

-Free Internet access. In retribution for my insulting salary I often spent hours googling important things like my name, the names of old high school crushes, and fantasy real estate. Nobody ever cared enough to question my routine lack of productivity.

-Panoramic Views of Boston's Back Bay. The view from my desk offered an occasional chance to daydream about a better job. I used to envy the window washers risking their lives on neighboring buildings. Sometimes I would gaze at the adjacent Hancock Tower and imagine myself working for a company that offered an experience for me to learn, be challenged and grow, all while paying me more than $29k a year.

-Safety. The windows in the Prudential do not open, therefore making it impossible to just end it all, as I would often get the urge to do on multiple occasions throughout my typical work day at CSN stores.

-Opportunity. I was able to use my work computer to search Craig's List for other job opportunities. Thanks to the neglectful management at CSN Stores nobody seemed to notice me giggling with delight as I conversed with multiple recruiters through my personal email account. I was able to search for a job, set up interviews (which I would go to on my lunch hour), and accept an offer without ever leaving the comfort of my pod*.

*CSN speak for large tables that you share with co-workers in place of a desk. In comparison, a cubical looks like paradise.

Cons

- Once a happy person, this job made me disgruntled and bitter. Working at CSN Stores causes nothing but anger and anxiety. When I was an employee of this company I used to spend my Sunday evenings praying for a massive power outage, snow storm, hurricane, tornado, etc. to occur so that I would not have to return to work on Monday. I would cry myself to sleep knowing that in the morning I would have to rip myself out of bed only to ride the subway for 45 minutes (the low salary does not afford an employee to live anywhere near the Prudential Center, unless your parents are financially assisting you). I spent my days at CSN Stores with my eyes glazed over wondering how my degree from Syracuse University could have let me down.

-Free snacks. Many employees thought that they had hit the jackpot upon entering the kitchen to see a scene reminiscent of the candy and snack aisle at their neighborhood Cumberland Farms. Fools. Food is the currency at CSN Stores. I would much rather be paid with American dollars than with Starbursts and Cheetos. Also, the amount of snacks only encourages stress and depression eating. I gained ten pounds trying to drown my work related misery in Skittles and Cheez-its.

-Upper management. Remember the people from high school who would desperately try to be apart of the popular crew but could never succeed? Well, it's payback time, these are the fine individuals that you will be answering to should you find yourself in an entry level position at CSN Stores.

-The lack of concern for employees. One winter day I watched as buckets of snow fell upon the city. As the day grew late a "Snow Emergency" was issued for all of eastern Massachusetts. The mayor and the governor had publicly advised all area businesses to release their employees early so that they could make it home safely. Government offices were closed, schools were closed, many forms of public transportation were not in service. CSN Stores refused to let any of their employees leave even 30 minutes early. I saw co-workers beg to be released so that they could return to their homes just to move their cars from spaces that had recently been declared tow zones to allow for plowing. Unless you wanted to use a vacation day, everyone had to stay; the holiday season was in full swing and CSN did not want to risk losing any business. It took me three hours to get to my boyfriend's condo in South Boston (had I gone to my own apartment it would have taken all night) . Thanks CSN.

-Compensation. After doing the math, I calculated that it would take almost nine years of paychecks from CSN to pay for my college education. Knowing what CSN pays their employees, I am genuinely surprised that you don't see any CSN employees digging for lunch in the garbage cans of the Prudential Center Food Court. Unless you are receiving financial help from your parents, sugar daddy, bookie, or illegal drug sales, you will not be able to survive in Boston on your CSN salary.

Advice to Senior Management

CSN should not require applicants to have a four year degree. A job at CSN could be a wonderful opportunity for the right person. If you only have your GED, or you were just paroled from prison, CSN would offer an excellent chance to work a 9 to 5 desk job.

The bottom line is that you get what you give. I work very very hard at my current job because I know that I will be rewarded for my efforts. I would have worked just as hard for CSN Stores if they would have worked hard for me. Niraj and Steve (owners) should remember that the employer/employee relationship is a two way street.

Pros

-Sox, Celtics, Bruins tickets.
-Young company - made a lot of close friends here.
-Access to information (if you know where to look).
-Opportunity to learn a lot (if you don't mind teaching yourself).
-Used to be a place where I wanted to learn the industry to grow within the company...

Cons

-..Now it's a place where I want to learn the industry so I can get out and move on to something better.
-Upper management are outside hires and they act like it. The people who "ran" this company years ago are now once again treated as entry level even though we are the employees who grew the company exponentially - we had the ideas that made this company successful and now these six figure salary-I-have-10-years-experience-but-don't-know-what-the-hell-I'm-doing folks are taking the credit.
-It doesn't matter that you know more (a lot more) about the inner workings of the company and the system than upper management - recognition in terms of salary increases and promotions are almost extinct here - replaced by outside hires and a "recognition wall" in a lame attempt to raise company morale.

Advice to Senior Management

Please, for the love of God, at least try to get to know your employees and reward with tangible things like a salary raise every once in a while so that we don't feel like we're simply working for a sweat shop. You're too concerned about your own "success" in the eyes of executive management that you forget that the success of your team reflects on you too. Soon (probably very soon), all of those who actually know what they are doing are going to run away as far and fast as they can. Customer satisfaction is a primary goal - makes sense! But don't let this completely overshadow employee satisfaction. It's not too late to make a change, but you need to make it soon.

Pros

Very easy, work life balance is good (everyone gets up right at 5), did i mention it was easy, free snacks, really easy.

Cons

The pay is rediculous, i left to double my salary. You only get promoted if you are drinking buddies with the management. Very little opportunity to learn about the industry you work in. Raises are a joke, I laughed when i got mine (it was about $300).

Advice to Senior Management

None, they're caught in a catch 22. They treat their employees as if they dont matter and will quit in 6 months, and everyone does a job that doesnt matter then quits in 6 months. Funny how that works.