Wayfair (formerly CSN Stores) Reviews

Pros

Constructive reviews are great, and definitely the point of this website, but after reading through and noticing some consistent negative comments, I find myself scatching my head...

All these comments complaining about snacks and how they take $ out of their salary...really? If they removed the snacks and put that money toward everyone's salary do you really think it would make any significant difference? Be glad you work somewhere with a kicthen and anything that's actually free. Most places have vending machines with chips/snacks. CSN's are free. It's nice, get over it.

Anyone talking about lack of promotion and growth is most likely someone who just isn't good or mediocre at their job, or joined the company right out of college and feels entitled and expects things to just be handed to them. CSN fills an unusually large percentage of their open positions internally. At many companies you need to go through a rigorous application process often times need to go through your manager to even be considered. The fact that MOST employees in roles outside of customer service CAME FROM customer service is not only a testament to the amount of internal movement of professional growth, but makes all these claims of no opportunity all the more obsurd. Also - we're at 700 employees now. There's a lot more competition for internal openings than there was when we were 300 people. That's just the way it works.

All of this "management doesn't listen to/care about the employees." Seriously? You do remember that the owners and VPs sit out in the open elbow to elbow with everyone else, right? Upper management is incredibly down to earth and approachable. Most CEO's have a private office with a secretary that you need to go through to even talk to. Niraj & Steve still take the time to have new hire lunches every week with new hires to get to know them and ask for their feedback.

The comments about promotions being based on "who you know" couldn't be farther from the truth. CSN is a meritocracy. If you do really well, better than your peers, you will be rewarded. And it may take more than 12 months - give it time. And also - just a side comment - getting in and networking with the right people is a great move for your career, no matter what company you're in. Not as a popularity contest, but to set yourself apart from the crowd. Take advantage of CSN's open environment and approachable leadership and put a little work into it. If you sit there feeling entitled and bitter, you're not going anywhere.

Cons

Yes, salaries are quite modest when compared to other companies.

Advice to Senior Management

While acting aggressively on new initiatives has allowed us to grow so quickly, it's important to take time to put detailed plans in place before attacking a huge project with an aggressive timeline.

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

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

the benefits are good, they have sox tickets and bruins tickets. Also there are a lot of other perks that they offer

Cons

the salary is awful and there is really no room to go anywhere in the company no ability to move up

Advice to Senior Management

They should listen to the employees and allow them to move up in the company rather than just keeping them where they are

Pros

If you are willing to break away from the pack and work, this is the place for you! They foster ideas and always welcome new thoughts and improvements.
Great people to work with and under.
Amazing view.
An all around happy atmosphere

Cons

Non at the moment, I love it here

Advice to Senior Management

As soon as I think of something I will let you know! However, I know that when I do, I will be listened to :)

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.

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 vacation time granted to employees is higher than average.

Cons

-Poor Salary leads to dissatisfied employees and high turnover.

Advice to Senior Management

-Pay your employees a decent salary.

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.