Pros
Tight knit and caring team of lower-level employees are the highlight of working at Retrospec. Lots of opportunity for hands-on experience for a designer interested in marketing, photography, and physical product design. The small size of the company means that you always have the opportunity to work collaboratively with other departments to have an impact on the direction of the brand. Hybrid work schedule. Great discount on products.
Cons
There's a lack of trust from upper management toward lower-level employees on small things like time management. It's a young company and the lack of experience in upper-level management/leadership can be apparent at times. Initially drawn to the company because of their values of accessibility and equity in the outdoors, I was disappointed over time to find that, in practice, these values aren't placed at the forefront of the brand's decision-making. Hybrid work schedule is not super flexible—or is flexible for some employees but not others. Benefits are not great—health insurance is expensive and mediocre, not much PTO, few holidays are observed, no employer 401k contribution.