Fender Musical Instruments Reviews

Pros

Under the correct management this place could be awesome

Cons

Anymore as the years go on and the management they hire this place will suck the passion and drive you have for what you love to do right out of you. This place will make you not care anymore and make you not want to come to work.

Pros

Product mgrs, team members

Cons

Upper management. One or two gems and some snakes who decide to back stab. I was walked out the door without explanation after busting my butt for months. You’d expect open honest communication about fit or performance, but Fender chooses the low road. They went the extra mile to prevent me collecting unemployment and hired a firm to fight me. No one seems to know why ( I actually had side conversations with HR and old manager after she left) but someone had to have decided that. Unbelievable! You can assume well, the person writing this is mad but actually I am painting a picture that prospective employees have to paint in their mind before they enter. Working for a company is a contract right? u bust your butt, they pay you, you hope to create some sense of stability and happiness or fulfillment and for some reason the other side (management) plays by a different set of rules. Showed up earlier and left later than anyone in Hollywood. Flew to Scottsdale 2x a month because they wouldn’t let me hire a team near me. Odd isn’t it? Quite a bit of analysis paralysis with the constant web mtgs and not enough action on understanding how not to run out of product, key items, and transition out of old and into new products.

Pros

Discounted guitars - occasionally. Sometimes nice events.

Cons

The management is awful. If you have any kind of disability you will be treated poorly. You will have to fight for every day off that you need. And if you take FMLA your coworkers will talk poorly of you and your managers will be angry with you. People are randomly let go - all the time. They really use their 'right to work state' status there. Also the industry is declining. This is not a company to join for a long career. The turnover rate for every department is incredibly high.

Pros

Dedicated Employees, Guitars, and Financial Viability

Cons

Management is incapable of managing Fender to the level the Fender brand deserves.

Pros

Casual work environment. Can pay well. If you land the right department/boss, you do have some opportunities. Some room to drive process change, improvement and efficiency, just don't expect it to be recognized as management is not long term minded. Fun culture if you truly like the music industry or you're obsessed with the brand beyond reason.

Cons

Sorely lacking in basic competency, honesty and integrity. Have witnessed numerous respectable, hard working people from execs down to employees really unethically & unfairly treated. Check the glassdoor history to see that the reputation around town is long-standing and valid. A lack of basic discipline or any knowledge of what quality & efficient processes & work should look like. Tolerance for laziness & tardiness abounds & continues because of favoritism & simply tenure - so blindingly visible to everyone from the exec level down, if you choose not to ignore it like many do, because it's Fender. If it was any other company and the halo effect was not present, the rating would be significantly lower. As examples: Would you want to work somewhere where you're straight up told your boss' boss (the CFO) expects 12 hour days, 6 days a week? Where you're given an honest, decent hard working employee (your first) who works harder & more committed than 95% of other people, but told to "work him out of the organization/generate documentation" (by adding to his workload amongst other tactics) because he's "not promotable" and the execs is afraid to fire him because of liability reasons? Where you're again told to "work someone out of the organization" because your boss told you "I don't like her"? Where your boss emails you, regularly, between 12am and 6am, on a Saturday night, never-mind the rest of the week's dark mornings too, multiple times a week? Where clear and visible incompetence is promoted because of pre-existing loyalties from other companies? Where HR sits around with executives in meetings (I was in them) and expects a bell curve on employee ratings, forcing people into bottom ratings end because "it's not a bell curve yet"? Where key roles are open for years because they can't attract properly qualified people? Where no contingency planning or preparation is done in case someone leaves, and the running expectation is simply to do 2 jobs because the team is near-constantly missing someone? Where funny stories of folks who saw what went on and left in short order abound? Clearly, I can go on.