Fender Musical Instruments Reviews

Cons

Hollywood is weird. Other departments seem turbulent. Sometimes there are questionable decisions made by leadership.

Cons

Similar jobs are posted and reposted for each department on all job sites. Turnover is incredibly high. Expect a weekly meeting to explain all projects and histories of departments to a new person who was incorrectly told they are the first person being brought on to solve any standing issue and very incorrectly told that they'll be given an appropriate amount of access and power to solve it.

Every shiny object and short term gain is chased by leadership. Success is inflated. Failure is swept under the rug. And teams are left wondering why they lose a vital limb every month.

The culture is presented as collaborative and rock and roll, but this environment is more political than a New York agency. Coworkers utilize corridors and short private walks to discuss triangulation strategies to undermine managers or redirect projects.

Within the first weeks of working I was shown the best routes for these arrangements, informed of after work drinking expectations and told not to trust anyone.

Cons

Poor management, high turnover rate

Cons

Industry is slow growing, though Fender continues to build share.

Cons

Leadership team at the C level creates a toxic, non-inclusive , high attrition/turnover rate across all departments. Referrals from the Board should not dictate keeping people at the top who have leadership coaches and spend company money on toxic Execs.

Cons

HR Dept is a joke. Managers are skewed and differ greatly in their treatment of employees creating an unfair and unbalanced environment.

Cons

For a relatively small company, things can move very slowly at times.

Cons

None of this is new and echoes a number of the previous comments posted on this site:
• Turnover is high. Morale is not. It’s hard to imagine its gone unnoticed so one would have to assume that the C-suite and HR are somehow fine with the level of dysfunction on open display.
• I agree with a recent comment that there is definitely some targeted bullying from management that HR and other leadership is aware of, but choose to turn a blind eye to. And I think “bullying” is the right word for it. Of course people lose their jobs from time to time for legitimate concerns, but I saw management ostracize, scapegoat and drill people out of their jobs for “reasons”, which at times meant little more than having a difference of opinion or speaking up about something they were concerned about. And nearly as troubling, this shadowy process seemed to take the place of communication between management and their direct reports. Vanishing co-workers were so frequent you couldn’t help but feel that people had learned that if they wanted to keep their jobs they needed to keep their heads down and their mouths shut. Even some managers seemed to take this “no comment” approach rather than deal with difficult peers or confront senior management, which led to teams clamming up into silos, which led to lots of communication difficulties. The good will of the brand and enthusiasm that people brought into their jobs often curdled quickly. Some people excitedly moved to LA from other parts of the country for a job at Fender only to start looking for another job within weeks of arriving. Others were pointlessly bounced from manager to manager with little or no direction. It was oppressive and you could feel it.
• It is cliquish. I found the subordinate members of these cliques to be super nice people even though I received warnings from multiple corners in my first weeks about the dangers of trusting others in the company.
• There’s an unfortunate and unnecessary enmity between “New” Fender (digital and marketing primarily in Hollywood) and “Old” Fender (primarily in Scottsdale).
• It’s no secret that the guitar market isn’t especially healthy. One would think that fostering and harnessing the enthusiasm and creative energy of the employees could lead to products or innovations that might help keep the lights on over time. Unfortunately that’s not the kind of environment I feel I witnessed.

Cons

Too many new people, seems to have had staffing issues

Cons

Felt bored sometimes due to lack of weekly tasks