I was laid off the day they announced the merger with Emerson Ecologics. I waited so long to write a review because I wanted it to be honest and truly helpful instead of coming off as bitter, spiteful, or hurt. I also had hope that they would do one round of layoffs but as it turns out, there's been several. Four or five if I'm counting correctly. My layoff was done really poorly. First they announced the merger and talked about how wonderful this would be for everyone and what exciting and big news this is. The layoffs were a footnote and quickly passed over. Once I saw the meeting on my calendar, I tried to get ahold of my leadership team but no one had any idea what was going on. I.e. they didn't even tell my leaders that I was going to be let go. She was just as shocked as I was. And even more shocking than that, they had let go the head of my department before the announcement and they were instructed not to reach out to any of us until after we were let go. The rest of my team was let go one by one throughout the day. There were also other teams that had losses that day. I understand redundant roles and that sometimes this happens, however, I don't understand how absolutely heartless this was for a company that claims to really care about their people. But honestly, I should have seen the writing on the wall. Prior to being let go my department felt extremely disconnected from the rest of the organization. We were never given even a shout out or any form of recognition for the immense work that goes into big yearly promotions like Cyber Monday or moving through millions worth of inventory in a short period of time because leadership opted out of supporting a thriving category at the last second. Our team even had several employees from more favored departments let us know that everyone in the organization thought we didn't do anything or provide much value. The most recent to my departure (March) being in December - right after Cyber Monday. Merchandising concerns and priorities were consistently dismissed. There was always so much focus on the "product" being the platform but when we would bring up concerns on the search functionality being nowhere near "world class" we were met with contempt every single time. (If you'd like an example, search "Vegan Protein" and ask yourself why Vitamin D products are showing up before some Vegan Protein products). Or all of the times we put effort to put forth strategies to merchandise the site better or market the brands and products to increase profitability and we were told this was not a priority. When we brought up the fact that the promise they are marketing of " MSRP or less" is dishonest, we were swept under the rug. The truth is that the platform does not make the money, the merchandise does. And leadership refused to see that. There is no charge for this "SaaS" product - so how are you selling software as a service? I was also vastly underpaid for the amount of work I was doing. Managing categories worth millions in net revenue, managing over 30 vendor partners with the expectation that their business would grow YoY. I made just under $60k gross. Getting a promotion approved or a raise approved was like pulling teeth for my leadership but each quarter I'd see more favored departments get their members promotion after promotion. I'm thankful my leadership team did give me the chance work above my station when they couldn't give me a raise or a promotion because now I'm much farther along in my career than I would have been if I also had a bad team. Truly, that team and those leaders were the losses that I grieved - not working at Fullscript. Unfortunately, I know other teams didn't (and still don't) have managers as incredible as I did while here. My department leaders were also were hired before the NPFS merger so I cannot give credit to the FS leadership team for at least doing a good job hiring. So bringing everything back around - it's been a year since I was laid off and I realized how toxic the environment outside that team truly was. I'm thankful to be gone. I still talk to my team and they've all shared a similar sentiment: the culture at Fullscript is toxic and made us all feel like we were worthless when we're all now being regarded as some of the best in our new roles.
