One Kings Lane Employee Reviews about "leadership team"

Pros

The company is in a startup phase so there is a lot of opportunity to make a significant impact in whatever area that one is contributing to. In addition, there is a strong emphasis on growth within the organization, which is always a plus. Finally, the leadership team also excels at creating a supportive an positive environment

Cons

I would love to get more catered meals, but I guess you can't have everything!

Pros

The energy from everyone is so magnetic that you can't help but smile, laugh and be happy all day long. We are well taken care of here, from Wednesday lunches, to Ice-Cream cart days, snacks, drinks and themed Happy hour meet & greets. The Leadership Team makes a point of keeping all employees informed of what is happening with the organization. This includes new hires, new business investment (in OKL), press releases, company forecasting and goals met. It is a great feeling to see and be informed of what your efforts produce. There are opportunities to collaborate with other departments, on projects that are beneficial to the company as a whole. I will occasionally work with the Marketing team, which has given me insight as to how their efforts effect my own team. I also enjoy that we are actively involved in our community. From helping serve food, planting communal gardens, to tutoring young adults. Community involvement is something that is close to my heart and it makes me proud to work with an organization who sees the value and importance in being an active participant of the community. OKL appreciates dogs, so mine is able to come to work with me occasionally.

Cons

As much as I want to complain about the $$ I see on my paycheck , I really can not be so disappointed. OKL pays for 95% of my healthcare AND I have the freedom to take time off anytime throughout the year.

Pros

-Dedicated team -Amazing place to work, you get to look at great merchandise all day and work with a very collaborative and motivated team -Smart, passionate individuals -Wednesday lunch -DTO -Amazing offices -Co-founders are incredible, sweet and warm to everyone that works at the company. They truly go above and beyond to make you feel like family. -It being a start-up you can definitely learn a lot and get your hands into multiple roles and projects. -If you work hard, you will be recognized for your efforts.

Cons

-Leadership team has gone through some changes, has had a trickle down effect on company as a whole. -There have been some significant growing pains (with any start-up), close of a sister site and office last year. -Engineering team isn't always able to prioritize asks as quickly as you need them too due to lack of bandwidth. -CEO has made some serious decisions that have had a lasting effect on company. -Does not have the true start-up feel it once has, more corporate. -Lack of communication

Pros

Transparency across all levels of the company. Smart and strategic leadership team. There are always opportunities for learning. Employees have the chance to participate in multiple projects that are outside of their day to day scope. OKL offers flexibility and a great work life integration.

Cons

The Bed Bath and Beyond culture can present challenges at times but the OKL President and Leaders have navigated the cultural differences effectively to ensure the OKL culture stays in tact.

Pros

One Kings Lane offers more employee perks than I've ever known at other corporations...between the happy hours and the discretionary time off and general commitment from the leadership team to create a positive culture is really unique.

Cons

You need to be comfortable with some ambiguity. They are going through a transition and while the future is bright, they don't have all the answers yet.

Pros

Great work/ life balance. Unlimited DTO! Opportunities for growth outside of standard job description. Easy access to leadership team + room for employee at any level to ideate and run with projects. Smart, captivating, driven and creative workforce --- really enjoy coworkers! Access to an incredible set of sister companies for thought partnership and vendor access.

Cons

While a very dynamic company with a lot of opportunity, projects move fast and keeping up requires agility. The speed can also create challenges ensuring proper vetting and buy in for cross functional projects.

Pros

Very rapid growth so job security is probably better than at other places, great if you like a sorority atmosphere (theme parties, contests, happy hours, high fives) and not questioning processes, individualists may want to steer clear.

Cons

Very rapid growth also means a lot of leadership has grown to high positions without being fully qualified; many morale boosting all team rah rah rah talk but it's no secret that a few department heads are in over their heads and do not get challenged. If selling and making money for the co is your motivation this is a great place to be, but there is surprisingly little knowledge or sophistication. Corporate values seem forced and fake.

Pros

Exposure to a lot of new partnerships, with the hope that one of them will make the company "great again".

Cons

Leadership team... Look each of them up on linkedin. For example: The president, Debbie Propst, was a manager-level at a failing company - Abercrombie, right before joining One Kings Lane. These are the kinds of people running the business. They were promoted too quickly due to high churn and their ability to aggressively attack others behind closed doors, but lack the experience, wisdom, and business acumen to lead a business and ensure its profitability. In fact, they are the sole reason behind its downfall. Nothing will change because this group only hires leaders who are friends of current leaders. They post these roles externally, to be compliant with the law, but hire their friends, continue gossiping and doing as they please.

Pros

-some of the nicest people, many of whom I consider friends outside of work -you learn a lot, especially about how fast startups move and how priorities can change daily. it -forces you to learn how to adapt, which is a good skill to have in life and future jobs -you're given a lot of responsibility, so if you work your butt off you can move up. -people invested in you growth if you performed -gave me a good set of skills and experience to take to my next job

Cons

-rounds of significant layoffs, last minute town halls were never a good sign. bad news always leaked. poor for morale. -fake sense of transparency, especially towards the end as to how bad the burn rate was. employees started to catch on. -exec team couldn't get it together in late 2015/2016 with a cohesive strategy once the financials weren't where they needed to be in terms of revenue, burn, and cash on hand. it was almost like they gave up hope and didn't want to make the radical changes necessary, or they just had no idea what to do. kept operating the same while pretending it was different. -needed an experienced leadership team who had both a vision for the brand and a solid growth strategy. i only considered half to be qualified, and unfortunately they didn't seem to be the ones with the most influence. -didn't seem like execs were held accountable - many seemed to talk their way out of responsibility for missing metrics/targets. -the things we sold were often overpriced, of poor quality for the price, and too expensive to ship. -big logistics problems, including shipping costs, damage & scraps. couldn't compete with other home decor companies offering free shipping. -we ran out of fresh ideas for stories to tell to get customers to buy. -too much weight given to the merchandising and buying teams' ideas when it came to how the site was run and the roadmap when it should have been data-driven. these teams often had the loudest voice, but could never back it up or deliver. -money spent on initiatives that were then trashed or could have been done internally -cost of creating sale events each day was unmanageable. -couldn't find other profitable ways to monetize -stock became worthless -CEO wasn't inspiring -talent started leaving, and the dominoes started toppling. staying bonuses were weak, especially for key employees. -sad to see it sold to bed bath beyond

Pros

Authentic culture Leadership team and vision Great work life balance and DTO (discretionary time off) Passionate and talented people Progressive thinking Paperless culture Focus on people development Lunch provided on Wednesdays, snacks and breakfast options Great office space Openness to new ideas and different ways of working

Cons

Healthier snacks Finding efficiencies to get work done quicker