Overstock.com Employee Reviews about "upper management"

Pros

They are very understanding of family issues for example, I have worked at the Big O for year now and have had a couple of Family Emergencies and my supervisors were always very supportive.

Cons

REQUIRED WEEKENDS FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE- You know Customer Service agents have a family too, and its nice that we can leave early on the day before the holiday, but if it falls before the weekend it would be nice to be given those days off, so we can have the long weekend like the supervisors do or UPPER MANAGEMENT to take a holiday vacation. If we have to come in to work the weekend to work and the holiday was a Friday or Thursday, it kind of ruins our Holiday Plans.

Pros

-consistent hours -friendly environment -extensive training at hire There is an effort made to keep work life balance healthy. There are usually scheduling options available that give people options about how/when they would like to schedule their 40 hours of the week. Employees get a free Club O membership to use on the site, which encourages customer service agents to explore the site and the products.

Cons

-extremely regimented schedules -high productivity standards that can lead to burn out Immediately after being hired was the best time I had at the job. Soon after, it became clear that management prefers quantity over quality when it comes to the work customer service agents would do. It is a call center, despite how much they will refer to it as an office. The culture reflects this. Customer service agents are expected to be at their desks as much as possible and ready to take as many phone calls as possible. Managers will tell you personally that you are allowed to get up from your desk if you need (bathroom breaks, coffee breaks etc) but upper management really doesn’t want customer service to take “unscheduled” breaks that are longer than 5 minutes, and these can accrue over time to reflect negatively on one’s “adherence” to the schedule.

Pros

They had fun parties every now and then.

Cons

Hiring from within isn't always the best. Especially when they hire unqualified people to upper management which happened a lot. This lead to many inefficiencies in the workflow of projects. Also many times it felt like you have to be family or best friends with the VPs in order to get recognized or move up. They have had several times where they lay off a ton of people because they over-hire when they do well then when things start to look bad they fire a bunch of people.

Pros

-The building is new -The building is unique -People ask, "Overstock... is that that round building in Midvale? " -Standing and sitting desks -Collaborative environment -Comfy furniture in the office -There are nice people to work with -The view can be great depending on where you are in the building -Subsidized daycare (starting at $860/month for a 6 week old, full time only) -on site gym for free -Subsidized on sight bon appetite cafe food

Cons

Favoritism is big here at Overstock. At first you think its all about performance and how well you do your job, but as you get to know people, become familiar with senior leadership, you start to understand that a lot of people are where they are, because who they are friends with (they hand out VP and Director titles like candy). There is a very tight knit group of senior leadership, they all started at Overstock about the same time and are all high up in the company even though you see them wandering around not doing anything (CMO is a very hardworking guy, the rest are "cool guys"). Senior leadership is a joke here. It's hard to get them all on the same page. No one wants to be the guy to have the final say as to what to do for sure. It's a lot of... well I can see both options, so and so what do you think? Senior leadership doesn't have a backbone. Also, they are terrible at planning. They have a "hire now because we need projects done and lay them off later" mentality. Overstock is trying to get acquired so they decide that because of the CEOs poor ability to plan and blow a whole bunch of spend and how that will affect the company, they decide that layoffs need to happen to make it look like they are a smooth, trimmed, operating machine, then try to cover up the layoff reasoning with problems with SEO and Google. I look around the office and see and hear people that got laid off because of "performance issues" but yet I see people still there, higher management, that all they do is wander around the office and chat to people. Good luck challenging the status quo too. You start to even question and challenge upper management, they will either burn you or make your life very difficult. If you want to work for a company that promotes based on your friends, go for it. Overstock SAYS they promote work life balance, value the employee and the little guys, and care and cherish your hard work, but at the end of the day, there is a forever growing gap of upper management and the average worker. As long as Overstock makes money, senior management will continue to treat themselves well with great pay, but will make sure that the little guys and everyone else that made it possible to get where they are, stay well below them in responsibilities, compensation, and the friend circle. Also senior leadership is grossly overpaid. As I have developed friendships, people share what their compensation is (I personally know people in most of these roles, other roles the people I know have told me) Manager $75- $90k Senior Manger $85-130k Director $120-$170k Senior Director $160-200k VP $180-$250k SVP $230-300k CO $300+k

Pros

Your coworkers at the same level as you tend to be very friendly and helpful.

Cons

Upper management is a joke, no communication and they tend to make open ended promises.