To be perfectly blunt, I have never witnessed such a shocking display of collective incompetence amongst executive “leadership”. As many of the recent reviews have outlined, the President of the company is embarrassingly under-qualified, emotionally immature, and her insecurities are worn on her sleeve as shown by the way she publicly humiliates, shames, and bullies the workforce at every level. She blatantly ignores clear user data, makes irrational decisions based on personal preferences, and if she does not understand something any given employee is attempting to explain she will become agitated, defensive, and belittle them in any way she can. She does this both privately, and in very public and inappropriate settings. It is sad to watch all levels of management walk on eggshells around her as it is impossible to gauge her current mood, emotional state, ect. Executive “leadership” has absolutely no interest in hearing anybody attempt to bring up valid concerns regarding large partnerships, deals, and initiatives, whatsoever. I have personally witnessed Overstock get themselves into horrible deals time and time again. They are never willing to walk away from something that clearly will not be beneficial to the core business and end up costing the company tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. We have been told numerous times that “you better make this work” no matter the cost all because the narcissism of the “leaders” that prevail here is unlike any I have ever encountered and none will admit they initiated a bad deal. It is laughable at how short-sighted and ignorant the “leadership” team truly are.
It is amazing how well Overstock performs despite the painfully obvious lack of true leadership at high levels. The mid-level managers and directors are keeping the company moving. If not for them steering the ship in the right direction (secretly against the ridiculous initiatives the executives consistently propose and push), the company would be in major danger of complete failure. My hat is off to the amazing, hard-working, extremely intelligent individuals who bust their butts doing the right thing, and caring about humans as well as keeping the company afloat. It is a truly valiant effort on their part and requires extremely mature, sound, and emotionally sophisticated people to handle the pressure.
A few other items to note. I have personally witnessed employees, consultants, executives actually smoking weed in conference rooms in the middle of a work day or out in the parking lot and various other places. Seriously? Grow up. Show at least a little bit of professionalism, just a little. It’s embarrassing and I’m extremely liberal from a social standpoint. There is a time and place for everything. I’ve watched as the executive “leadership” team have thrown each other under the bus, blamed others at every turn, even had lower level personnel fired for their incompetent decisions to save themselves. Trust when I say, this company has absolutely no integrity. None. Internally, the President touts this idea that Overstock is a company of true “soul”, yet has no soul herself. She bullies, has expressed the fact she doesn’t care about work/life balance as she has actually booed someone taking a few days off to be with their newborn baby…in a standup that included about 75 employees. Absolutely disgusting. There is a strong undercurrent of deception, corrupt policies, abuse (verbal and sexual), nepotism to the highest degree, double-standards, bullying, and downright mistreatment of humans in general.
BLUF (bottom line up front):
1. Raise valid concerns of any kind – risk getting walked out
2. Put family above the Company – risk getting walked out
3. Doing the right thing – if not aligned with the President...you got it – risk getting walked out
4. Leave at 5 – it is noticed and severely frowned upon. Do this, you will never get promoted
5. No appreciation for employees. Period. (new building doesn’t prove anything, Patrick)
