Brooks Running reviews

Consistent devaluing of employees who are not part of the product teams. Meaningful recognition of accomplishments at work and appropriate compensation rates are severely lacking. Expect salaries to hover around 80% of market median, which is already too low, then bump up less than a COLA each year.

The culture is presented as fun and healthy but in reality it is fairly toxic within specific departments and feels very “high school”. It is also very hierarchical with lots of corporate bureaucracy. The company caters more to middle and upper level management, so expect limited growth and development opportunities. Unclear, constantly changing expectations and overlapping job roles are a common theme. Leadership is not held accountable within the organization. People who play the game and assimilate to the culture are rewarded and perpetuate the status quo way of doing things. This leads to a lack of diversity in thought but also diversity in general especially at the leadership level. There is an added complexity to everything that makes even the most simple work difficult. Everyone is overwhelmed by too many meetings and yet there is not a lot of cross-functional collaboration, as all of the teams work in silos and compete for resources. The company is trying to become a more global, but there are a lot of growing pains associated with this. For a growing company with headquarters in a location like Seattle, the pay is low and not competitive enough to attract and retain top talent. The office buildings also face local area constraints like expensive parking which is passed on to the employee. The company incentivizes alternative transportation but it can be difficult to figure out the best way to get to work. There has been reduced flexibility to work from home with more emphasis put on being in the office.