Brooks Running reviews

3.9

84% would recommend to a friend

(239 total reviews)

Dan Sheridan

91% approve of CEO

81% positive business outlook

Brooks Running has an employee rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars, based on 239 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Brooks Running employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Retail & Wholesale industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

239 reviews
2.0
Mar 30, 2017

You Have to be "Cool" to Work Here

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Easy job. Simple data entry, emailing and calling customers and stores about their orders. Very relaxed work environment. Casual dress code. You can find free street parking most of the time. They seem to not mind if you are occasionally a few min late.

Cons

The culture here is that you have to be "cool", fit in, be popular, and well liked in order to be respected here. My manager was a part of this also. She would talk to everyone else on a friendly level, but never spoke to me. She didn't say hello, talk to me, or ever give me feedback about my performance. When she did talk to me, she didn't make eye contact with me. They hire a lot of temps, but little if any effort is made in including them in most of the activities. It's not a very inclusionary or egalitarian workplace. Some people do respect the temp employees, but most of the people their treat the temps badly. Even in things like casual conversation, they do subtly insulting and condescending gestures to let you know you're not welcome and not part of the group. The temps are not allowed in some of the meetings and to the parties they have. It's not a good environment. There were times when they would have games and social functions in the office for permanent employees, but the temps would be at their desks, quiet, isolated, and just doing there work because they weren't included and people wouldn't talk to them. One thing I noticed while I was there was that most all of the temps were minorities, older people (40+), and disabled people. Meanwhile most all of their permanent, full time employees were white, 25-40 yrs old, college educated, privileged, and socially popular ("cool"). Why don't they have more individuals from the former as permanent full time employees? Add all this to the fact that there's no benefits and it just sucks working here. Don't work at Brooks.

2.0
Jun 16, 2016

A classic case of Peter principle, practice job only

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

1. Lots of opportunities to learn for junior/entry-level employees thanks to open office environment and exposure to senior employees 2. Product discounts making purchasing running shoes more affordable 3. You can get promoted very quickly if working for departments with high attrition 4. Good IT infrastructure and very nice IT support 5. Having the nicest people I have ever worked with in my entire career in all levels; some still there but many have left.... 6. Pay is very good at director level, regardless of number of staff 7. Charismatic CEO with appreciation for products

Cons

1. HR stretching too thin, only having resources to do administrative and recruiting tasks, not talent management including conflict management between managers and staff. 2. Too many layers of management for a small company leading to lack of transparency in decision making and performance measurement, talented employees disappearing for no clear reasons, highly political and unstable org. 3. Lack of talents and qualified leaders in key positions leading to slow or ineffective decisions 4. Silo minded org, business partnering/collaboration difficult 5. Racial and ethnic diversity lacking in senior management at HQ (director level and above) 6. Becoming an agreeable and obedient culture; passionate/strong minded employees are few; managing up more important 7. Commuting to and parking in Fremont expensive

2.0
Aug 23, 2014

Run Happy Noble Idea, Sadly Work Happy is not

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good First Job and if you are a running fanatic

Cons

Company more closely resembles a High School. Manipulation, Gossip and the Cool kids (i.e. the cool depts.) maneuvers are regularly practiced and rewarded. There are several cases I’ve seen of employees being promised a promotion, pay increase or move to a new role only to be told a yr. Later the job or the merit increase can’t happen to the extent we spoke to. But keep doing what you are doing and we will revisit next yr. It is a company with very little upward mobility dependent on the department you work in Most of these negatives are practiced by Sr. managers and executives. Brooks has hired numerous "leaders" that came from big companies where they either were let go or were not top producers. Why leave a multibillion $ company to work at $500m Org.? Brooks revives their careers and allows them to fracture the existing culture with big ideas from the past that are not relevant to the current or near future of the brand. Sadly, it's the individual contributors, the 10 yr. vet/lifer that hasn't seen a promotion, and the quiet high-performer who just wants to do an excellent job and doesn't boast to everyone about his own accomplishments. Brooks is becoming a ‘Big Boy” culture just like most companies. They have had layoffs just like everyone else. So if if you going to work for a company that acta like most others, then you should go work at Big Company where there are upward mobility options and they will pay you more for your commitment and the risks.

Viewing 4 - 6 of 239 Reviews

Glassdoor has 290 Brooks Running reviews submitted anonymously by Brooks Running employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Brooks Running is right for you.