Brooks Running reviews

The pay is really low. They will do a song and dance about how they compare in the market, the reality is that it is well below Seattle standards. Make sure to get what you want. The company offers no equity, raises are 3% ish, the health benefits aresof. This is an old school manufacturer that is turning over people and struggling to figure out how to make their product relevant and adapt to shrinking retail. Very much a slow moving, meeting heavy, must get buy in, and more buy in, then check with 10 more people before doing anything. If you are entrepreneurial, be warned...Did I mention the turnover of senior leadership? This place has been a revolving door and organizational shifting is happening frequently.

Depends on which department you are in. My role was very much about human interaction and I met with someone from every department regularly. As you can see by the reviews, the experience can differ greatly. Customer Service and Footwear can be very fun but beware of these for examples: Marketing (high political), Information Technology (losing people left and right, so much so that they try not to mention who's leaving anymore) and Apparel (layoffs are common even when told they weren't an option). It all depends on who is running the show. If you are interviewing be sure to meet as many people as you can to get the whole picture. And don't ever take their first offer (make sure to counter). They notoriously low-ball salary compared to the equivalent position in Seattle. They also throw money around like there's no tomorrow so don't let them make you think they don't have any. (That was a major frustration for me and my reports. Retaining good people is very hard when you don't pay them what they are worth; no matter how "good" you say you culture is. Speaking about Seattle salaries, Brooks is new to Seattle and new to growth. They are a $500M company but when it comes to employee benefits and salary and any compensation for that matter they are still pretending that they are a $50M company. You can't have it both ways. They're the awkward teenager with too much money trying to wear big boy pants. Another review mentioned bullying; I've seen this happen in multiple departments and it's starting to tear things apart internally. Backstabbing, gossip, manipulation and political maneuvers are regular practice. In fact, it looks like that's how you get ahead; it certainly isn't the quality of work that's rewarded. All of these negative practices were not coming from the individual contributors; these were the managers and executives. Brooks has a very obvious Zero-to-Hero phenomena going on. There are so many "leaders" that come from big companies where they either failed, were under-productive or just nobodies and they come into this relatively unknown running company and suddenly they're big shots with fancy corporate buzzwords and sadly they are listened to because of where they came from (not who they are or what their skills are). And sadly, it's the individual contributors, the 10 year veteran 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 like a politician about his own accomplishments. Brooks has a long way to go. I'd be very careful before spending your time here.