Custom Ink reviews about "training"

Confused leaders, chasing trends, decision to rely on outsourcing for both artists and sales, chosing AI to fill some sort of mythic gap and buying business in other areas.

Bad management, childish favoritism, inability to pick a direction and stick with it, the list goes on. The biggest con was the absolute hypocrisy when it came to company ethics. I've never seen a company blow so much smoke about how to treat people and then do the exact opposite. There was also no clear path up in this role without relocating. Which I'm glad I didn't do, as custom ink relocated a bunch of production employees and then fired them too. Right before outsourcing art overseas, despite having an excellent art team.

The last 6 months of 2022 the CEO sent emails saying the company was financially fit and they were prepared for recession and no one needs to fear being laid off. Beginning of Dec, CEO sent email with the same rhetoric. First day of 2023 that employees were back at work, they announced two production facility closures and 20% of staff had been laid off. They lie, they put profits over decent management, adequate training, customer service, loyalty.

- Compensations is not acceptable. Annual 'raises' are conditional on exceptionally above expectation performance and never more than 4.5%. The performance threshold increased every year during my tenure, sometimes twice a year. If you want to make more than your base pay you must be an exceptional performer. While this was clear at the inception of my employment, the complexity and technical demands of the job have changed dramatically during that time. You won't see performance bonus gains until more than 3 months of consistent numbers. Gains are not applied retroactively. - Executive leadership is not clear and does not care about the team. I don't have room to list all the ways senior leadership has lost touch with employees, so here are top contenders: Location closures, separations, lack of egalitarian support across departments, inaccurate training, prioritizing bottom line over team size, and desire to preserve a +15% growth rate over team health. - At one time Custom Ink was a place to grow your career. In the last 3 years the company has hired more external candidates than internal candidates and lateral moves were universally offered new job titles and teams if you are willing to accept paycuts. - Environmental impact is not treated as a priority. While there's plenty of discussion, leadership instead supports individuals who are willing to volunteer but does not implement additional ideas or dedicate employee or leadership time to these initiatives. - Benefits are no longer competitive. Parental leave time is fmla minimum. There is flexibility in some roles but not all for hours and weekly changes. Multiple instances of bonus potential are not realized or reduced and cited as 'budgetary need' to keep low. When we are busy, leaders are asked to have people shift hours instead of taking time off.

Lack of Training No Opportunities for Growth Constand Layoffs and Offshoring Jobs Changes Implemented with Structured Procedures

Leadership executed a deeply misleading and poorly managed “restructure.” A new 6–9 step sales methodology was rolled out in phases, yet reps were graded on all steps in live calls before being trained on them. Managers were still learning how to score the rubric, resulting in failing evaluations for criteria employees had not been taught. After rolling out raises, increased incentives, expanded benefits, and a highly publicized sales contest, the company abruptly issued a layoff warning and canceled the required training and role-play session the same day. Severance had already been significantly reduced beforehand. The company is backed by large institutional/private equity ownership, and decisions appeared driven by cost-cutting and optics rather than employee development or ethical change management. The process lacked transparency, fairness, and basic operational integrity. Employees were asked to commit to new standards without being given the tools to meet them, then were treated as disposable. Proceed with extreme caution.

The company is poorly run at every level. The culture is all about jumping through hoops for management and showing utter disrespect for lower level workers. They’re facing insolvency due to poor decisions. PTO is combined with sick leave. People mention cheap healthcare as a pro but that’s only for single coverage. For a family, the cost is outrageous. People are placed in management roles without any experience or training managing people and it shows. Run, don’t walk, away!

no big cons except we got laid off

The company started to favor profit over people. They started laying off hundreds of workers due to automation and outsourcing jobs.