Pros
Overstock was my home for the bigger part of a decade. It was a good home. Most of the time I liked my job okay and sometimes I loved it. Everything reviewers are saying about the executive team is true, but I rarely had to interact with them. Directors and managers were humane and dedicated, the technology was good, I learned a lot, work/life balance was very good, and I have a lifetime’s worth of crazy stories to tell at parties.
Cons
The executive team is what’s most wrong with this company. THE PRESIDENT, STORMY SIMON: Likes getting high. If she has a crush on you she’ll make a whole department (or the whole company) sing you a cheesy song. That's happened twice. She is not a capable manager. If you work with her you will have to learn to placate her moods and fearsome temper. If you’re in a meeting with her and type on your computer you might be fired. Likes to be in company commercials. She and the CEO do creepy hugs in public. She gave most of her family jobs at Overstock. THE CEO, PATRICK BYRNE: Trust fund baby who bought the company in the 2000s. Also likes to get high. Very very smart, but…eccentric. For a long time he thought the Russian Mafia was trying to kill him. He bought a scary attack dog, hired a sniper to watch the company HQ, and moved his office to a different part of the building every couple months. He also has more guns than he can keep track of. One time he was arrested trying to take a loaded handgun onto an airplane. (No really, Google it!) Another time he drove $100k in a suitcase to Tijuana to try and ransom a former NBA player who had gone missing. (No really, Google it!) He likes sending pictures to the whole company of himself helicopter skiing, skydiving or relaxing at the beach. When I started they told me to never interrupt him, ever. He is very easily distracted by new opportunities and doesn't follow through on existing plans. He can remember a slight forever - even a funny look in a meeting. He can acknowledge his mistakes, but keeps making the same mistakes over and over. For all the controversy surrounding Stormy, she's a non-entity compared to Patrick. This is his company from start to finish, and the only things she gets away with are what he allows (or encourages). He regularly brags about how he dominates the company - shareholders and board aren't going to stop him, do you think she will? No way. When he finally gives up on her she is gone, just like so many others who seemed all-powerful one moment and then disappeared the next.