High pay overshadowed by toxic work culture - Anonymous employee Newell Brands Employee Review

Good, fair, real people. Supportive environment. Best work life balance I’ve had.

You’re not making tech money. But if you like your team, the products you’re writing about, and the ability to not stress about work 24/7, it may very well be worth it.

The Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are bright spots within the organization. Even when leadership discounted their importance and attempted to dismantle them, the ERGs remained resilient. They stayed strong, self-funded, and persevered to protect their communities and initatives until budgets were finally reinstated.

Chaotic corporate strategy, a punishing management culture, and a severe disconnect on compensation. The company has downsized three out of the last four years, pushing teams to "do more with less" without any operational logic. This environment was further strained by a rigid return-to-office (RTO) mandate that clearly functioned as a disguised effort to force employee attrition, followed by contractor replacements. Ironically, while leadership voiced major paranoia about employees working secondary jobs, they consistently paid below-market salaries, failing to realize that competitive pay is the actual key to employee focus and loyalty. Furthermore, executive leadership lacks a fundamental understanding of emerging technology. Instead of building a logical framework for AI, the company executed an abrupt shift towards it with zero strategy. This is compounded by a leadership style that is frequently passive-aggressive, combative, unwilling to teach, and quick to steal credit.