Pros
First, I’d like to address some negative points made in other reviews. The president is not this elitist overlord that some of the comments seem to imply. His best friends are scattered throughout the whole company, including customer service, marketing, warehouse and sales representative departments. He’s a normal person who worked his way up in the company and brought Permobil a long way.
It comes with the job description that people are going to nitpick and tear his reputation apart, but it doesn’t make it fair. He doesn’t “smoke dope,” but he does like to hold company outings, get to know employees and have drinks at sporting events. He doesn’t pick favorites, but like anyone, he has friends that are closer than others. Personally, I feel like any decent, well-rounded person would understand that.
It’s probably not worth it to address these comments, but I felt like I had a responsibility to. It’s not just me that cares. I know there are other people who would also go to bat for the president because he’s been a good friend, helped them out of hard times, or they’ve just never had a bad thing to say about him. Maybe this post will encourage someone else to speak up about it.
At the end of the day, those negative and inflammatory posts are obviously not representative of everyone’s experience, but I wanted to shed light on why they’re also just plainly untrue.
Permobil is a company where you can excel if you really want to. Even the president of North American operations was once a sales representative before becoming the CEO. The current customer service manager used to work on the ship dock in the warehouse. Sales representatives are often hired from inside the company. There are many opportunities for promotion or lateral moves inside the company if you’re willing to put your head down and work. Knowledge and hard work will, in fact, get you somewhere. There’s enough proof of that for anyone at the company to see.
Managers at Permobil don’t just look for experience on a resume when picking candidates. They do a good job of choosing employees they believe are genuinely good people who fit in with the company culture. This is not just a compliment from me, but from several current employees that I’ve spoken with.
There are many employees at Permobil who have been with the company for over ten years. Permobil wasn’t always the larger corporation that it is today. It used to be a small office with around 40 employees. Many of those employees who were there back then are still around today.
There’s a lot of boisterous personalities at Permobil, and they might let you know too much how excited they are about the new building. But as I said before, this company used to be tiny and in a much more lackluster building, so they’re just excited about the new amenities that come with being a growing company. Management wants new employees to be just as excited, so it’s no wonder that it comes up during interviews.
The company has great benefits and good healthcare, as well as a café with good food for very cheap prices. However, it’s not just the benefits that make it a good place to work. Employees at Permobil are generally happier because of the difference they get to make for disabled people.
Cons
Permobil needs internal public relations. I feel there's a lot of misconceptions about upper and mid management. Employees should have less chances to feel alienated from the company, even if they are the ones putting themselves in that position. It’s sad to read reviews from people who missed a chance to become more involved in a good company.
As for management and policies, I can’t say. I only know from what I have experience with and that’s listed above in the Pros section.
