REI has been on the “Top 100 Places to Work” for a long time. However, this honor is disingenuous at best, and totally deceptive at worst. For one thing, many of those special, unique “Only at REI” kind of perks you see on the videos and in the articles are actually “Only at REI Headquarters” perks; employees in Direct Sales and at the stores (which is 90% of REI!) do not enjoy things like 1 ½ hour bike rides on their lunch and workplace dog kennels, as mentioned in the recent CNN video. Implying that these benefits are available to everyone in the company is laughable.
I work in Direct Sales where I answer the phone to take orders for products. I've worked here for a couple of years. The following comments refer to Direct Sales. I have never worked in a store so I don’t know what the conditions are like there. And headquarters? Well, I’m sure it’s great, if you can get in there. But the hiring process is very “clique-ish” and your qualifications don’t really matter; if you want a job at headquarters, you really, really need to become best friends with the people in the department you want to work in. Don’t worry about being qualified for the position – it’s not necessary.
The working environment in Direct Sales is pretty horrific for a “Top 100” company. Everyone is friendly on the surface but below the surface, it is an environment of total micromanagement and distrust. We are constantly told how great we are but the rules we have to follow say otherwise. We actually have to punch a special code to go to the bathroom! This is so management can track our “personal time”, and employees have gotten warning emails if their “personal times” have exceeded some limit. We are not allowed to eat at our desk, (exceptions include stuff like granola, fruit rolls and hard candy - try imposing that rule at Headquarters and see what happens!), we are not allowed to put up Christmas decorations or for other holidays, and everything we do is tracked by our phone times – breaks, lunches, etc .
We are totally micromanaged to the nth degree in everything. The overall feeling is that employees cannot be trusted to use their judgment about anything. The simultaneous "Friendly / Spying on You" thing is actually kind of creepy.
