So you just saw REI Durham has some job openings and you couldn’t be more excited to apply. I was you. I had a soul once. I’m here to tell you, just don’t do it.
When I first started, I could not have been more in love with REI. The outdoors was both my passion and place of refuge. I saw an opening four years ago and immediately applied. It was only later that I would discover this place, without a doubt, has the most toxic atmosphere I have ever worked in. This is coming from someone who could not have dranken any more Kool-aid back when I was hired several years ago.
The people who work here (outside of management) are some of the coolest, most genuine people you will meet, which makes it all the more harder to watch them get screwed over, over and over again. Management is too busy trying to save their own job to listen to feedback from employees. They see anything other than enthusiastic support for their policies as a threat.. Intimidation and bullying is not uncommon.
Alright, it’s been negative so far - let’s address the positives that are commonly brought up: the discount on gear and the healthcare plans. The discounts can seem appealing but once you’re hired you will be regularly over-scheduled/over-worked to the point where all you want to do on your day off is rest. In addition, your days off are often not in a row. How does working four days on, one day off before working another four in a row sound? Additionally, they schedule such that you won’t go into overtime with this type of schedule either (how? I’m still trying to figure it out).
“But great health care plans though, right?” I guarantee the toll it will take on you is not worth it and you will pay for it one way or another. The concrete floors and demand to always be working on the next big project will tear down your body, the gas lighting and ever present fear of being called into an office to be “coached” will crush your mental/emotional health. Management will also use this as a tool to bend you to their will. They will tell you health care isn’t a benefit and threaten to cut your hours if you don’t fall in line, thereby negating your eligibility for health care (during a pandemic no less).
If you haven’t been turned off yet, know that there was a carjacking around the corner a few weeks ago, a window smashed and robbery at Ulta next door a few months ago, and numerous windows smashed in the employee parking lot out back. In all cases management has failed to do much more than tell us not to leave valuables in our cars.
This isn’t hyperbole. This isn’t the case of one or two pissed off employees; this is a toxic culture that rewards brown nosing and crushes dissent. They are able to get away with this because there are only two (count them, 1, 2) HR employees in the entire company. The real swift kick to the testes is the fact that while treating their employees like dirt management loves to tell you how much better than other retailers they are.
Don’t work here, don’t shop here.
To summarize: Great for sycophants and masochists. All others need not apply.
