REI reviews

At times it can take forever to get a change off the ground, even if many people believe it needs to happen. The company lacks the appropriate level of planning and project management functions, which means large projects can experience many stops and starts and often not cross the finish line. Too many individual heroics are required to get things done. With many recent leadership changes at the top, too many lower level leaders are scrambling to please those above at the expense of thinking for themselves, which is increasing the political environment and having a negative impact on employees reporting to them. You will encounter fabulous leaders in some areas and mediocre ones in others, and there is not a strong enough focus on training and evaluating leaders to ensure consistency.

The continued lack of financial success and clear direction has completely diminished the credibility of executive leadership. There's no good reason to join or stay with REI - we had no raises this year, bonuses were paid out at around 25%, no significant career development resources or programs, etc. No incentive to stay except to "fuel our purpose." I can't pay my mortgage with purpose. In HR it's worse. Our CPO (her first CPO gig) has made a mess of the department. She has zero empathy or people skills and all she does is implement things she's done at other orgs. So you'll spend your best effort collecting data and making a solid recommendation, only to hear - no, we're just going to do this/do it this way all while preaching agile, human-centered design. Do what I say, not what I do. Honestly the leader level down isn't much better because they can't influence or argue with her.