Spoonflower reviews

2.8

28% would recommend to a friend

(91 total reviews)
avatar

George Chao

27% approve of CEO

23% positive business outlook

Spoonflower has an employee rating of 2.8 out of 5 stars, based on 91 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Spoonflower employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Manufacturing industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

91 reviews
2.0
Mar 23, 2021

Great people, toxic work environment.

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Without a doubt, the best part about working at Spoonflower is the people. Got a creative endeavor? They'll show up for you. Need help with a personal project outside of work? Someone there will either know how to do it or have resources to guide you. Fabric stipend is great if you use it.

Cons

Favoritism at Spoonflower is hard to get past. If one manager doesn't like you, you'll have problems. There was also a lot of confusion about job titles, who to turn to for help, and what best practices are. Many folks have their own specific ways of doing things, and will train others to do it that way as well. Work/life balance is hard to come by, you are somewhat expected to make work your entire priority and are rewarded for doing so. Those who have other things going on often found themselves on the outskirts despite doing a good job. I understand wanting your employees to be enthusiastic about their work but that is not all there is to life. This comes to play in advancement in the company as well. Starting out in operations, you feel pretty much stuck there unless you're wildly overqualified for another role or you make the role your entire life as previously stated. While there is emphasis on best practices, healthy lifting habits, and other safety measures, the end goal is ultimately yardage out the door. The pressure to work faster causes employees to do tasks quicker, not smarter. Management will swear up and down that they want you to be safe, but if being safe costs minutes of your time that could be used printing or cutting, you'll ultimately hear about it in a review. Pay structures need to be revisited. Operations and print staff should be paid more, hands down. They are physically demanding jobs that do end up hurting you at some point or another even if you do everything correctly.

3.0
Sep 9, 2020

Creativity or chaos? Depends on the day.

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Unique environment with lots of interesting, creative people who keep this place running some days through sheer passion and motivational alone. - Spoonflower has a flexible approach to internal movement within the company. A hard-working employee hired even at the very bottom can get opportunities for cross-training. Many longtime employees have served in multiple departments, bringing their unique perspective and experience along the way. - Two especially good benefits: solid health coverage and the creative allowance, which gives employees a monthly stipend for free fabric.  - This company has so much possibility and the future looks bright. The new CEO seems dedicated to making great improvements and fixing past inefficiencies.

Cons

- Pay adjustments need to be seriously considered. The pay on the operations side is embarrassing and it seems the only way to make a future here is to get transferred as soon as possible into an administrative role. This is strange considering this company is nothing without our print staff. There are also discrepancies in pay in various departments. And if you come up through operations, they will continue to underpay you even when you take the initiative and take on new responsibilities. Pay ranges need to be more transparent across the board. - Ergonomics and safety are not taken as seriously as they should be. For example, adjustable cutting tables, automatic cutters, or automatic rollers would be a huge benefit. There is always pressure to get stuff out the door as fast as possible and sometimes that is at the cost of their workers' backs. (Not in any malicious way, it just never seems to be a priority.) - There are many inefficiencies baked in to the “Spoonflower way”, which can make things vibrant and exciting or unnecessarily stressful depending on the day. Across the board, whether on the website or in the factory, there are plenty of times when following industry-standards instead of “how we have always done things here” would improve workflow or prevent some of the minor disasters that have popped up along the way. Much of the chaos I have witnessed could have been prevented if someone had been able to take the time to just fix the thing seven years ago instead of putting duct tape on it over and over again, metaphorically speaking. It is hard to work methodically when everyone is constantly putting out fires. - Even though the staff is packed with kind and thoughtful people, Spoonflower is full of cliques. While I love the progressiveness of the staff, that does not mean people are very welcoming. A lot of departments are very insular, self-protective, and not open to new ideas. There is a lot of internal criticism of other departments, which can make for a very toxic environment depending on which group you happen to be a part of.   - This company has a serious, serious lack of diversity on the admin side. Higher ups are finally taking this seriously but it is definitely a working progress.

4.0
Mar 22, 2017

Faced paced & unique

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

This company is staffed with smart, creative people, and it's connected to a huge community of makers and designers. It's a unique and interesting place to work. Benefits are good - health insurance premiums are covered by the employer, and an annual HSA deposit is provided as well. Management is very transparent about the state of the business, and is open to discussing any concerns or ideas with any employee.

Cons

If you're looking for clear expectations and stability, this is not the place for you. Spoonflower is still very much a startup in many ways- fast pace, constant changes, and no guarantees. Employees in all departments work beyond their job description to make things work, and it's not uncommon for employees to need to wear many hats.

Viewing 22 - 24 of 91 Reviews

Glassdoor has 98 Spoonflower reviews submitted anonymously by Spoonflower employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Spoonflower is right for you.