Wayfair Fails to Reinvent Warehouse Work Culture Despite Claims of Progressive Work Life
Pros
Working in a Wayfair warehouse was never dull and never boring. The physical nature of working in a warehouse that receives and ships furniture provides a great workout.
Cons
Wayfair implements inflexible SOPs within their warehouses. Standardized procedures are generally preferable because it gives the sense of 'across the board' fairness. Unfortunately Wayfair has warehouses that are all different sizes and shapes and this since the company is expanding quickly, a one size fits all approach can be detrimental depending on the layout/size/location of each warehouse. Because of the inflexible nature of onsite management, they went about managing like a script that cannot be strayed from and this prevented any employee suggestions for solutions to recognized 'problems' from being heard or considered. There were many days when an item received in the morning and was to be loaded in the evening were handled by multiple workers and moved to several different locations in the warehouse in that single day. There was also very little regard for safe practices with their heavy items (which is mostly what they deal with), again that part did not bother me as I enjoyed the exercise I received, but this contributed to the pervasive low morale and high turnover rate which always left the warehouse understaffed and this just continued the cycle of low morale and quick turnover.
