Wayfair FAQ

Pros

Employee discount was nice at the time, free beer

Cons

Senior management, metrics, meetings, etc.

Pros

Pay: $15/hr for the first 3 months, $15.50 for the following 3 months, and after 6 months with the company is this position you should be making $16/hr. Growth in the company is usually selected within. Friendly coworkers/work environment. Working from home is amazing. Training is thorough, and assistance is always on call. Benefits are pretty decent, low co-pay, excellent Wayfair discount, and all insurance coverage (medical, mental, dental, vision, etc.) Fairly easy position when you get the hang of things.

Cons

Hours seem really long, at least to me. The friendliness from certain coworkers can seem like over-kill at times. If you are someone who enjoys pointless-middle-school-esk group activities, you'll enjoy the group chats; I don't care for them. The work environment is a little too childish for me, I would rather have a better work-life balance than an email on designing my own cupcake. Schedules are set, and to the best of my knowledge so far, are not very flexible. You can request days off, there is PTO, etc, but if your partner/friend/family has a different schedule than yours, you will never see them.

Advice to Management

Treat us like grown ups. My full-time job shouldn't be asking me to make a board of my interests to share with the class, it comes across as condescending. Also, let us treat customers the way they treat us. I don't enjoy babying 57 year old women who talk down to me about a problem I didn't create. Lastly, be more understanding of your MANY disabled employees. People work from home for a reason, because many of us are physically or mentally unable to leave our house. Be considerate in times when your disabled employees need accommodations. P.S. Your dress code is sexist. Not a single graphic, memo, etc was targeted towards cis-men. It sternly alerted us against short shorts (which you can't see because we're at our desk...), spaghetti straps, and low cut tops. Some of us live in Texas, or California, or any other HOT area. Maybe we don't have the privilege of a working A/C or maybe we want to wear what feels comfortable. If our shoulders or chest bother you, that's a you problem that you should probably talk to a therapist about. This rule was sexist in high school, and it's sexist now.

Pros

- Cool people - fitness perks - pension scheme - great team outings

Cons

- disappointing 'management' - incompetent guidance - sell down the river moments with management - some colleagues as well as management often acting ill and not showing up to work or team events (or after a long team event) I worked for CastleGate, a division of Wayfair. I was let go to my surprise one day after I came to work still sick and cuffing cause I didn't want to leave my team alone. I had a lump in my throat when I've opened the door to that tiny meeting room in the basement, where someone from HR would sit, ready to let me go. Several weeks before, I had a bad feeling already as management where looking for every crumb they could find, to be negative about my work, even though most of people enjoyed working with me. I brushed it off as if everything would be ok and fine. On the day it happened, I was told from management 'you're not a good Wayfair fit', which is in my opinion just a made up reason to let me go. I have build beautiful relationships throughout 1/3 of Wayfair people. The people in the basement said "Today is your last day, please pack all your belongings and give your laptop and badge to IT at 5pm. We will escort you out of the building." I felt like a prisoner. Overall, I felt like it was a personal decision from management rather than an objective decision. In the end, I am happy that I am not there anymore, however, not the way it went. I think, management knew I couldn't respect them, when they are doing things that are simply not respectable e.g. cancelling team events on the same day because they suddenly had a doctor's appointment, saying they will come to work at noon after a long and loose summer party and then changing their mind not coming at all, favouring certain colleagues in such a explicit manner amongst other things I've noticed. I miss the cool people sometimes but I'm still in contact with some. The resonance and encouraging words from so many people in different departments through various platforms after I left were overwhelming and showed, that I didn't do such a bad job as they wanted me to believe. Be critical and reflective but also ask for other people's opinion if not sure to draw a better picture. A pity how it went but a life lesson forever.

Advice to Management

Be there for your team for real! Only because we have the rule in Germany, that you still get paid when you are sick without holiday deduction, doesn't mean it's a free pass to not show up when you're able to!

Pros

The company offers competitive benefits and salary. They are consistently reevaluating the needs of their employees and adding things like Mental Health Awareness programs, Meditation blocks, vaccine time off, "Reset Days" which equate to mental health days, "Summer" Fridays (where we get to leave early based on where we're at in our metric structure), and offer fantastic health benefits that include gym membership assistance, medical, dental, vision, and mental health coverage. You can also opt into legal coverage, and other random things you wouldn't think of. All of this is provided in addition to a very generous amount of vacation days, holidays, and general base salary + commission. Now that I've gotten the pros on paper covered, I want to talk about the work environment and virtual experience. I was hired during the pandemic so I've only experienced the virtual aspect of the role. However, should you be offered a role that still reports to the office, you're looking at fully stocked kitchens (x3), beer fridges that open at 3pm, ping pong tables, meditation rooms, private conference rooms, and outdoor games/eating areas that are the ultimate dream. You also get to have pod-outings once a month where you and your team get to go out and do whatever's decided on, on the company's dime. Being virtual, however, has also been a baseline fantastic experience, and comes with wonderful perks as well. I've officially been here a year and was originally hired for a different position. During my first round of training, the trainers were attentive, compassionate, yet focused on driving results. Within your first month, they really tailor the training program to your needs and help you become successful. I know a significant amount of people who continue to reach out to their trainers because their experiences have all been outstanding. The commission structure, which is based on a variety of different metrics are all set to be competitive, but achievable, and in my experience, your managers are always willing to go above and beyond to make sure you're getting what you need to be successful. Virtual life is great, for those of you who can focus on work and still be in the comfort of your home. I definitely recommend having a separate space where you can close the door and limit distractions. I was personally provided with 2 monitors and a laptop, in addition to the hardware and keyboard/mouse. All you need is internet and a desk/chair. We still do pod-"innings" where they send us gift cards, either for food and/or whatever our activity is, and depending on your team, have happy-hour during them. We interact via chat, mostly, and will have meetings every morning. We also have things like private one-on-one coaching sessions, in addition to group sessions, and meet once a month to talk about our goals for the current or coming months. We, as an organization, are constantly evolving which means we'll have org wide learning sessions about things happening in the world. Wayfair also provides workout sessions via zoom for things like HIIT, Bootcamp, Meditation, and Zumba. Wayfair really pushes the "Work/Life" balance, but I have some words about that in the con's section as well. Ultimately, I've found myself to be quite happy here. If you enjoy customer-faced positions (which is where my perspective is coming from), Wayfair really has it all and truly makes you feel like you're part of one really huge, at times minorly dysfunctional family. I truly do recommend this company to anyone who asks.

Cons

My "Cons" list is fairly short, but I'll start with communication. As I mentioned in the "Pros" section, we are constantly evolving as an organization. Everything from making sure our minds are open to new perspectives, our metrics, our values (which stay consistent, but are refreshed based on the state of the world), and often the org structure in total, all ebb and flow from time-to-time. However, there is often a lack of communication when major changes are being discussed in upper management. As I mentioned earlier, I was hired for a different position, but 4 months into my career here, the organization changed it's structure. They told us appx. 2 weeks before the change occurred and I was put on a new team with new goals/metrics, and a new job description. I recall the trainers having a hard time with that as well since the new role wasn't clearly defined, and still, 8mo later, there are questions asked that should be fairly straight forward. When I met with the person who pushed for this change, they beat around the bush and didn't acknowledge what was being asked. Another instance of lack of communication was when the org was having tech issues all around and no one was answering our questions. As a virtual employee, this poses a HUGE problem for both my clients, as well as my personal metrics which my commission is based off of. It felt like a full day was wasted and again, there was absolutely no communication as to what was going on. I've found that communication is certainly an area of growth for Wayfair. Additionally, the position I'm in now has made it a bit harder for me and others to take time off work. In my previous position, if you took time off work, that day or week, etc. was calculated into your metrics so you weren't negatively impacted by the time you took off. In this role, that type of forgiveness doesn't apply. If you take time off, you should expect to make it up in the remainder of the month, or if it's something that's planned, plan for it in your daily goals to make sure you don't fall behind. It's rather unfortunate considering they promote a work/life balance, yet a one week vacation or unexpected leave can feel rather stressful when you know how much you're going to have to do when you get back. It's incredibly overwhelming. Overall, these are my only real pain points so I think that's a major plus.

Advice to Management

Communication is key. We all work towards one goal, making Wayfair one of the best companies to buy/sell from, and work for. It would be nice if conversations impacting us directly, could include us. Too often it feels like we're being told how grateful the company is to us, just to be put in a situation where we feel quite the opposite. Additionally, quota forgiveness for the BDR role would be an incredible bonus that would relieve a lot of anxiety and stress for a significant amount of people. Overall, I'm incredibly grateful to be working for this company, and appreciate everything you guys do to support your staff. Thank you!

Pros

Great insurance great pay even better staff

Cons

Nope non that I can think of

Advice to Management

Nope none that I can think of