Years of poor leadership has come to roost - again - Anonymous employee 4moms Employee Review

2.0
May 23, 2023
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There are some great everyday employees here, they have a great couple innovative products, and a recognized brand in the industry.

Cons

Yet again, leadership has failed the people and company. 1/3rd of the company has just been laid off. It's the second major round of layoffs in the company's short history. The first time 75% of people were laid off. This is following years of dysfunction, poor leadership, bad exec hires, and a steady stream of people constantly exiting the company. Exec were notorious - disrupting everyone's work, never making decisions, micromanaging, showing little respect or trust, and just lacking in general effectiveness. Execs were generally considered a barrier to progress vs. a support and guider. The worst part is there is - or was - a ton of extremely smart talented ambitious people and the atmosphere just ends up killing their spirit. 4moms had a couple chances now to be a great company, but now, in the second generation of leadership, it's continuing its legacy of great potential that was squandered. It’s honestly a shame.

Explore other reviews about 4moms

5.0
May 9, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

nice office, good location, good food

Cons

acquired by new co, poor parking

2.0
Jul 5, 2016
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- High bar for talent. Only the best-of-the-best get in at contributor and line-level management roles - HR and vision&values team tries hard to do fun things for employees - 2x week catered lunch (usually with mountains of leftovers) - Upbeat and culturally-relevant brand - one great product (mamaRoo) and a few ok products (breeze, high chair, infant tub)

Cons

- Lack of direction in all disciplines. A team this talented shouldn't have trouble executing a vision and plan. The problem is, there was never a clear vision or plan. Somehow individual products were expected to cover over reckless spending. - No plan means nothing was ever truly prioritized (or de-prioritized). Consequently every one thing was as important as the next and every one thing was as urgent as the next (i.e. not even "controlled" chaos) - The voice of more experienced employees is continuously ignored - The CEO and senior management often eschews discussions on process as "destroying the culture" and "stymieing creativity", when in fact it seems to have been used as a way to never be held accountable for making good decisions (financially, organizationally, etc...) - Handwave-y surveys and town halls to get feedback from employees but the issues with the largest magnitude are never addressed (CEO micromanagement, no negotiation of product requirements on first launch, no clear product development process) - The "Words We Live By" are great, but we gradually stopped holding each other accountable for actually living them.

14
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All