Great Potential Spoiled by Poor Management - Designer American Crafts Employee Review

Where to begin? I would like to preface this by saying, it's actually hard for me to write this review. When I was hired, I was eager, excited, and ready for anything. But, almost three years in, I'm left disenchanted and disappointed. These are the cons of working for American Crafts. 1. Reactive vs. Proactive Management: I cannot express the level of frustration that comes with fixing problems that could have and should have been avoided. Unavoidable mistakes are one thing, but knowing something is wrong and doing it anyway to meet unrealistic deadlines is insanity. I guess the logic is, as long as we make more money than we lose, things are fine. But I can't help but think of how much better things would be if we just did it right in the first place, even if that means things take a bit longer. 2. Employee turnover: I would be really interested to know the actual company turnover rate. At some point you've got to ask, why do ambitious, talented employees keep walking away? Plus, when people walk, and they always do, this leads to increased stress and uncertainty among those who remain, leading to even more turnover. I truly believe that productivity and efficiency would be greatly increased if turnover wasn't so high. 3. Communication: The flow of information from upper management down needs improvement. It's difficult and frustrating to work on a project all day only to be completely redirected because of poorly communicated goals and expectations. This also applies to communication between departments. There's only a floor between them, but it may as well be an ocean. 4. Poor time management: I always dread quiet periods, because it means a storm is on the horizon. The workload is never steady. I understand that some things cannot be anticipated but, it would be nice to implement a schedule for working on future products and ideas (even if they do not come to fruition) because when the time comes, the framework is already in place, therefore drastically increasing productivity and efficiency. 5. Good employees in positions for which they are ill-suited: In this case, I am specifically referring to upper management. Without getting too personal, I'd like to say that my "manager" is brilliant, BUT, this person is not always considerate or receptive to the ideas and talents of others, and has very poor people skills, bordering on rude, condescending, and dismissive. While there's no denying that he's an asset to the company, this comes at the expense of other employees with the same level of skill and talent. 6. Upper management can be condescending: I don't want to give a personal example, for privacy reasons, BUT, I will use another review to illustrate my point. There's an unfavorable review a few posts down that lists the only pros as "pebble ice and free soda" then goes into laundry list of complaints. I'd almost written it off as an angry, disgruntled former employee UNTIL I read the snarky, condescending reply, "This review is TOTALLY not true. In addition to pebble ice and soda we also have popcorn." This kind of sums up my experience with the company. Ignore, gaslight, minimize, and trivialize issues and complaints. Then, when the employee finally "explodes" they're met with condescension or empty promises and insincere apologies. FURTHERMORE, I expect more from upper management. The initial comment is definitely childish, but so is the reply. Maybe even moreso because as upper management, you should be held to a higher standard. 6. Poor company/customer balance: The short version of this is that we never tell a buyer no, even if the request is unreasonable. I feel like we often underestimate our leverage and resources. We are a yes company, which is good to an extent, until it results in mistakes, poor quality products, or inability to meet ship dates and deadlines. It is very frustrating as an employee to work under stressful, crushing deadlines, only to be told that a retailer changed their mind after poor quality work has been put into production. 7. Chaotic work environment: I don't even know if this warrants a number, but it's something I really need to address. What American Crafts describes as fast-paced, is in my opinion, chaotic. There is a difference. Fast-paced is moving quickly through projects with processes that are supported by a strong foundation/infrastructure. Chaos in contrast, is finishing projects, usually of inferior quality, under stressful, uncertain, and often hostile conditions (because employees tend to get grouchy after a couple of frantic work weeks.) Poor work/life balance: This is complaint that also results in a lot of finger pointing/blaming. I've mentioned this to upper management before only to have it turned back on me. Yes, I should probably push back, and yes, I should just stop working when my eight hours are done, BUT, my personality does not allow that. When I do not meet the expectations given to me, I feel like a failure, whether the deadlines are manageable are not. I've spent a lot of time rethinking my own time-management skills, but I've ultimately come to the conclusion that there are not enough experienced team-members to handle the expected workload.