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Retailer Web Services

Is this your company?

It's like a cult - Anonymous employee Retailer Web Services Employee Review

1.0
Nov 16, 2014
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Day is over at 4:30. Sometimes free food (breakfast once per week, froyo runs). Private office.

Cons

The business is run by a brother and sister, and their mom and dad used to be actively involved in the business. They play favorites and make little effort to hide it. There are no opportunities for career advancement except occasional small incremental raises that are more like celebrations of your loyalty than a nod that you've gotten better at your job. You're just expected to be content with your position and never want to go beyond it because there are no positions for you to grow in. Asking about advancement or moving into another position was met with hush hush noises. They say they're "like a family", but they have a strict line of rules and process of how things are done that's less like a family owned business and more befitting of a large company with tons of internal politics that clogs up the pipe. Managers would selectively micromanage rather than lead or manage. The managers themselves, especially some of the customer account managers, aren't as knowledgeable at their jobs as the people under them which made their attempts to micromanage harmful. Lunch was expected to be taken for 45mins in between 11 and 1. I personally was looked down upon by others for choosing to spend my lunch hour going out to lunch and eating food at a restaurant instead of getting take out and bringing it back to eat with everyone else. I had to ask permission to leave and get something besides water at other times of the day. Their "information architect" is a smoker who has a poor attitude. She was treated like a first class citizen taking as many smoke breaks as she wanted. People walked on eggshells around her while the rest of us were treated like a lower class. They would have "mandatory fun time" (their exact words) where you would have to leave your office and gather in the tiny break room for an hour or so during which you would be peer pressured to drink alcohol even if you didn't want any. If you were in the middle of something important, you were expected to be there. (Salaried employees who had things to do with actual deadlines were simply expected to stay later.) The websites and technology behind them is incredibly outdated. They constantly upsell themselves and have meetings where employees get told about how great the company is, but their product boils down to providing clients with outdated websites.

Explore other reviews about Retailer Web Services

5.0
Nov 19, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Work with a great team. Not much bureaucracy. Work from Home. Developers are treated well. Promote from within. Benefits have improved over time. Light touch approach to management.

Cons

Developer teams are sometimes siloed. A fairly flat organizational structure means there are fewer opportunities for promotion.

1.0
May 13, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great coworkers who were always happy to help

Cons

Leadership is willing to break agreements, lie to employees, treat employees differently based on location, make promises they can’t keep, and fail to adhere to the principles they promote. Employee turnover was ~25% in 2023! In other words, RUN FOR THE HILLS! When the job market was good, they promised the dev team that they wouldn’t need to go into office. That was a lie. When RWS was bought out by NMG, they told us they would give us raises. They cancelled that. They demanded all locals return to office, yet keep hiring remotely. They continually promised merit increases, but when the time came, they told us they were delayed again and again. It was like working for Darth Vader. “I have alerted the deal, pray I don’t alter it any further.” Things just got worse and worse and worse. Don’t have hope for the future, either, they will continue to upset and lose clients. They will continue to take it out on employees. Avoid RWS at all costs, you will be used and abused until they encourage you to leave. There’s a reason the company had something like a ~25% turnover rate in 2023.

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