Pros
Slumberkins is a children’s wellness brand centered around fictional characters in the books by the two founders, Kelly and Callie. Each character and story is aimed to help young ones work through challenging issues from bullying to loss. It was easy to fall in love with the mission of the company. Slumberkins mostly sells stuffies and books but is branching out into using its characters for creating content. The books are well done with positive messages for kiddos of all backgrounds. The brand focuses on social and emotional wellness and practices those beliefs within the company. Everyone there was so nice and helpful as well as being super talented. I felt like the culture in Slumberkins was positive and supportive. Because the company is mostly remote, the health benefits were stellar (PPO) and the other benefits were really nice, aiming at supporting the people. Those of us who had to go into the office were presented with a selection of snacks and drinks which was a nice touch. The office was clean but cozy. Desks were set up to allow anyone to connect their laptop to a monitor, keyboard, and mouse. It was nice to not have assigned seats and have us able to float around as needed.
Cons
In July of 2022 they unexpectedly laid off what felt like half the company without notice or conversation. This was unfortunate as it left those of us laid off abruptly without a plan to grab our files for our portfolio for future employment. For a wellness company, it did not feel like it was handled gracefully and with care. I was warned during the hiring process that “Slumberkins is a start-up” and I should have understood at that moment that it meant that a mass layoff was possible. The office was in downtown Vancouver WA with limited parking. During the hiring process, applicants are asked to do two personality tests: PRINT and Kolbe. These scores, they say, aren’t used against you but will constantly come up in meetings in regards to your working style and what you’re capable of doing and not doing. There were times when I wondered if I was working for or in a cult. At least it was a friendly cult.