Swoon Reviews

2.7

42% would recommend to a friend

(60 total reviews)
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Brian Harrison

43% approve of CEO

26% positive business outlook

Swoon has an employee rating of 2.7 out of 5 stars, based on 60 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Swoon employee rating is 24% below average for employers within the Retail and wholesale industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

60 reviews
4.0
Sep 25, 2018

Would recommend to work here

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

You are encouraged to come to work as yourself, there is no imaginary line at the front door where you have to hang up your home life and put on work life for 8hrs everyday. Being comfortable in your surroundings and making actual friends rather than just work friends made Swoon the best office environment I have ever worked in.

Cons

Due to rapid growth in 2017 the company has been split between two office locations for over a year, albeit only 10min walk apart, it still had the effect of distancing the teams. For a small company that still encounters its fair share of challenges, I believe this has had a large impact on productivity and in hindsight would have liked to be managed a lot better.

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Swoon Response
7y
Thank you for writing your review, your feedback will certainly be noted and we're looking forward to all being under one roof again now that we've finally found the right space, having worked across the two offices for longer than we'd hoped! Thank you again! Ruth
1.0
Mar 21, 2016

Aggressive culture permeates from the top down

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Incredibly fast growth, if you can keep up. Most people can't. You'll learn a lot along the way. Most individuals are generally genuine and become instant friends.

Cons

It's bad when 99% of the company becomes afraid the moment management is "in the room." You don't know if you're about to receive a genuine complement, or the biggest "anger storm" of your life. Leads to many sleepless nights. Wages are far below industry norms. Considerable drug problem that management has attempted to curb, but it's still apparent. There's a "rat problem" where rodents tend to move into the office. Food (and liquids) have been banned on several occasions for months at a time. This has had a large, negative impact on some of the youngest employees who make minimum wage. Don't expect to get any shares in the company. The contracts are written in such a way that you won't. Ever. There have been many waves of firings, due to bad financial planning at the highest level. Most "actions" are focused on creating value today, rather than on long term growth. At least half of the employees are interviewing for new positions. I'd only advise young people to go to Swoon for a "career launch," where they'll need to learn a lot, fast. Seems like senior individuals receive 100% scrutiny from day one, and most new hires churn.

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Swoon Response
10y
Thanks for taking the time to write a review and for the feedback you’ve provided. I’m sad to hear that your experience of working for us has not matched our intention to create a great environment for everyone we employ. Getting this right matters a huge amount to me, so please rest assured I am taking your comments very seriously. The growth of the company over the last four years has been driven by the enthusiasm and commitment of the exceptionally talented people who work for us. Together we have achieved a lot. I would love to speak to you in person about your comments if possible. Alternatively, please feel free to speak to your manager, or send me an email anonymously if you’d prefer. I do want to address a few points directly: Remuneration: We benchmarked our wages against other startup companies last year, and we offer comparable salaries. We offer a discretionary EMI option scheme for employees. Roles: We are always looking for ways to grow and to develop our staff. Occasionally we have roles that are no longer needed. Where possible we see if there are new roles those staff can move to. Work environment: The pest control problem we had last year has now been resolved. We banned food from the office for a limited period of time on the advice of the pest control consultant. During this period all employees were allocated a £7.50 daily allowance to buy lunch and refreshments. If you did not claim for these we’d be more than happy to process this for you now. Many thanks again for your feedback. I hope to hear from you, but regardless, I am going to look at ways in which we can address the concerns you raise for the benefit of everyone. Regards, Debbie
1.0
Jan 19, 2019

Unprepared and chaotic

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

They talk a good game and give the impression they are an amazing, inclusive company who value the "humans" they employ.

Cons

Company hired 50+ people from October as a drive to expand into physical retail. The three months working for the company were chaotic and it was made very clear they had done no research into how to operate in this new way. After only three months the company decided to backtrack, cut 40 jobs in a 6 min phone call by listing off stores which will now be closing. Shocking mismanagement and lack of care.

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Swoon Response
7y
Thank you for your feedback. As a company, we've had to review some of our initiatives and make some difficult decisions about their future. Due to the current retail environment, we needed to react fast and change our strategy in order to continue to make them work for the longer term. We appreciate that this is a difficult time for all involved, so we took the view to tell everyone as soon as possible. If you'd like to speak with me about anything personally, please don't hesitate to contact me. Ruth
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Glassdoor has 62 Swoon reviews submitted anonymously by Swoon employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Swoon is right for you.