Times Are Changing - Employee Looking for A Way Out REI Employee Review

1.0
30 Apr 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Non management employees genuinely care about each other and the company but this is rapidly dissipating. The gear discounts are good at first but there is a point in time where you have all the gear one could possibly ever need not to mention that it is hard to afford the gear even at the discounted price. Remains a co-op...for now.

Cons

The Fairfax store, for many years, has been a home away from home and a place that you looked forward to the interactions of both employees and customers alike. Now, it takes every ounce of my being just to get out of the car and walk across the parking lot to work a dead end job where store moral has fallen off the table. Hours are cut during the slow periods to "meet business needs" all the while treated like a second class employee. Once business picks up, you are scheduled to the max of your availability and expected to care about a company that only a few short moths ago, cast you aside. Often times during this busy time you are scheduled six, seven, sometimes nine days in a row and if you speak up about it you are reminded how you wanted more hours. Employee turn-over is on the rise and there is nothing being done to retain the employees because management views you as expendable. The compensation and wage increases are a joke and are at the point of being just a notch above a slap in the face with no solid reason or goals of how you could do better and when asked how to make more money you are told to move up in the company but there is a lack of upward mobility and the "endorsement process" is a mythical process that has no guidelines. The endorsement process has lead to more departures of many, many high quality employees than is has seen promoted to the ranks of management. My advice to you is to seek employment with any other company but this one, if you are going to be treated like a second class employee, you might as well get paid more for it. There is a reason why this company dropped from a top 10 on Fortunes Top Companies To Work For list all the way down to 69th. The staff are crying out, lets not hope it falls on deaf ears.

Explore other reviews about REI

5.0
20 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Fun time with fun employees

Cons

Schedule was tricky to coordinate

3.0
20 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Excellent coworkers - REI does a great job of hiring enthusiastic and personable staff - Slightly better pay compared with other retail in the area - Prodeals and discounts - Flexible hours - Good (although rapidly diminishing) healthcare benefits

Cons

- Once a (better) company known for its investment in knowledgeable and friendly staff via extensive training and investment, the company has been slowly slashing away at most of what makes it special since the pandemic - Hours and benefits are worsening, proper employee training is becoming hard to come by - lots of mediocrity and sometimes questionable ethical calls made by management - Punitive disciplinary policies that seem to be designed to create higher turnover (advantageous to them given the gradual pay, benefit and policy changes)

4
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