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      American Crafts

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      American Crafts Reviews

      3.2

      46% would recommend to a friend

      (139 total reviews)

      Steve and Alma Mitchell

      67% approve of CEO

      35% positive business outlook

      American Crafts has an employee rating of 3.2 out of 5 stars, based on 139 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The American Crafts employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Retail and wholesale industry (3.5 stars).

      Reviews by job title

      139 reviews
      2.0
      6 Dec 2017

      Great Potential Spoiled by Poor Management

      Designer
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      In my opinion, there are only two perks that come with working at American Crafts. One is the talented, innovative, brilliant, caring, and conscientious people that make up the majority of the staff. Every day, I witness people working against unrealistic deadlines and expectations with patience and grace, almost always with a smile on their face. The second is the opportunity to learn, albeit by fire. There's usually not a gentle easing into something new, but one way or another, you learn. Depending on your personality type and experience, this could either be defined as challenging or stressful.

      Cons

      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.

      avatar
      American Crafts Response
      8y
      Thanks for taking the time to write a thoughtful review. It's obvious that you care and want to see improvements in our company. I do, too. (This is Grant, by the way.) You've worked for AC for three years. That's a long time. You sound frustrated and (in your words) "disenchanted and disappointed." I don't want the people who work in my department to feel that way. I wanted to address some of the points you brought up and invite further discussion, if possible... I agree that the best part about working at AC is the people. We have a lot of amazingly talented team members. In general, people work really hard and try to do a good job. I also agree that AC is a place that will stretch you. In the 11 years I've been with the company I've gained a lot of experience. Like you mention, a great deal has come from having to dealing with the unexpected. Lots of curveballs. We grew tenfold in the last 10 years. There have been a lot of bumps along the way, for sure. You mention 7 general issues your review. Please know that these matters are very important to me. They aren't foreign -- I'm well aware of the issues you bring up and have been working to fix them. It's a process. We have made many changes to try to address them over the years. We are doing things now to address them. And we've gotten better. But here's no question that we can still improve. Part of the problem with anonymous reviews like this is that to maintain anonymity you can't be overly specific. Many of the things you write lack just enough specificity that I don't know how to address some matters. For example, you wrote management knows "something is wrong and do it anyway to meet unrealistic deadlines." I don't think we do that, but not knowing what specific situation(s) you're talking about makes it hard to take action. Another example: you mention lack of communication between departments. I'm not saying it can't be better, but it does happen. Specifically, design holds coordination meetings with sourcing and marketing; marketing attends sales' weekly meeting; I see communication going back and forth in Asana all day long between departments; I attend executive meeting with department heads where we discuss issues and coordinate every couple of weeks. There's more than these examples, but those easily come to mind. These are the specifics of what we're doing at the moment. It sounds like it's not enough. But without specifics of what exactly you're experiencing that's frustrating you, I'm not sure what to change. Believe me, I'm more than happy to make more changes to improve communication. I set up the communication processes listed above to improve communication. I'm totally willing to change them or set up other processes that work better if you have a better idea. I really do want everyone on the same page. In your review, your advice to management is to talk to employees, take time to know our people, take a critical look at the organization, be honest with ourselves. Hear things that are hard to swallow. To get out of comfortable ruts. That greatness isn't always easy. It's great advice. I believe in all those things you suggest. Well, let's do this. I want to talk with you. To get to know you better. To hear the specific things you want fixed. Let's come up with a plan that addresses your concerns and I will make more changes. I'm totally serious. If you'll meet with me one-on-one next week, I am more than happy to listen to your feedback. The agenda for the meeting will be to walk through the 7 points you bring up in this review. We can discuss what we're doing right and is working and what needs fixing. I promise to listen to you, consider any ideas for improvement, and implement changes where we can improve. If you don't have any ideas, I don't care. Meet with me anyway so I at least know what specific things happened to you so I can try to keep them from happening. I swear there will be no negative fallout from you doing so. You have my word. Please send me an email and we'll set up a time. Too intimidating? Consider writing a letter with specifics and put it in the suggestion box or under my door. Again, there will be no repercussions or fallout, I promise. I really, honestly don't get mad when people share thoughts like this with me, so please, please, please consider it. If neither of those options work for you, you could also meet with HR to could maintain your anonymity. They can pass the feedback along. Believe me, I want my team to communicate well; follow the processes we've established and make new ones where needed; prioritize their time and be productive and happy so they want to stay here in the long term. I will keep working on it. Thanks again for taking the time to write your review.
      2.0
      21 Mar 2016

      Poor Management of growth

      Demand planner
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      Good People. Great learning opportunities. We learn from each other's mistakes. Because the company is growing, we're still doing a lot of things without modern systems, which is a great opportunity to learn things in detail the old way. Department has flexible work hours. Management is a solid team. Owners are not.

      Cons

      Owners work part-time. When they work, they use reactionary management. No culture, which means the company's culture is awful. A lot of blaming and finger-pointing and no training/teaching moments. Poor work/life balance. Most employees work overtime because the workload is unreasonable to accomplish in 8 hrs. No compensation for overtime. Overtime excepted of everyone. Management seeks to reduce workforce and increase workload of remaining employees without compensation and without investing in systems to automate work required. No recognition for good work done. They have a clutch award for 1 person every 1-3 months(As often as they remember to have a company meeting). But there aren't any incentives in place to motivate employees beyond just doing the minimum. No growth opportunities. No raises. Extremely high turnover- If you're one of the owner's good old boys, you've been around for a while. If not, then 1 year under your belt means you're a veteran of the company. The company doesn't seem, to value retaining quality employees. Within the last year period, there has been about 70% turnover. High demands without any recognition.

      avatar
      American Crafts Response
      9y
      Sounds like you aren't happy here (perhaps you've already left since posting this). There's zero nuance to your review and paints AC as pretty much all bad all the time. You review feels a little bit like you're taking potshots and it's also riddled with inaccuracies. I get that you are frustrated and upset, but it's easy to hide behind an anonymous review. In the interest of those who read this review, I'm addressing a few of the more egregious claims... - Looks like this review was written right as the CEO and VP of Operations were being replaced, so it's possible that some of the issues stemmed from that. - The owners work full-time, often putting in many hours outside the office that employees never see - My work-life balance has been very reasonable over the years and I manage a large team. I see the overtime reports and your assertion that most employees work overtime isn't accurate. - We do compensate non-salaried employees for overtime worked. - We do look for ways to automate - can think of three software systems we've implemented in the last six months to do just this - We give the Clutch Award every month, not quarterly. Additionally, we hand out gift cards to employees and there are bonuses given to employees - We do give raises - There was never 70% turnover of employees - We actively seek out feedback and learn from employees, routinely revise and improve processes - your assertion that we're against process improvement is total bunk
      1.0
      11 Dec 2017

      LOOKS GOOD FROM THE OUTSIDE BUT A MESS ON THE INSIDE.

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      Great coworkers. That's about all I can say about this company.

      Cons

      Horrible management that is completely top heavy. Lots of over-worked employees. Confusing structure. Not family friendly. Awful communication. It's an overall disappointing company.

      avatar
      American Crafts Response
      8y
      Sorry to hear that you are frustrated about your situation at American Crafts. The review you left is long on criticism but short on details, making it difficult to make specific improvements. Here is some response to the accusations, an attempt to provide specific information to those who may come across the review down the road. 1. Horrible, top-heavy management. Saying the management is unilaterally "horrible" isn't really a helpful critique. Are some managers better at managing than others? Yes. Do managers need more training? Yes. This is something the company is addressing in 2018. As far as the management being top-heavy, the approach that's been taken is to try to limit the number of direct reports mangers have to allow them to provide good oversight and direction. Additionally, everyone should keep in mind it's necessary to have stratification in a company to offer opportunities for advancement. The key is to have balance and not overdo it. Management at American Crafts makes up about 10% of the company, which is considered reasonable in most industries. 2. Over-worked employees. I have access to the overtime reports for my department of more than 90 employees. It shows that AT MOST about 4 people a week log overtime. When they do it's typically less than 3 hours of overtime. This has proven consistent across all of 2017. I can't speak for other departments, but the data available to me show that about half the company consistently works a very reasonable 40 hours a week. That's not to say that the reviewer doesn't have a situation outside of this data set. 3. Confusing structure. In the design department we are organized in a rather straightforward matter. There's an executive position, a senior creative director, creative directors, art directors, senior designers, designers and production assistants. Each position reports in teams of 2-5 people organized by either brand or clients. Maybe it's more confusing in other departments? 4. Not family friendly. I personally have found American Crafts to be a very family friendly place to work. Again, that's not to say that the reviewer hasn't had a different experience or has an unspoken expectation that equals "family friendly" to him or her. Most of the managers and owners are parents of small to teenage children and are very understanding of and place a high importance on family. Some examples of what makes American Crafts family friendly in my view : we offer flexible start hours so parents who want to arrive later in the morning have time to drop off kids, etc. We offer family health and dental plans. Managers are lenient in terms of schedule so people can live their lives - make appointments, attend children's performances and sporting events, etc. Employees are encouraged to take the PTO they earn and spend time with family. We invite children to come trick or treating in the office at Halloween time. Although legally bound to do so, AC happily accommodates nursing mothers and time taken to have a child. I've personally seen the owners and other managers reach out to employees who have experienced extreme family tragedies with support in the form of meals and time off with pay in addition to moral support. When my daughter was run over by a car, for example, I felt nothing but support from the organization. 5. Awful communication. It would be helpful to have more detail from the reviewer to understand what is frustrating regarding communication. Communication is never perfect in any organization. And there's no question AC can improve its communication efforts. But there are ongoing efforts to communicate what's happening at the company, the CEO's vision, goals and objectives, successes and failures. We instituted a company project/task management system two years ago to improve communication and better keep people in the loop. While not perfect, it has definitely helped. We will continue to try to improve in this area because of its importance.
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      Glassdoor has 149 American Crafts reviews submitted anonymously by American Crafts employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if American Crafts is right for you.