Ikea Sydney - Anonymous employee IKEA Employee Review

2.0
7 Aug 2013
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Most of the time easy going environment. An opportunity to travel and work in other IKEA stores around the world. Solid career opportunities provided that you are having your lunch with the right people in the coworker's cafeteria.

Cons

*Coworkers restaurant is full of unpurchased food from customer's restaurant. Some of it not fresh and there is a possibility of getting a food poisoning or a diarrhea so better look carefully. * The notion of a decentralized culture has a drawback in the form of panic and fear of someone capable being a part of the organizational workforce. The idea here is to hire only people without critical thinking who can be pushed around. So if you want to drastically improve your chances of being promoted or hired you have to appeal to the HR by showing poor reasoning skills, emotional insecurities, lack of confidence. * The subsequent issue is those individuals end up being in Team leader/ Managerial positions, which in turn reinforces new waves of hiring of alike candidates, as they are unable to coordinate capable individuals. * Another subsequent issue is it takes ages to get anything done, while I was there it was tempting to snitch to WorkCover (Australian OHS Authority) about the obvious safety problems and hazards. You have to threaten the relevant coworkers with legal responsibilities in order to get hazards removed/being dealt with. *I am not sure if that a common Swedish practice but announcing long in advance that you are going to do an audit at a given store is defecting the purpose of doing an audit. The employees are openly being trained for an audit by their managers: what to say, how to say and so on. Eventually the auditors are ecstatic to conclude their visit with a report where they state that the culture is alive in a given store. The hypocrisy is at very high levels.

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5.0
25 June 2026
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CEO approval
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Pros

Good place to work in

Cons

Sometimes on call and weekends and nights work

4.0
1 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I have a very empathetic and flexible manager. Although I do meet the requirement to be in office three days a week many others do not and don’t seem to suffer for it. My work can be challenging at times, but due to the slow pace of most things here I rarely feel overwhelmed.

Cons

This is, without equivocation, the most sclerotic organization I have ever been a part of. The management structure and reporting lines are inscrutable and even after 3 years I barely understand how my team fits into the larger picture. My job is a data role, and although getting access to data has improved somewhat, it is still one of my biggest blockers.

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