Pros
I worked at the corporate headquarters in Kent, Washington so my perceptions are based on that NOT working in one of the retail stores. Pros: - CEO -- I think Jerry has been and will be a good leader. The company needs a big shake-up and he has been laying that groundwork. - General sense of mission among employees; folks are passionate about the outdoors, being fit and active, and want their work to impact others who have the same outlook - Employee discount. It's very good. Flat rate discount on everything and direct-from-brand special, VERY deep discounts. Coworkers "over-bought" in my opinion because they could. Easy to watch your pay float right back to REI
Cons
Well, I have a few: - The company invests in their retail stores and are WAY behind in investment in technology and professional staff - Many people at corporate were promoted from the stores. That's nice but has led to something of a group-think mentality and not enough diversity -- in terms of experience -- among the corporate staff. Jerry knows this and has tasked leadership to make changes, but that's a slow boat to turn around and will take a long time to impact. - Marketing leadership. This was the division I worked in and I thought it was very poor. Related: HR. In the sense of professional development and coaching managers on how to set expectations to manage poor performers out of the company. At my exit interview, two different people from HR asked if the reason I was leaving was because of a leader in my org. If they know there's a problem, why hasn't a change been made? - Pay. Compensation is WAY below market rate. I, and seemingly everyone else, took a pay cut to work there and the employee discount certainly didn't make up for it.