Demeaning and Fearful Work Environment, Paired with Lack of Company Vision and Leadership
Pros
• Work directly with large, well known clients • Work directly with factories in China • Made great connections and relationships with other employees • Never a dull moment; You'll have an eternal source of mind-boggling drama and stories to laugh about with other associates • You can wear whatever you want • The view is actually very nice • There’s a dog
Cons
• Owner is two-faced and will say anything to appease you. She puts on a great show at first, but that’s all it is. She’ll lead you to feel as though you can trust her, and the direction of the company in the beginning. But, in reality, you're either shamelessly criticized behind your back, thrown under the bus, or even (best of all) attacked on a personal level. • Never felt truly valued by upper management. Felt taken advantage of, and taken for granted. • Because many employees fear being yelled/berated/punished by the owner, she really has done a stellar job at creating a toxic work environment. Many employees resort to finger pointing, playing the victim and will try to rope as many other (irrelevant) people into their projects as to not be held accountable for their own actions. • Ridiculous hours with no extra compensation unless hourly. • Company has poor relations with many factories and vendors in China/overseas due to generally dishonest business practices. • No growth potential/ trajectory for advancing within the company. Employees have to literally beg for a review of performance and compensation. • Squandered design talent. Why bother hiring passionate, excited designers when you won’t let them do their job and give free range to innovate? Demanding your designers to literally copy Tumi bags seam for seam is depressing and insulting. • If you googled the definition of “micromanagement", under examples it would read: “Your entire career at Fabrique”. I never knew the full extent that someone could micromanage an employee, but I sure found out at Fabrique. It’s actually kind of impressive; the limit of possibilities does not exist. • Owner preaches the importance of teamwork and communication between departments and offices. However she only done the opposite by talking out of both sides of her mouth and dividing the company even further. • Everyone is expected to do a little bit of every job. Yes, it’s a small company however it’s an ineffective use of employees time, and a waste of their specialties and expertise. • You will learn bad work ethic and shady business practices that won’t fly at a legit company. • Alarmingly high turn over rate— about 20 employees have left or (on rare occasion) been fired in my time here… Well at least you get to meet new people every month! • Owner plays favorites — but don't worry you’ll be alright as long as you laugh at her awkwardly timed and typically off-colored jokes. • What is human resources.