My experience was one of “Deterioration” not “Rejuvenation”
Pros
Nice product Good company discount since Rejuvenation is part of Williams Sonoma - even though I rarely used it since the product was too expensive for me. Great teammates and some really amazing people. I do think the brand look is charming and root for its success! I did, after all, spend a good portion of my life and time trying to make it succeed - even if it felt like it was pro bono.
Cons
Understanding I am not alone in my opinion is what fuels me to share it. To echo the sentiment of some of the other reviews, I would caution anyone looking at a career at Rejuvenation. Since leaving, I have come to the realization that I was truly suffering - both mentally and physically. The inability to feel any control over the massive workload really took a toll on my health. I have since returned to "normal". Yet - as dramatic as it sounds, I still wake up in the middle of the night from nightmares about this place. It was the equivalent of being on a sinking boat and trying to bail it out with a bucket but made to feel stupid because you weren't trying to bail it out with a teaspoon. So when the powers that be tell you to use a teaspoon, you do (because when you recommended investing in a pump that could bail the boat out in a minute nobody was listening... literally not listening because they were on their phone looking down). And when you finally finish bailing out the boat WITH A TEASPOON you get in trouble because nobody even cared about saving the boat to begin with. Sound crazy? Welcome to "RJ". Oh... and next year they will ask why we don't have the pump. One of the things that really struck me about my experience was the emphasis on a "bottom-up" vs "top-down" culture - ie. it's up to the worker bees to significantly improve the work culture. This is not working (evidence = the other reviews here). Rejuvenation needs to stop telling its employees that it is up to them to not be miserable and invoke the change they need to see within the workforce. It is like telling someone who is dealing with depression to "just smile". I credit this phenomenon with a highly homogenous power structure. Those in the positions of power surely come from a “Williams Sonoma” background. While I appreciate the organization for promoting within, this also creates an incredibly singular view of what leadership is and looks like. A trajectory I observed: if you do one thing really good they will give you another thing on top of that BUT continue doing MORE of the other thing at an even more intense level. Repeat this process many times and you get promoted *eventually* or have a nervous breakdown and realize you have to leave because it is not sustainable for living a balanced life. Prove you can hold your hand on the stove for as long as possible and eventually they let you put both hands there. If your parents taught you to swim by throwing you in the pool and then you have kids and do the same thing, you are just continuing a cycle of abuse because that's “how it was for me.” Just because that was how it was for you does not mean it is right. I truly met some amazing people that worked at Rejuvenation - incredibly talented, kind people. With fresh hindsight, I worry for them all. If you are reading this and still work at RJ, please hear me: any job will have ups and downs BUT start to observe within yourself the consistency and severity of the downs you are experiencing - you don’t have to feel that way! The trial by fire needs to end at some point when you are a pile of ash.
