John Florin

Pearls Before Swine Design work keeps growing with little to no support from PD; despite having a PD team, as a designer I did most of my own PD. There are few processed in place to streamline work or improve efficiency. Management wants to develop samples at anytime in the development timeline with impunity, but it doesn't work that way and design/PD is not setup to run that way either. Every person for themselves culture- especially if you don't drink the koolaid. Double standards! Some employees get to work from home or leave/come in late when their kids need to be taken care of, but others are harassed for not being at their desks by 9am regularly. Old School mentality. Management would rather focus on checking to see if people are at their desks by 9 am than if they are competent at their jobs or even have enough work to do. I often spent weeks with little or no work to be done due to being poorly managed. No one wants to remember the times you stayed late to meet a deadlines or help out, so trust me, don't do it. Employees are infantilized at every opportunity. Company goes out of its way to keep employee roles loosely defined so that people end up doing work outside of their roles with no plan to ameliorate them. This also leads to management doing too much work and subordinates with not enough work. No investment in design and design department is totally mismanaged, under utilized, and undervalued. Feels like they have designers because it is a necessary evil and they need CADs. I don't think that management understands how to run a design department and the irony is they are wasting a lot of money because of it. Employee reviews are a joke. There is no plan to see people get promoted and grow and there is no criteria for getting a salary raise. No talk about your future role in the company. No HR department. Literally just one person processing paper work and keeping track of your vacation days. No sourcing department. Had to source most materials and components myself. Management was constantly making us change factories and as a result we had been drop by 2 because of all the hand holding we required vs. ROI. Also design could not develop good relationships with vendors because we were over developing for the showroom and didn't have big orders after. I was constantly embarrassed on behalf of the company when communicating their demands, knowing full well it was an abuse of the vendors goodwill. Nepotism During summer Fridays, employees can come in at 8am and leave at 4pm... Not really a benefit... Management is a parent/boomer club. There is a fear that if they need help or teach/mentor anyone they will lose their jobs. No one under 40 has a a voice or credibility. You are just there to be a work robot (at least in design). This company is a discounter, mass market product maker. This is not a negative, but they are unable to understand how to grow a brand. Logo slapping is rampant. If it sells, they will make it, regardless of a brand licencee's ethos, aesthetics, or directives. They figure no one will complain when they get their royalty check, and I found that attitude deplorable. Company only cares about money above all else. Anyone doing business with this company or in the employ of this company is urged to understand this is the basis of all their decisions, even if it means operating illegally or immorally. One maxim that was often repeated around the office by management is 'ask for forgiveness not for permission'.