All Fluff, No Substance (or Respect) - Anonymous employee Build.com Employee Review

1.0
14 Nov 2014
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

A fun atmosphere, for the most part. They provide free food and coffee, as well as perks for meeting goals (though those are vanishing at a rapid rate). Provided you fit into their narrowly defined 'culture', there's great opportunity to advance.

Cons

I've worked here for a long time, and I used to adore it. It was fun, I enjoyed my coworkers, and felt I could trust my managers to have my back and see to my needs. The past couple of years have seen a drastic shift, and not in a good direction. I personally have been the victim of bait and switch for job positions, promised raises and compensation that were never supplied (they didn't inform me of this, either, I found out that I was getting a much smaller raise than they told me when I got my next paycheck), expected to do work above my pay grade with no compensation, and both micromanaged and treated in a hands-off manner by managers. Getting a raise here is like pulling teeth. The pay isn't great to begin with, and HR doesn't seem to believe in cost of living adjustments. Build.com is very clique-ish. If you know the right people, and are in the right circles, you can do no wrong. There is a group of long term employees us peons refer to as 'the untouchables'; friends of the CEO and executives that are protected, have every mistake covered for, are given a new position instead of a pink slip when they preform poorly. Trying to do something about one of these people (mostly management) can get you in trouble...I know of a few people who voiced complaints and were promptly fired. For a company who has 'Own It' as one of their values, they sure do like to shift the blame. All in all, the management here is entitled, unprofessional, and will take advantage of their employees at every opportunity. Nepotism is rampant, accountability is a joke, and don't be surprised if you're expected to sacrifice a pay raise for the sake of the awesome 'Build.com culture'.

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Build.com Response
11y
Thank you for the compliments in regards to having a fun culture. In regards to the other challenges you've been experiencing, I apologize and would like to address them. First, things have changed ALOT in 5 years. We're about 4x the size, and with size comes additional complexity. It looks like you don't feel as if you were adequately served as an employee through this process. To address your concerns: 1. I'm sorry about your challenge with your direct management. One of the challenges we've had with growth has been a lot of management turnover. Since we like to promote from within, many of our managers are inexperienced so I can't refute or confirm some of your complaints but I'm sorry your experience wasn't positive recently. 2. Yes, getting cost of living raises are tough here. We're big on career progression and moving very fast. For those that remain in the same position over time, we know we need to work on being more proactive at rewarding individual contributors. 3. I'm sorry that your attempts at getting ahead here were not successful. We have a really observable track record of advancement from within. Some of which are people I don't personally spend much time with outside of work. I'm sorry your perspective is otherwise. 4. Part of having a fun and informal culture can often be seen by others who appreciate a more professional culture as a unprofessional. I'm sorry your experiences with management here have came off as unprofessional. While I don't agree with all of it, I appreciate your candor, and we'll continue to work on hearing more about what we're doing wrong and how we can do a better job.

Explore other reviews about Build.com

5.0
18 Nov 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The most transparent and supportive company I've ever worked for. Generous with bonuses and raises. Management will support your growth within the company and paint you a path to get where you want to go

Cons

There isn't a single con that I experienced except for how I was let go. Recent raises, praises, never took a day off and even corporate recognition only a few weeks before my firing.

3.0
6 Aug 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

My manager is excellent. She promote work life balance and the inclusiveness of the team. She understands that life happens and something’s are beyond our control. She encourages honest opinions and frustrations to be shared so she can do what she can to help with that. The pay is decent but does not equal the amount of work on a daily between excessive emails and 40 plus calls a day. Working remote is a plus as a single mother with very little help it allows me to get my kids on and off the bus and take them to appointments as needed. There is a lot of internal support in the form of share point.

Cons

Now to the bad. There seems to be very little upward mobility for long time employees. There are a lot of recent changes occurring with the merging of Ferguson and not all of it is good. The showroom employees are not on the same page as we are on how certain returns work and that causes a lot of confusion and discord with the customers which those of us on the phones have to deal with. There is plenty of lateral movement but that would require having to go to a whole new manager and start over learning their way of doing things. The same expectations are not across the board in all departments as far as responding in a timely manor to direct messages or even responding at all. CE is the low man on the totem pole and made to feel that way with the daily operations and not given the same respect as others in the company. The shift bid process is arcane and should be based off of seniority not KPI. All of the calls do not require “qualifying”. We have to deal with a lot of rude entitled customers when telling them no to something just to pass them over to OOTP and they get their way anyway 9 out of 10 times. And most importantly they changed over the phone system and Genesys is awful. Multiple dropped calls daily and zero visibility for our daily adherence to make sure we are on track to stay within our 85% required schedule. I am very good at my job I used to enjoy being able to fix the complex issues I come in contact with daily and now it follows me to bed worrying what’s coming next.

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