Lots of opportunity to learn and grow but terrible management and career development - Anonymous employee The Cools Employee Review

1.0
30 Jun 2018
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great downtown location, work hours are not too bad, flexible when it comes to working from home, co-workers are great, due to the small high-growth start up environment, you interact directly with execs, planning and execution happens quickly, you will wear many different hats and gain a lot of experience across the board.

Cons

Management and business model is always changing and the company has 0 company culture and 0 ethics when it comes to hiring and firing employees – turnover rate is extremely high. The overall atmosphere is very uncomfortable and everyone is always on edge due to the verbal insults that more often than not are thrown around in front of everybody. Does not feel like a start up should at all. They take advantage of employees who don't know their worth and are heinously underpaid for the value they bring to the company. You will do jobs out of your job description – it isn't asked of you, it's demanded of you. There are no systems in place and what is decided on the management level is almost never communicated to the rest of the company. Reviews are informal if nonexistent, you are there to do the work given to you even if sometimes it is out of your job description and your advice on how you can better the company aren't appreciated or accepted. There are ~10 people in the office and upper management does not care about who his employees are or what they do. There is a lot of micromanagement from the execs, they don't care about quality of work so much as they see you sit there and eat lunch at your desk and never take breaks. Management is racist, it is not a coincidence that every single person of color was let go. There is also a reason half the people who work there are freelance.

Explore other reviews about The Cools

5.0
13 Aug 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- ability to take on many different roles and experience different parts of the fashion and online publishing worlds - great LES, downtown location - Upbeat and fun executives - Flexible vacation and personal time - Creative environment - For self-driven people; you can make what you want out of your position

Cons

- Because a small startup, can lack some organization - Shifting business strategies

1
1.0
29 May 2014
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great soho location. Also, a lot of good employees there...too bad they're extremely undervalued

Cons

I would really recommend against working for this company! Unless you are completely out of options... The execs do not value their employees. This is the total opposite of the startup culture. If you're looking to work in a great startup environment, this is NOT it. You are expected to work long hours (10+hour days)...and there's constantly a culture of quantity over quality. THe place is ruled with fear... I have a collection of threatening and unprofessional emails sent from the execs to various people of the company...its kind of a running joke. The mood is always grim, as if anyone at anytime can leave. Turnover is VERY high at this company. The only great thing is there are some really great people working here, and we have the mentality of 'we're all in this together" and that's the only thing that makes the days bearable. Also... there's constant micromangement.... execs want to know what you're doing all the time. You spend so much time working on recaps and recap meetings, that you don't have time to do actual work!

7
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