RH Reviews

Gary is a youth obsessed narcissist who leads based on his implusive instincts and pitting people against each other. He sends emails to his executives in the middle of the night on a weekend and publically berates anyone who does not respond right away. He is always on the outs with one of his executives but his target rotates creating an environment where there are secret alliances and sabatoge. Gary is regularly HOURS late for meetings. The group sits in a room waiting for him. Before my first Gary meeting I was told to drink something, eat something and go to the bathroom because I might not get a chance to do any of those for the next 4 or 5 hours. He has held hundreds of people hostage for hours on conference calls where he goes off on tangents that have NOTHING to do with RH. On one such call, he called customer service of some pricey watch company to complain and then humilate the customer service rep about a watch he bought for his girlfriend. There were over 200 RH staff listening to this call. It was atrocious behavior but not uncommon. At offsites employees are encouraged to get on stage with Gary and the Chief Store Officer and give a speech on why they love RH. Many of these speeches are teary stories about family members with serious illness, or growing up in foster care, even childhood abuse. When other reviews mention RH being cult-like, this is what they mean. Gary and Demonty LOVE this. The more tears from both men and women, the better. Gary's insecurities run so deep he needs to believe everyone worships him. He constantly boasts that he does not read books. He compares himself to Steve Jobs and Martin Luther King Jr.

Reviews that call RH a cult are true, as are the reviews that rave about the place. It's all of those things. Your experience will depend on who you are and what you're looking for. The people who seem to do best at RH are the ones who are always available, who can navigate the culture that is overtly made in the image of the CEO (which is to say, who parrot whatever the CEO says as if they said it themselves), who can recite every word of the vision, values, and beliefs, and who are comfortable wielding influence through fear. If you are invigorated by long hours, values meetings, and publicly pledging allegiance to Gary Friedman (and all of those things are OK if that's for you), you'll do well at RH. If you like stability, to have at least a general sense of what is going to happen tomorrow, space to speak freely without being immediately shut down, and going home at a reasonable hour without worry that you're going to receive untold number of texts and emails while you are with your family (and all of those things are OK if that's for you), RH is not for you.