Build-A-Bear Reviews

- No work/life balance. All of the executives work 60-70 hours a week, and they expect you to as well. That is fine if you are making $500,000/year like they are, or if they rewarded employees for hard work. But non-management staff is paid very poorly, and it is almost impossible to get an adequate raise. - VERY high turnover rates due to this fact, leading employees to quickly get burnt out. This makes job continuity impossible. Some departments have had 50-60% turnover rates the last few years, but because the manager of those departments is considered a "favorite", nothing is ever done and the departments just end up being revolving doors. - There is no communication between management and non-management staff. Employees often find out about major company events and plans through press releases. It makes it extremely hard to get behind company initiatives when you do not know what they are. - Upper-level management has been entrenched and surrounded with "yes-people" for so long that there are no checks and balances within the company. This is concerning because every executive has been with the company since it began, so there no one in a leadership position that has been in the outside business world in the last 15 years. - Morale at headquarters is much lower than the Best Places to Work awards would indicate. Most of the votes for this award come from the store level, not from HQ. If you look closely at that list, BAB does not offer the majority of the benefits that the other companies do. - It often seems extremely random how the company chooses to spend their money, and their seems to be no rhyme or reason to most of it. One minute they are eliminating positions or not replacing employees, and the next they are giving millions of dollars to consulting company's that don't end up providing any benefit to the company after they are gone. I used to work on some projects with the IT department, and it is honestly scary how short staffed they are, and how few people they have trying to keep the critical computer systems up and running.

The executive, regional and HR leadership are all so fake. They will do just about anything (but actually pay you well) to get you in the door. As a district manager you have no control over running your business. They won’t let you write up or formally coach any employee, even a part time employee for attendance. Everything, and I mean literally everything must be approved by the head of HR. The store manager and DMs do not have any control over how much you can pay associates. They want to pay $8.00 an hour and then get upset when stores can’t staff. For store managers they make you take some crazy test and pay an arm and a leg for some crazy psychologist on hand to evaluate the results. She says over 70% of people who are assessed fail, yet she gets money every time she evaluates someone..... sound like a conflict of interest? There is no Loss prevention team and employees are stealing the company blind. Fraudulent returns, missing cash, merchandise and drugs being traded inside bears, yet no one at Corporate thinks there is an issue. Was told once that the company will never have an LP department because it “looks bad” in such a “fun” environment. Truth is, they are too worried about lining the executives pockets. Now you’re putting stores inside Walmart’s so customers can pay $30 for a bear at a value price store? Why not go down the toy aisle and buy one for $5. The stores are sinking big time. Traffic is down. Employees are leaving in droves.