Design Within Reach Reviews

Horrendous management. Zero checks and balances. Understaffed. Lacks self-awareness as a brand. Lacks diversity in choosing designers to collaborate with. Extremely micro-managed. Lacks trust in their employee's skills and talents. Does not provide a work environment that gives employees the opportunity to do what they are good at and hired to do. No opportunities to grow professionally. Plays favorites and likes to phase out employees they don't like. Fifthly, unclean office. Does NOT recycle.

-Pay structure: a meager base pay is provided, not enough to live on. Commission is paid on shipped sales once an average base of $32k is met. On months where you can't manage to meet that mark, you will not be able to survive if you are living alone in a major city with a high standard of living. Personal commission (not pooled). Everyone is clawing at one another to get to customers and stealing sales. Having to assist a coworker's client when they are out takes you away from making your own sales goals and creates animosity. When you click on the "salary" section on this site, be sure to notice the fine print stating the % below average that this company pays. LISTEN THE OTHER REVIEWS THAT ARE STATING THIS. -Marketing and outreach: because of the over staffing and lack of foot traffic, there is a heavy emphasis on spam mailing or cold calling past shoppers. The mentality is " they made a home decor purchase a year ago, why have they purchased anything since?". 1. Furniture is a luxury good not often purchased as frequently as clothing. 2. When you sell quality, there's no need to purchase a replacement for it right after. 3. That's harassment and pushes people further away. A couple of instances I received angry responses, one of them threatening to contact the FTC. The clients you are asked to contact are already on the company marketing mailing lists to begin with. -Schedule: depending on the location, the hours of operation may be tolerable however you will often be asked to come in 30mins-1 hour early or on your day off for training. The company pays all Account Executives equally for a 40 hour week, regardless of what you work. This is also problematic given that the company may regularly schedule you to work a day that the store is closed for a government holiday, without further compensation but while allowing some employees to work a 4 day week while you still have to work 5. Given the consistently low pay, it may also be necessary to obtain a second job but you will most likely be unable to do so, working 9-6 or 10-7, 5 days a week. You have vacation days but take them and be prepared to feel the financial pain. One coworker took a week off 2 months ago and he still can't get caught up in his sales goal. Another coworker comes into the showroom 7 days a week in an attempt to stay above water. We all work from home when we have our scheduled days off. -Delivery and lead times: The company prides itself on making "authentic modern design attainable by all" but the reality is that maybe half of the products are in stock, the rest may take 2-15 weeks for delivery. Top that with orders being delivered damaged or delayed. -Customer care: there is no designated customer care rep for the showrooms, the responsibility falls to the Account Executive. So while you are struggling to make sales so that you can survive, you are forced to spend hours dealing with claims of damage, delays and returns. Email corporate with the issue and receive an answer in a day, if your lucky, and even then you're lucky if the answer is useful. -Special orders: don't bother. Yes, it's amazing that we have so many options to give clients but the process to order and lead times to get it are absurd. Skip it and try to sell whatever is in stock so you can get paid without the headache. -Negative work environment: this strictly personal commission pay structure combined with the companies insistence on over staffing creates a tense, cut throat, negative environment - miserable to walk into every day. The staff becomes desperate and angry, creating constant conflict because of stolen sales. Employees are fiercely possessive of anyone they've said even a single word to and are constantly listening to make sure no one has made a sale that they could've claimed as their own. The majority of the day is spent battling for the few people that walk in or standing around complaining. I could go on but frankly I need to get back to looking for a new job. The manager that interviewed and hired me really had me fooled. I actually believed that this would be a positive, better paying, less stress job that I could commit to long term. Turns out, I willingly took a massive pay cut and walked into a snake pit. Don't let them fool.