Company flips ownership every 3 yrs - Marketing Management Pens.com Employee Review

2.0
29 Dec 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Very strong Direct Marketing group and some products (not many) are made in Tennessee.

Cons

Dangerous company to work for right now. Very outdated tech systems limits abilities to properly market and understand ROI. Company is sold every 2-3 yrs to venture capitalists (flipping the company). This means company is not allowed to invest in new equipment or its staff and Sr. Management CEO, CFO, CMO, etc. are constanly pitching the business and twisting the numbers for prospective buyers instead of running the business. They recently were missing sales goals by more than $2million and the solution by those C-level managers was to layoff most middle mgt to cut overhead just to make the numbers look better on paper, instead of develiping solutions for short falls in the reapective depts that were behind (telesales, Web, Goldstein, NDC) so they could hit their sales goals and receive massive bonus for the year. All marketing plans and products were already in place for the last 6 months of the year, so CEO fired almost all Directors, VPs and Managers (average time eith company more than 10 yrs) and used the assistants and coordinators (who are grossly underpaid) to execute the plans and save a few bucks.

Explore other reviews about Pens.com

5.0
19 Jan 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Work environment and colleagues at Pens

Cons

Stressful targets and pressure to close

1.0
26 Dec 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Hiring managers & same level teammates are generally very pleasant and good to work with As a US employee, seems like the preference is going towards non-US workers, so maybe if you're a non-US job seeker, you might have a better experience.

Cons

Benefits are not good, US HR benefits don't show any respect/support towards you becoming a parent as there is no parental leave policy. Certain higher ups like to give unsolicited advice and talk to you like you are a 10 year old, showing their lack of respect of your specific expertise in your field just because they have more work experience in their field.

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