Avoid at all costs - Promotional Products Specialist SpecWorks Employee Review

SpecWorks is the kind of company where creativity actually matters. Every project for a client is different. One project will be sourcing branded apparel for a healthcare company with 10,000 employees, and the next you’re helping design an entire online store for a startup. The leadership team is getting better and they genuinely care about helping employees grow. You’re given freedom to bring new ideas to the table and the team celebrates wins together. The culture is fast-paced but people here take pride in doing excellent work for clients.

If you prefer a super corporate environment with rigid processes then this probably isn’t it. SpecWorks moves quickly, so you need to be comfortable juggling multiple projects and staying adaptable. I enjoy it but some people might struggle with it depending on their personality.

remote work is literally the only positive thing from this company

There are many cons, so I will do my best to condense the amount of text. The first thing is that the boss wrote the five star reviews. You can tell based on how they are written. The first point is the lack of structure. This company has no hierarchy whatsoever. The boss runs the entire operation and micromanages everything. You are not given any training and are expected to know everything based on first glance. There should be guidelines or handbooks on how stores are managed and run. The second point is the boss herself. She is the worst boss of all time and her idea of leading is to scold and use negative reinforcement. She is mentally abusive and more than eight former employees feel the same way I do about how verbally abusive she is. She consistently threatens your job and will never help you even if you ask a simple question. It could be an easy yes or no question, and instead of answering it, she gets mad that you asked and says something smug like, “Well, what do you think the answer is?” She talks poorly about you to your face, to vendors, and to other employees and thinks this behavior is appropriate. I have personally received multiple inappropriate emails and texts from her that no professional boss or human being should ever send to another person. Lastly, everything is just poorly run. There were multiple times when we were not paid on time. She would make flimsy excuses for why payroll was late and take zero accountability. She makes false promises about commission payouts and changes the rules because there are no handbooks that outline how much you should be paid. From my experience, she changed my role within the company multiple times to do things I was not hired for. I was hired to do one job and she turned me into a warehouse cleaner. Her warehouse belongs on an episode of Hoarders. It has boxes from sixteen years ago. My last day was spent driving a Uhaul for her and moving boxes into a storage unit. This was the most humiliating thing you could do to someone. I was hired as a project manager, not a cleaner. In conclusion, there are far better companies to work for. This boss is the worst in the business and I strongly recommend that if you are considering working here, you do not do it. It is not worth the mental abuse you will face. PS This is a small business and more than eight people have left within one year. If that is not a red flag, I do not know what is.