Chewy

Benefits are pretty good. The employee discount is great if you have pets. There are plenty of great, competent coworkers who want the best for Chewy and our customers.

RTO (Return to Office) three days a week, with four days likely by the end of the year and five days next fiscal year, is not out of the question in my opinion.

The whole RTO policy is nonsensical, as most employees can do their entire jobs from home and have teams split across the country, so in-person collaboration is rare for many.

They'll claim, backward and forward, to be data-driven, except the data shows that fully remote work increases productivity for many employees.

Continued RTO is clearly a ploy to decrease head-count, both through employees quitting and being fired for attendance (yes, they absolutely keep track and will not make exceptions without a doctor's note).

Layoffs are likely before the end of the year, in my opinion, as RTO hasn't caused enough to quit.

Upper management, above lower directors, are out of touch and play favorites. It seems like most are now former Amazon management, and it shows.

Process is everything. Fill out the paperwork correctly, jump through the hoops, and you'll get promoted over those who are busy getting things done and cleaning up after you.

Think you're doing great? Think you've added value, saved the company money, improved customer experience? Well, you forgot to document everything you did every day for the last year and fill out the paperwork, and so did your manager, so tough luck.

Company culture has really taken a dive the last few years, and it's been top-down.

It's very middle-heavy as well. I'm not sure why we need so many directors, but all the extra process and paperwork makes sense if you understand the so many levels of management that don't have enough to do to justify their positions, so they make up work for themselves and those below them.

Contrary to popular belief, Emperor Nero didn't fiddle while Rome burned, but the C-suite sure appears to be fine with letting Chewy burn so long as they get short-term gains and get their power trip on.

Put down the fiddle, put out the fires, rethink culture, and cut one or two levels of directors. Give managers the freedom to support and promote the best performers rather than those who are best at jumping through mid- and upper-management's hoops.

It's not too late, but you have to act before your top talent (who care) leave and are replaced by self-serving yes-(wo)men.

Increase base compensation. Not everyone can afford to sell RSUs around when Chewy's stock price dips. Full compensation is lower than it should be for low-level employees, especially when they need to sell RSUs to cover an emergency expense coinciding with a dip in the stock price.