Wayfair

I've been at Wayfair for 6 months and, over the course of my 30+ year career, it is by far one of the best environments I've been in. Wayfair pays a lot of attention to culture; as a result, the lines of communication are open and the employees are all playing for the same team. There doesn't seem to be a lot of internal politics.

I'm really impressed with the talent of the organization. This is a really notable accomplishment considering the rate at which Wayfair has been hiring. Employees are given a lot of autonomy to make decisions. The company pivots quickly to either embrace a new, potentially winning, idea or shed an underperforming feature.

Another thing that is really nice about Wayfair is there is a lot of opportunity for career progression and development. As a manager, I really like this, as I have the ability to really help my team reach their potential.

As a manager, it can be hard to attract talent because the interview process is difficult. Our base pay is low relative to the rest of the market (made up for with stock and bonus), and there are not a lot of company-paid holidays. Health benefits are not on par with the companies we compete with for talent.

Things to fix:

• Increase the number of paid holidays or augment it with Personal Days.
• Increase the entry-level weeks off from two to three.
• Improve the health insurance plan.

Things to keep doing:

• Focus on culture.
• Empower teams to make decisions.