Overall toxic work environment and poor representation of the industry - Market Manager The Boston Beer Company Employee Review

Boston Beer is very out of touch with the industry they service and there's a ton of Kool-Aid flowing within the company (and outside of it) to hide that fact. They'll ask you to do some legally questionable things more than once and attempt to stifle your career when you've had enough. Lots of red tape, lots of politics, lots of just generally toxic people on the sales side of things. They are not like other beer companies that are fun-loving, free-spirited, and committed to collaboration. Instead, they're essentially a CPG company stuck in the 1980's, complete with the old school polo and khakis uniform. Boston Beer reps are taught to be overly aggressive and it's severely damaged the company's reputation as a result. The portfolio is comprised almost entirely of brands in declining phases (Twisted Tea being the exception). They are desperately looking for their "next Truly" while disingenuously trying to convince the public that beer is dead and craft brewers shouldn't even try to compete with them. You will quickly learn that more people at bars order a cup of apple juice than a pint of Boston Lager and that most of those Boston Lager draft lines you see are only there by way of some highly suspect quid pro quos. For this purpose, sales reps are taught to be overly aggressive with buyers and that illegal activities like "pay to play" are pretty much similar to "jay walking". As a result, Boston Beer sales reps are universally HATED by retail accounts, distributors, and beer industry peers alike. When they say "bend the rules" they mean "pay to play". If we were unable to sell a product to a buyer on merit, we were often told to offer "marketing dollars" to sway their decision. Many in the industry would say that this is highly illegal and could result in multi-million dollar fines for the bar, distributor, and supplier as well as legal action against the specific sales rep who facilitated the agreement. For Boston Beer, it was standard practice and the legality (or lack thereof) was never a topic of discussion. You may be thinking, "that sounds bad but at least having Boston Beer on my resume will look good to future employers"... think again. Boston Beer requires all new hires to sign a 1 year non compete agreement to prevent them from advancing within the beer industry and will go out of their way to ensure that is enforced. That may not seem too bad if you plan on staying at Boston Beer for a long time but it's also worth noting that positions are frequently dissolved on a whim - potentially leaving you without a role. Boston Beer's all too common solution to this is to offer the employee a different (often lower) position IN ANOTHER STATE. Boston Beer takes pride in claiming that they've never laid anyone off so, if an employee is unable to relocate to a different state after their position has been dissolved, they're considered to have quit the company. Boston Beer will then prevent you from moving on and seeking employment elsewhere in the industry by enforcing your non compete agreement. In a nutshell, this is not a portfolio you want to be responsible for selling and it's not a company that has your best interest in mind (not to mention they pay their employees a small fraction of what the rest of the industry is paying). Leadership hasn't left their castles in decades which is a large portion of the problem. The issues at Boston Beer run far deeper than I'll ever be able to put into words. It's never an easy decision to leave a company you've dedicated 10+ years to but I am very glad I chose to leave when it did as it seems like it's all finally starting to catch up to them.