The Vermont Country Store reviews

Sharing a better way to do something (unless you are a highly paid outside consultant) will most certainly get your job "eliminated." This organization chases away talent time and again in favor of veteran automatons who know how to "play the game". It is better to lie, maintain the status quo and compliment the "Emperor's New Clothes" rather than point out the naked truth. This organization is on a crash course with disaster and will soon join the ranks of failed companies like Polaroid and Blockbuster because of its inability to adapt to change and embrace technology.

Absolutely no chance of promotion based on the merits of your performance. After working for several years, I lost several responsibilities, instead of gaining as expected. Micromanagement is ridiculous. They'll admonish you to save the company money by using the proper size box to pack an order, yet sometimes you'll stand around for several minutes with no work. They treat you like children. In the busy season, they use regular folks to be 'supervisors' (a money-saving ploy), but these people know no more than regular clerks. You may be told to do one thing by one person and another thing by another person. The people who are year-round managers - Oh my God - ego city. They are also the type to stand there and watch you do something wrong, then get mad because you've done something wrong. Instead, they may try saying "you're doing that wrong." They have eliminated all bonuses, saving themselves thousands upon thousands of dollars every year. These bonuses in the past gave them a great reputation as a wonderful place to work. They no longer enjoy this reputation. They've also made it so that if you work the phones, you now have to sell sell sell to the customers. They brag in daily meetings how much $$ in sales this brings in, and how they've had record munber of sales overall, yet again, all bonuses have been eliminated. I agree with the prior comment about the culture - it's all about money now, not the people who work there. When I started, their little 'buzz' phrase was "We want to be the employer of choice." Funny, haven't heard that for awhile. Having Bill Shouldice enter as CEO in 2005 was their number one biggest mistake. The Ortons need to open their eyes and realize this. Every year they have an employee survey - that you have to do by computer (and put your name so you're easily identified)!! Obviously, they are not interested in keeping their employees happy any more.