|
private:hemster
|
https://www.glassdoor.com?employer_id=2359118
|
Sep 13th, 2023 12:00AM
|
Open
|
Open
|
Hemster
|
Prepper
|
Brooklyn, NY
|
|
Good idea that was terribly structured when I worked here
|
|
If you enjoy sewing it’s not bad
|
Tailors should be paid more
|
-1.0
|
NEGATIVE
|
-1.0
|
NEGATIVE
|
|
|
0.0
|
3.0
|
3.0
|
2.0
|
3.0
|
2.0
|
2.0
|
3.0
|
2359118
|
Open
|
|
0.0
|
[]
|
REGULAR
|
No
|
Yes
|
|
1.0
|
Open
|
|
|
Sep 14th, 2023 01:58PM
|
Sep 14th, 2023 01:58PM
|
Hemster
|
|
|
|
private:hemster
|
https://www.glassdoor.com?employer_id=2359118
|
Jul 24th, 2023 12:00AM
|
Open
|
Open
|
Hemster
|
|
|
|
A Company Without a Sense of Purpose - Stay Away.
|
|
Unlimited PTO for HQ employees. Otherwise there are no pros.
|
You will find constantly shifting business directions, unethical business practices, chasing revenue wherever they can find it (even if it is rushed or doesn't align long term), a lack of guidance and leadership from directors and CEO, and overall a company that has lost sight of what its purpose is. There is a huge sense of division between warehouse employees and HQ employees. The CEO, Allison, tends to see people as cogs in a machine rather than actual human beings. If you disagree with her, she will turn against you. During my tenure there were several lay offs, unpaid bills to vendors, and a sales team that often misled customers by offering services that Hemster didn't offer
|
-1.0
|
NEGATIVE
|
-1.0
|
NEGATIVE
|
|
|
0.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
2359118
|
Open
|
-Find a vision -Invest in your talent so you have employees who want to be there. -Be willing to take constructive criticism -Create a collaborative environment
|
0.0
|
[]
|
REGULAR
|
No
|
No
|
|
1.0
|
Open
|
|
|
Aug 2nd, 2023 10:34AM
|
Aug 2nd, 2023 10:34AM
|
Hemster
|
|
|
|
private:hemster
|
https://www.glassdoor.com?employer_id=2359118
|
Jun 7th, 2023 12:00AM
|
Open
|
Open
|
Hemster
|
Product
|
Brooklyn, NY
|
|
If Hemster is typical, we're doomed.
|
|
While Hemster arms itself with a genuinely revolutionary concept, it will fail to successfully impact the fashion industry while continuing to perpetuate the behavior of some of its worst actors.
|
Hemster is an emotionally destructive workplace. Anyone who works there longer than a month can recognize the sinking feeling of signing on for the day. I never thought, as an adult, I would have to ask “am I being bullied?” at work. At Hemster, I asked it so many times. In 2 years and 7 months, I was the 4th most senior member of the HQ team, inclusive of the founder and CEO. Upper level management would do well to see retention as a serious indicator, not just a “blocker.” Hemster postures itself as a diverse, woman-led startup. At this woman-led startup, I’ve been verbally encouraged to wear makeup (in an internal-only role), I’ve been called emotional, I’ve had mocking Slack messages accidentally sent to me, I’ve been teased about food and eating habits, I’ve had lies told to managers about me—you name it. I think it’s genuinely dangerous to pervert feminist talking points in order to write off critical feedback for management. Garment workers, whose industry Hemster is attempting to “disrupt,” has been over 80% women and over 80% people of color for hundreds of years. These are the individuals being mistreated by management while HQ employees twiddle their thumbs wondering if they’d be held accountable for their actions if they were men. This kind of hollow posturing is highly representative of the functions of Hemster’s “culture:” pointing to symbols of diversity without investing in systems that support said diversity—or creating a diverse workplace at all. In almost 3 years at the company, I never saw a Black employee celebrate 1 year. At no time was a Black individual hired in a permanent capacity outside of Operations, or at a salary. How can a company that prides itself on diversity ignore that they have an entirely non-Black Headquarters and, at times, an exclusively Black warehouse team? Office employees often don’t greet Ops Associates during All Hands days, and will work full days a wall apart without saying a word. In the Summer of 2022, HR didn’t so much as recognize Black History Month, Juneteenth, or LGBTQ+ Pride Month on Slack, but mustered an email for Memorial Day and a package of melted chocolate during the hottest July on record in celebration of the 4th. I think, in 2023, a fair argument can be made that this represents a culture of racism despite high-level leadership’s consistent narrative to the contrary. C-level and Director-level individuals have very limited collective experience managing hourly workers, or managing workers at all. This wouldn’t be a problem, if it weren’t for the company’s chronic lack of managers (especially within Ops). When I say chronic lack of mangers, I want to be extremely clear: I had 9 managers leave Hemster while I reported to them. Some were fired, some quit. This isn’t even all of the managers I reported to in under 3 years. Employees wait months for promised raises, only to be continually shoved off by management. Without substantive internal education and professional development, employees only grow high enough to be found lacking in training they should have been offered at work. Disciplinary action at Hemster often takes a social bent. When mistakes happen, managers skew toward interpersonal tactics like ignoring messages or cancelling scheduled meetings without warning. When disciplinary action is more traditionally documented, it contradicts policies laid out in the handbook. Former employees have compared the environment to a sorority, but I genuinely think a sorority with Hemster’s dysfunction would have been shut down by now. HR, historically, is either 23, ineffective, or conflicted by relationships to Partnerships—sometimes a particularly fragrant blend of all three. HR sent me a laptop without a “Z” key. HR misquoted NY State Employment Law to my face. HR failed to issue pay on time on several occasions. HR made me pay out of pocket to send in my computer and keys, and waited over a month to issue reimbursement. Most damning, in July 2021 HR gave out $15 GrubHub gift cards in exchange for positive Glassdoor reviews, and the company’s rating is still 2.3 at the time of this writing.
|
-1.0
|
NEGATIVE
|
-1.0
|
NEGATIVE
|
|
|
0.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
2359118
|
Open
|
My advice to the CEO is to contract a culture consultant ASAP. This consultant must be a Black woman, a necessary perspective in correcting the pervasive racism that touches every part of the brand. This consultant should not be recommended by the board. This consultant should be provided unmitigated access to Hemster’s current and past dealings with employees, including interviews with former employees where possible. This consultant must be heavily incentivized to do a top to bottom restructure of the people ops of the company, including, if necessary, converting CEO to an off-site position. This consultant must be incentivized to address wages, hours, benefits, professional development, org chart, etc. To me, this is beyond the only logical path forward. Anything less would be offensive to current, former, and future Hemster employees.
|
0.0
|
[]
|
REGULAR
|
No
|
No
|
|
4.0
|
Open
|
|
|
Jun 8th, 2023 10:24AM
|
Jun 8th, 2023 10:24AM
|
Hemster
|
|
|
|
private:hemster
|
https://www.glassdoor.com?employer_id=2359118
|
Jun 5th, 2023 12:00AM
|
Open
|
Open
|
Hemster
|
Product
|
Brooklyn, NY
|
|
If Hemster is typical, we're doomed.
|
|
While Hemster arms itself with a genuinely revolutionary concept, it will fail to successfully impact the fashion industry while continuing to perpetuate the behavior of some of its worst actors.
|
Hemster is an emotionally destructive workplace. Anyone who works there longer than a month can recognize the sinking feeling of signing on for the day. I never thought, as an adult, I would have to ask “am I being bullied?” at work. At Hemster, I asked it so many times. In 2 years and 7 months, I was the 4th most senior member of the HQ team, inclusive of the founder and CEO. Upper level management would do well to see retention as a serious indicator, not just a “blocker.”
Hemster postures itself as a diverse, woman-led startup. At this woman-led startup, I’ve been verbally encouraged to wear makeup (in an internal-only role), I’ve been called emotional, I’ve had mocking Slack messages accidentally sent to me, I’ve been teased about food and eating habits, I’ve had lies told to managers about me—you name it. I think it’s genuinely dangerous to pervert feminist talking points in order to write off critical feedback for management. Garment workers, whose industry Hemster is attempting to “disrupt,” has been over 80% women and over 80% people of color for hundreds of years. These are the individuals being mistreated by management while HQ employees twiddle their thumbs wondering if they’d be held accountable for their actions if they were men.
This kind of hollow posturing is highly representative of the functions of Hemster’s “culture:” pointing to symbols of diversity without investing in systems that support said diversity—or creating a diverse workplace at all. In almost 3 years at the company, I never saw a Black employee celebrate 1 year. At no time was a Black individual hired in a permanent capacity outside of Operations, or at a salary. How can a company that prides itself on diversity ignore that they have an entirely non-Black Headquarters and, at times, an exclusively Black warehouse team? Office employees often don’t greet Ops Associates during All Hands days, and will work full days a wall apart without saying a word. In the Summer of 2022, HR didn’t so much as recognize Black History Month, Juneteenth, or LGBTQ+ Pride Month on Slack, but mustered an email for Memorial Day and a package of melted chocolate during the hottest July on record in celebration of the 4th. I think, in 2023, a fair argument can be made that this represents a culture of racism despite high-level leadership’s consistent narrative to the contrary. C-level and Director-level individuals have very limited collective experience managing hourly workers, or managing workers at all. This wouldn’t be a problem, if it weren’t for the company’s chronic lack of managers (especially within Ops). When I say chronic lack of mangers, I want to be extremely clear: I had 9 managers leave Hemster while I reported to them. Some were fired, some quit. This isn’t even all of the managers I reported to in under 3 years. Employees wait months for promised raises, only to be continually shoved off by management. Without substantive internal education and professional development, employees only grow high enough to be found lacking in training they should have been offered at work.
Disciplinary action at Hemster often takes a social bent. When mistakes happen, managers skew toward interpersonal tactics like ignoring messages or cancelling scheduled meetings without warning. When disciplinary action is more traditionally documented, it contradicts policies laid out in the handbook. Former employees have compared the environment to a sorority, but I genuinely think a sorority with Hemster’s dysfunction would have been shut down by now. HR, historically, is either 23, ineffective, or conflicted by relationships to Partnerships—sometimes a particularly fragrant blend of all three. HR sent me a laptop without a “Z” key. HR misquoted NY State Employment Law to my face. HR failed to issue pay on time on several occasions. HR made me pay out of pocket to send in my computer and keys. Most damning, in July 2021 HR gave out $15 GrubHub gift cards in exchange for positive Glassdoor reviews, and the company’s rating is still 2.4 at the time of this writing.
|
-1.0
|
NEGATIVE
|
-1.0
|
NEGATIVE
|
|
|
0.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
2359118
|
Open
|
My advice to the CEO is to contract a culture consultant ASAP. This consultant must be a Black woman, a necessary perspective in correcting the pervasive racism that touches every part of the brand. This consultant should not be recommended by the board. This consultant should be provided unmitigated access to Hemster’s current and past dealings with employees, including interviews with former employees where possible. This consultant must be heavily incentivized to do a top to bottom restructure of the people ops of the company, including, if necessary, converting CEO to an off-site position. This consultant must be incentivized to address wages, hours, benefits, professional development, org chart, etc. To me, this is beyond the only logical path forward. Anything less would be offensive to current, former, and future Hemster employees.
|
0.0
|
[]
|
INTERN
|
No
|
No
|
|
4.0
|
Open
|
|
|
Jun 7th, 2023 10:30AM
|
Jun 7th, 2023 10:30AM
|
Hemster
|
|
|
|
private:hemster
|
https://www.glassdoor.com?employer_id=2359118
|
May 24th, 2023 12:00AM
|
Open
|
Open
|
Hemster
|
Product Manager
|
|
|
Startup from Hell
|
|
It feels great when you leave the company.
|
Hemster does not adequately pay its employees or set them up for success in future roles. During my 3 years at the company I received numerous title changes along with added responsibilities with only one minor pay increase. They set you up to compete with other employees so you cannot turn down additional responsibilities and have no leverage to ask for a pay increase. It was impossible to get support after taking on new responsibilities, countless times I requested support, including once when I asked for Product Management Certification, and they were excited to provide me with a public speaking class. The CEO does not see her employees as people in any way. It is a female led, and majority female run company, but still has all the markers of a toxic work environment, where you are expected to spend over 40 hrs a week doing work without over-time pay, due to under staffing and turnover due to poor management. Individual managers were a hit or miss based on personality, but there was always conflict when the CEO thought the managers were treating their employees with too much humanity. The culture there is toxic in so many ways, everyone is always in fear of being fired for no reason, everyone passes blame along to the next person, and no one is empowered to take responsibility for anything. Highest levels in the company do not understand the basics of tailoring, product management, or people management, and have insanely high expectations of new employees with no training. Everyone there does a good job of misleading new hires, or people interviewing, into thinking these problems are in the past, but I can assure anyone looking, these issues come directly from the top and will not change without a change in CEO. They do not prioritize production/quality and only push for quantity which results in lies to employees, partners, and investors.
|
-1.0
|
NEGATIVE
|
|
|
|
|
0.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
2359118
|
Open
|
|
0.0
|
[]
|
REGULAR
|
No
|
No
|
|
4.0
|
Open
|
|
|
May 25th, 2023 10:51AM
|
May 25th, 2023 10:51AM
|
Hemster
|
|
|
|
private:hemster
|
https://www.glassdoor.com?employer_id=2359118
|
May 16th, 2023 12:00AM
|
Open
|
Open
|
Hemster
|
Product Manager
|
|
|
Feels like an early-stage startup, with all the pros and cons associated with that.
|
|
(Note: I'm part of the HQ side of things, not the on-site/TQ/Hub side) - basically limitless opportunities to learn / develop skills *if* you have the drive to do some self-teaching / volunteering to take on the opportunity - lots of autonomy + trust - very much a "here's what your responsible for, find ways to get it done" sort of an organization instead of one that hyper-indexes on process, formatting, etc. - incredibly collaborative team, genuinely some of the most engaged coworkers / leaders that I've ever gotten to work with - in my time, I've experienced NO situations of like "this isn't your job title, I don't want to hear your opinion" - there's also been NO sort of "oh well I am a founder / I'm one of the first 10 hires / I have seniority over you" that I've seen I'd also like to take a moment to address some of the feedback I read before I started at Hemster and since -- in my personal experience (and I promise I was in no way encouraged to write this review or to mention this), the CEO, Allison, is NOT some lifeless robot. She is a CEO. She doesn't start every meeting by asking me about my dogs, my family, etc. She doesn't send little gifs checking in on my day. But no male CEO that I've ever worked for has been what I would consider as particularly "warm" or "chatty" or other things that are commonly expected to be able to be used to describe a woman. In my experience, when working under male CEOs, it was expected that they were basically going to be straight-to-business, no frills, no coffee-chats-just-to-catch-up. But when I've had a family emergency come up, she's been concerned and supportive. She handled me accidentally scheduling a meeting on my personal "Date Nights" calendar with a laugh. She came up with a really genuine, sweet idea for company holiday presents. She's a CEO with fair, reasonable boundaries and priorities, and her actions reflect that - and I guarantee would not be looked at as critically if she was a guy.
|
Frankly, every "pro" I listed could be a con, depending on a person's career growth and goals. For me, I like that even though I'm a product manager, I get to be involved with IT support. For someone else, "taking on responsibilities very clearly outside of job title" might be a pretty big con. Having a high level of autonomy and trust also comes with the downside of being capable of being the single point of failure that causes an entire team to not be able to accomplish work for a day. There's not necessarily a ton of built-in checks and balances - but that's because we keep growing, trying new things, building new things, and not because no one cares. So, there's definitely cons. Hemster, at least at present, is most suited for people that genuinely are excited by the idea of working at a company that has a few years of tested product-market-fit but that still functions like a very early stage startup in many ways. There's basically limitless career-skill growth opportunities, but we aren't necessarily an org that hyper-indexes on titles; so there's no like direct path to follow. There's only two real "cons" that I don't see as being perspective-based: - pay tends to be a little under market rate - there's a division between HQ/TQ staff that I feel can cause some tension / disconnect
|
1.0
|
POSITIVE
|
1.0
|
POSITIVE
|
|
|
0.0
|
4.0
|
5.0
|
4.0
|
5.0
|
4.0
|
5.0
|
5.0
|
2359118
|
Open
|
Consider a culture where there isn't a significant like, divide between HQ/TQ staff. Maybe do some company-wide raises. Otherwise, keep up the open, frequent communication paths between teams + between leadership! It really has a huge impact.
|
0.0
|
[]
|
REGULAR
|
No
|
Yes
|
|
1.0
|
Open
|
|
|
May 16th, 2023 04:14PM
|
May 16th, 2023 04:14PM
|
Hemster
|
|
|
|
private:hemster
|
https://www.glassdoor.com?employer_id=2359118
|
May 14th, 2023 12:00AM
|
Open
|
Open
|
Hemster
|
Tailor
|
Brooklyn, NY
|
|
Good idea, poor execution and management
|
|
Model makes a lot of sense
|
Really poor management and they treat people terrible. The founder is clueless when it comes to managing people and generally really nasty. They pay way under market.
|
-1.0
|
NEGATIVE
|
-1.0
|
NEGATIVE
|
|
|
0.0
|
1.0
|
2.0
|
2.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
2359118
|
Open
|
|
0.0
|
[]
|
PART_TIME
|
No
|
No
|
|
1.0
|
Open
|
|
|
May 15th, 2023 10:47AM
|
May 15th, 2023 10:47AM
|
Hemster
|
|
|
|
private:hemster
|
https://www.glassdoor.com?employer_id=2359118
|
Apr 28th, 2023 12:00AM
|
Open
|
Open
|
Hemster
|
Garment Associate
|
Brooklyn, NY
|
|
Feels like sweatshop, not flexible, Allison(ceo) is a lifeless capitalistic
|
|
You will learn how to quickly measure if you don’t already have that skill… not that it’s even helpful because it isn’t an accurate way of measure and again feels like a sweatshop so you have to measure 40 pants a day while standing because Allison was too cheap to stools for the height of the table
|
They have strict rules that only apply to certain people, they make changes without proper notice, Allison doesn’t even say hi even though shes working in the studio 10 ft away. They don’t give raises so don’t think you will grow within. If you are not white do not think you will be able to work in sales, e-commerce, or tech. A lot more cons but lastly they market themselves as sustainable and the alteration itself creates a lot of waste let alone the amount of bags and boxes of clothes they have stored in random places of the studio.
|
-1.0
|
NEGATIVE
|
-1.0
|
NEGATIVE
|
|
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
2359118
|
Open
|
It’s a lost cause
|
0.0
|
[]
|
REGULAR
|
No
|
No
|
|
0.0
|
Open
|
|
|
Apr 29th, 2023 08:46PM
|
Apr 29th, 2023 08:46PM
|
Hemster
|
|
|
|
private:hemster
|
https://www.glassdoor.com?employer_id=2359118
|
Apr 1st, 2023 12:00AM
|
Open
|
Open
|
Hemster
|
|
New York, NY
|
|
Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast
|
|
None. This ultimately became one of the worst companies I’ve worked for and made me think there should be more government regulation of start up companies because half the stuff they do is unethical.
|
If you want to be paid on time don’t work here. This company is constantly running out of money, and there have been times they were unable to pay their employees. People were not able to pay their rent or mortgage on time. The CEO is out of touch and rather inept to run a well operated business. They greenwash and can’t actually perform what they offer to clients. Also, it is an overtly toxic work environment created by the directors who are all inexperienced to run a business and act more like it’s an sorority. It’s very mentally draining for a job that’s really not hard. Take my advice and don’t work here. It’s a mess that’s impossible to clean up. The CEO should really just dissolve the company already and try working at an actual job to see how structure works.
|
-1.0
|
NEGATIVE
|
-1.0
|
NEGATIVE
|
|
|
0.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
2359118
|
Open
|
The directors can strategize all they want but no matter how well-designed your strategic plan is, it will fall flat unless your team shares the appropriate culture.
|
0.0
|
[]
|
REGULAR
|
No
|
Yes
|
|
2.0
|
Open
|
|
|
Apr 2nd, 2023 09:56PM
|
Apr 2nd, 2023 09:56PM
|
Hemster
|
|
|
|
private:hemster
|
https://www.glassdoor.com?employer_id=2359118
|
Jun 20th, 2022 12:00AM
|
Open
|
Open
|
Hemster
|
Customer Service Manager
|
|
|
Disorganized
|
|
Great team to work with, those who are wanting to improve the company and promote growth.
|
Checked out CEO terrible upper management/directors very little respect for lower employees and high turnover.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
0.0
|
3.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
2359118
|
Open
|
|
0.0
|
[]
|
REGULAR
|
No
|
No
|
|
0.0
|
Open
|
|
|
Jun 22nd, 2022 04:58PM
|
Jun 22nd, 2022 04:58PM
|
Hemster
|
|
|