Vantaggi
Yes, the work-live balance at Wayfair is great, no one expects you to work more than your 8 hours (and you wouldn't want to do more since overtime is not compensated). If you get there at 8, you're out by 5 without having to worry about work till 8am the next day. The company also promotes a very relaxed atmosphere, and I enjoyed being able to wear jeans and flip-flops, etc. The fringe benefits are also decent. I really love having subsidized membership for different gyms, the offerings of free lunch-time yoga, pilates and other things. I must say I do appreciate Wayfair's willingness to hire unexperienced people straight out of school and giving them the chance to learn things and gain work experience that at least looks good on a resume.
Svantaggi
The pay is really low, especially for a city like Boston. Many of my coworkers have second jobs to make ends meet and make the monthly rent. Other firms in the area pay significantly better. I would have preferred to do without the free snacks (junk, mostly) and taken the cash to buy my own snacks. The biggest joke was that for no discernible reason was my starting salary higher than that of my peers who were hired a few months later. Recently the starting salary for that same position was raised a little bit again. How is this fair (lucky for me, I guess, but horrible for my colleagues). While the work atmosphere is really relaxed, it is also a lot like college. Many young people, fresh out of school who think they're absolute hotshots and make decisions that make no sense whatsoever. People also don't really talk with each other, other than in a drunken stupor at one of the company sponsored bar-outings. The learning curve, at least in the merchandising department, is very strange: very steep in the beginning when in the first two months everything is thrown at you all at once, and you freak out because it's too much, but after that it's the same work over, and over, and over again. So much routine! And promotions don't really get you anywhere either, with only a minor pay raise and much the same job, plus a few more still boring tasks. What makes working here also unpleasant is the high employee dissatisfaction, which results in an extremely high turn-over rate. People come and go, and you never know who's still going to be in the office the next day. And with so much turnover, it's hard for more experienced people to do their jobs properly because they constantly have to train new hires and show them how things are done. This is very inefficient and frustrating. Communication within the department was overall lacking, and more open clearer policies and instructions would help. Currently there is more of a "go figure it out for yourself" attitude, which is fine until the point where they suddenly tell you "no this is wrong".
