What's the company culture at Oak Express, Bedroom Expressions And Furniture Row Outlets?

Every business has its own style. What is the office environment and culture like at Oak Express, Bedroom Expressions And Furniture Row Outlets?

Are people dressed in business casual, jeans and t-shirts, or full-on suits? Do folks get together for Friday happy hours and friendly get-togethers?

What is a typical day in the life of an employee at Oak Express, Bedroom Expressions And Furniture Row Outlets?

I worked at Furniture Row for almost 2 years and quit my job. Only job I have ever quit in 30 years of working. In many ways they are a great company to work for but they have a company culture of "write everyone up!" In my experience, they believe the staff is totally dispensible and they use fear tactics to motivate. In my entire career of 25 years in executive management, I had been "wrote up" once. I ended up with 4 write ups in a very short time. Example: I was a new assistant manager for 4 months. The other assistant got transferred. The store manager quit. So it was me holding down the entire fort. Went from 3 managers to just me for a few months. Managers do inventories each month. During this time, I missed some inventories (you do over 60/month). I missed between 10-15 inventories each month until they staffed us up to our normal of 3 managers. I got wrote up for not completing inventories on time. No support. No sending in someone to assist. No thank you for running the store by myself. Just a condemation for not getting the job done. Lots of stress in this job! Unless you like writing employees up for every little thing, find somewhere else to work.

I am interviewing with them tomorrow as a Sales Manager Trainee. Do they offer some flexibility with the hours? I am a single mom and need to get my children to school 4 days a week by 8:00am. Also how is the money. It looks like a good base and some decent commissions.
Thank you in advance.

They have flexible schedules and they don't open stores until 10am. Everyone has to be there by 9am. The commissions can be very nice at times but be ready to deal with a "bad week" of sales and commissions to be small. They have an excellent training program that is as good as any business. They also have some very ancient processes; such as, they give you very little notice for transfers and expect you to be on site within a week of a transfer. If you are married, they also expect your spouse to be with you within 30 days after a transfer. If not, you can lose your job. They say they are family orientated but that just manages to put undo stress on a family with expectation such as that. Many of their rules seem to be orientated around the life of their national sales manager. What happened to him during his rise to power seems to be how they set their rules. His life is not equal to other peoples life, so the rules many times do not make a lot of sense. They need to dump some of those rules and bring their rules to a more up to date world.

When you say "transfer", are they in state or out of state transfers? Seems like customers are really happy with their products and the sale itself based on online reviews. So that's a good sign.

Their transfers can be either in state or out of state; just depending on their needs. When you get promoted to asst. manager, they usually don't give you much say in the transfer process. When you reach store manager, they do involve you more in the process but mostly it seems they spring it on you. There are many good things about this company, you just need to be aware of some of their outdated rules and processes. Never once was I judged by whether or not I could sell furniture. Instead, you are judged on how many wood care products sold, and how many credit applications processed(accepted). You would think that you would be judged on how good you are at selling furniture; since you are a furniture salesperson. At the store I was at, the regional manager told me he was prepared to fire his entire staff if they could not meet the requirements of selling credit apps and wood care products. Many of the staff were some of the top salespersons around and yet their jobs were put on the line. That was the straw that broke my camels back as i was not into having my job threatened on such a regular basis. It turned out to be a very hostile work environment in that respect.

I can't thank you enough for this information. I have the interview this afternoon. I am going in with a positive attitude and open mind. The credit apps situation doesn't surprise me. I used to sell copiers. Whenever a customer wanted to pay cash for a machine, the company was like "One time sale at lowest price. Sell and move on fast." Debt makes the world go 'round.
Are you still in sales in Denver?

Just wondering if they do pre-employment drug tests at Denver Mattress Company? Not that I'm a drug user but I'm pretty sure my stupid roomie tricked me into eating a couple weed brownies.

r2askier@yahoo.com in Denver, Colorado said: I worked at Furniture Row for almost 2 years and quit my job. Only job I have ever quit in 30 years of working. In many ways they are a great company to work for but they have a company culture of "write everyone up!" In my experience, they believe the staff is totally dispensible and they use fear tactics to motivate. In my entire career of 25 years in executive management, I had been "wrote up" once. I ended up with 4 write ups in a very short time. Example: I was a new assistant manager for 4 months. The other assistant got transferred. The store manager quit. So it was me holding down the entire fort. Went from 3 managers to just me for a few months. Managers do inventories each month. During this time, I missed some inventories (you do over 60/month). I missed between 10-15 inventories each month until they staffed us up to our normal of 3 managers. I got wrote up for not completing inventories on time. No support. No sending in someone to assist. No thank you for running the store by myself. Just a condemation for not getting the job done. Lots of stress in this job! Unless you like writing employees up for every little thing, find somewhere else to work.

Do they do drug screens at Denver Mattress/Furniture Row? Just wondering because I could not find anything on the application and my roommate tricked me into eating laced brownies. I might kill him. Thanks.