Blue Apron has by far the most toxic work culture I have ever encountered. It wasn't uncommon for employees to pick fights with each other; this place seemed more like a school playground than a professional work environment. Conflict resolution? Nah, just yell at your coworkers. Don't like how your boss is acting? Throw them shade for weeks!
There was a clear hierarchy in place dividing hourly and salaried associates, in part due to the insane supervisor to associate ratio (why are there so many supervisors??) Many salaried employees, especially upper management, would pride themselves on being better than their hourly counterparts, when in fact, there are several hourly associates who know the company better than them and are more capable of managing a team. There were some employees who required incessant babysitting, and some who constantly went above and beyond but never received as much praise as they deserved.
I hate to throw COVID into the mix but oh boy, here we go. Blue Apron handled COVID so poorly to the point where the facility was almost shut down. HR failed to put employees at ease and a constant fear of illness loomed in the air for months. Upper management's empty talk about working together to beat the virus only lowered team morale. Social distancing was rarely enforced due to the nature of the work. It wasn't until the facility faced too many cases that management decided to put in more stringent practices to stop the spread.
In such a tolling work environment, you would hope HR would be supportive. Many claims brought to HR were treated with the utmost disrespect and were never resolved. How could HR take your harassment claim seriously if they too were harassing you?
From my understanding, a lot of employees were very unhappy working at the Richmond location and were not afraid to vocalize this. There's a reason why attendance issues are so rampant here. It's a shame that most employees are too comfortable in their roles to pursue a career change.
