Sears Holdings is a poorly structured, poorly executed, unfocused company with little hope.
Pros
- Salaries at higher leadership levels tend to be higher than market value due to the lack of bonuses and benefits - Sears hires many very intelligent and hard working people. If you are observant and a good listener, you can learn a lot. - The Sears name still holds some weight at industry conferences, etc due to the size of the company and the name recognition
Cons
- Senior leadership is not aligned in the vision of the company which results in undercutting, finger-pointing, and all around confusion for the people who work for them - The benefits are lacking and in many cases non-existent - The company is not focused on their customers or their associates which results in a apathy in both - The amount of cost cutting and the lack of resources makes it nearly impossible to do quality work. The amount of work expected of you and the quality of work expected is unrealistic. - No work/life boundaries. Calls frequently scheduled at night and on weekends. Emails all weekend long - even when the topic wasn't urgent, you were expected to answer within one hour. - No support for outside conferences/courses. According to senior management, everything you could need to learn you could learn on the internet. - No internal or external leadership development. Leadership skills were not valued; metrics are king. - Every decision is pushed up and all the work to execute is pushed down. Very little autonomy at any level below the highest ones.
