TL;DR: broken tools and pipeline, unfulfilling, tedious work with no breaks, unmotivated workforce, out of touch, incompetent management, insulting wages for the Boston area, unpredictable, heartless, messy layoffs. Bottom line is all that matters to them. Do not touch with a forty nine and a half foot pole.
Hopefully if you're an artist considering working for Wayfair, I can lend a bit of wisdom based on my time here.
Where do I begin? Wayfair's 3D pipeline is a constant trainwreck, held together by bandages and duct tape (the cheapest kind they can find). It's not so much a pipeline as it is a laughably poor attempt at an assembly line. Tools are always down yet expected monthly output is always unreasonably high. Clueless, unempathetic management consistently contradicts itself in terms of expectations, expecting us to read their minds to figure out what level of quality they want. The truth is that they could care less about employee well-being, and only care about their bottom line. Despite an open plan office, upper management clearly is far too out of touch with the issues that lower level workers face. If they all actually took a single day to just sit down with people while they work and encourage honest, open conversations free of backlash, they'd find that much of 3D Viz is unhappy, unfulfilled, and now, due to very sudden company layoffs, scared out of their minds. I've seen people mentally shut down or even be on the verge of tears when you ask them how they're doing on a NORMAL day where things actually work.
Daily work tends to be very tedious and unfulfilling. At first, you're somewhat excited to make photoreal 3D images en masse. But after your first 5-6 months, you slowly begin to realize that it's built on the backs of a miserable, confused, underpaid team that is far too large for comfort, supported by an even less effective offshore team. And then you realize that management wants a sweatshop filled with replaceable cogs, um--young workers--who won't complain. Our work has to be approved by people who have no understanding of the limitations or benefits of a 3D pipeline. Some of the people in charge willingly dump aspects of a standard 3D pipeline in favor of getting a higher volume of automated images. This of course puts more pressure on artists to get their images perfect the first time (which anyone who has any 3D experience knows is very difficult).
Expectations are unrealistic and built on a fatally flawed monthly goals system, which has yet to be consistently followed. It acts as a baseline for how management views you, which is ridiculous considering that little to none of the management or specialist roles you can go for have anything to do with goals. Certainly if we were machines, a goals system might make sense, but we have far too many workflow issues to even think of implementing this system. A key problem of the goals system is that it lacks any breaks--if we want to come up with any innovative solutions or explore new fields, you'll have to work lots of unpaid, unsupported overtime. The same is true if you want to be recognized for your work in any capacity, such as looking good for a promotion. If you want to be promoted here, expect lots of "um, ah's" from your supervisors, unless you're fortunate enough to have a manager that's willing to advocate for you. Despite the fact that most of us work about 8-9 hrs a day, it's the most mentally exhausting 8-9 hrs you can imagine. Some workers are so frustrated as to express not wanting to work as a 3D artist anymore, since Wayfair was such a bad experience for them.
Compensation is a farce. Everyone, barring upper management, is laughably underpaid relative to the cost of living in the Boston area. A common retort is that "no one does what Wayfair's 3D Viz does." This a lie; 3D product design is nothing new, Wayfair is just one of the few businesses trying to deploy it at a higher, automated, factory-esque scale. And they're unwiling to compromise on better wages since the 3D department is intended to replace the photo studio--live photography was far more expensive and obstructive, so they wish to use 3D as a means to cut costs. When your job is literally a means to save money, it's unlikely that your wages will shift meaningfully. They actually ask in your introductory Labs emails if you're okay with making a substandard wage; my answer should have been no. If you're juggling following your passion somewhere vs. potential stability here, I'd recommend just going for that dream job instead. You'll at least be happier working for what you want as opposed to staying afloat in corporate hell.
Don't bother trying to advocate for yourself as an employee, as behind their smiles, lots of the L2-L4 managers are cronies and your words will fall on deaf ears. I never felt comfortable openly expressing my opinion at Wayfair, whether it be in reviews or otherwise, for fear of backlash (which has occurred to others and myself before). I myself had a manager with literally no leadership skill/emotional intelligence whatsoever, yet this person ended up with their position because they were with the company for a while (for perspective, I had more 3D experience than them even as a recent college grad). I now suspect personal bias or other forms of prejudice, but even when I was a top, above and beyond performer, they wouldn't consider supporting me for promotion. Yet, when I disclosed to them that I faced an unfortunate out of work incident that was very emotionally difficult, rather than properly investing the time to work with me, they belittled me, gave unclear and ambiguous feedback and only took punitive measures. Collectively, other workers (managers and L1's alike) agreed that this person had failed me and their other direct reports. But I didn't feel comfortable expressing dissent since that manager in question was very well connected with upper management. All in all, I realized that ultimately, it was Wayfair's subpar ability to gauge good leadership that put this person in that position.
And to tie it all together, when you've given them your blood, sweat, tears, and time, they conduct a same-day layoff. The layoff in particular was very cold and symptomatic of our notorious over-hiring practices. We were given no warning whatsoever, only to be in various conference rooms at 10 AM. The process lacked basic dignity. They separated us, the ones who were laid off, from people who would keep their jobs. Then we were told that our positions were eliminated, fed some garbage about how they didn't have any new positions to put us into (despite still hiring externally), and that we needed to clear our desks and head home in two hours. Publicly, one of our CEO's ensured to refer to us as "excess, inefficiency, and even waste," and that's certainly how we were treated. To add insult to injury, they couldn't even properly set up the lines for us to receive our unemployment/layoff forms. At least trash gets sorted before being dumped. I myself had to wait around for 45 minutes for some poor folks in talent management to find my forms, only to realize that I would be given two weeks' pay in severance. Two weeks' pay. In the Boston area, the 4th most expensive city to live in the USA (at current time). Not only could Wayfair not be bothered to properly organize this very emotional and trying experience, but they felt the need to remind us again of our worth in their eyes. Needless to say, I wouldn't recommend this position to my worst enemy. Feel free to take my opinion with a grain of salt, as there are some people in the company who want to see things improve. But based on my own experiences, Wayfair has an incredibly long way to go before their Imagery department can be even remotely considered a place one would actually be proud to work in.
