Fender Musical Instruments reviews

Lack of opportunity to advance. Those without guitar experience or that don't have connections are at a big disadvantage, especially. Good workers and poor workers all get treated and paid the same. Poor behavior is tolerated and not addressed. Low pay. Poor communication. Top heavy. Larry Thomas, the CEO is out of touch with the people keeping the company going, as are most of the people at the top. He seems to think he's a celebrity and uses a company paid private jet while the peons can't get 401k matching or a raise worth a darn. He didn't even show up to the company Christmas party, now what does that tell you? The finance dept. recently acquired all of KMC Musicorp's (which Fender bought out several years ago) workload which means more duties, for the same pay. Morale is at all time low, employees are stretched thin, and management and supervisors are very out of touch with their staff, especially the ones that are taking them through this very long and difficult transition. Even new staff is unhappy. Long time employees are leaving at a record pace. Rumors persist of the company not doing well. The squashed IPO is good evidence of that.

Poor upper management - we've had very little turnover in upper management as a company and that is not a good thing. There is too much old school marketing and management at the top and a serious lack of interest in ideas and new school thinking. Too many VPs equals too many cooks in the kitchen. As an employee, there is a lack of upward mobility. Many "promotions" are nothing more than lateral moves with a new title or they combine two jobs into one and create a new position. Compensation is below average but good for the Music Industry.