Kathmandu Reviews

3.3

55% would recommend to a friend

(250 total reviews)
avatar

Xavier Simonet

58% approve of CEO

39% positive business outlook

Kathmandu has an employee rating of 3.3 out of 5 stars, based on 250 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Kathmandu employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Manufacturing industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

250 reviews
2.0
11 Aug 2023

Sinking ship

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Staff discount Immediate team are great and supportive

Cons

The company is rapidly going downhill. Massive cuts to labour as well as constant disorganized and confusing communication has created a huge disconnect between upper management and loyal retail staff. it's no longer a viable place to work if you need enough money to actually pay bills and survive, and the utter disrespect shown by upper management has and will continue to drive away amazing, hardworking managers .

3.0
3 July 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Staff discounts are very generous which is useful if you enjoy traveling and outdoor activities. - Fantastic work life balance. You are not expected to work weekends or long hours. - Job was pretty easy and cruisey. They don't demand much of you so there's very little stress. - Casual dress policy in head office (though sometimes this can be too casual - we're talking ripped jeans and thongs!) - Executive staff were very approachable and the CEO is personable. - Generally friendly and supportive co-workers. - Dual-office operation in Melbourne and Christchurch means you occasionally get to travel.

Cons

- Salaries are way below market-rate, which is demotivating considering how large the published executive salaries were - They've really cut costs and budgets, and consequently there hasn't been any pay increases (even CPI increases) in over two years. The company isn't doing so well so I expect further cost cutting and job losses. - Staff morale has gone downhill over the last 12-24 months. Kathmandu used to have a fantastic culture - one of the best I've ever witnessed - but the general environment has changed dramatically and it is no longer enjoyable to work there. - Staff turnover is high in head office (65% in less than two years) and people are dropping off like flies. There was one resignation announced every week in the last few months I was there which speaks volumes. Also, there was a recruitment freeze and HR had not staff retention strategies which further indicates the company isn't doing so well. - There's no staff development or career progression opportunities. I spoke to management about this and they even agreed with me. - It's a pretty small organisation so at times they can lack professionalism and strategy in what they do.

1.0
19 July 2023

Kathmandon't

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Some staff members were lovely and I learnt to appreciate my current job so much more due to how horrid my manager was at Kathmandu.

Cons

Kathmandu was one of the worst places that I ever have worked for. The turnover rate was high, the internal communication was low and standards for how management treated their employees were lower. When I first began, there was no one in my role to hand over and I was made to figure out the ins and outs of the companny's procedures by myself with little to no effort given by my manager. Not only was my desk completely isolated from the rest of the team, the high turnover rate was astonishing and further prevented me from connecting with the team. I should have picked up on all the red flags then, but I continued to give the company the benefit of the doubt. My role and expectations of what my tasks were changed frequently depending on who communicated with me, but by far the worst expectations were from who I was directly reporting to. I was bullied frequently and made to feel like there was no way out of my situation other than to talk to my bully, a option given directly from Human Resources, an option that I clearly was not able to take due to the nature of their horrendous personality. When I raised these issues with other staff members, they notified me that I was not the first victim to their foul behaviour and that others before me, in different roles but under the same management, had also experienced their nastiness. On numerous occasions, my manager expected me to clean up the office, including wiping ledges, moving boxes for other staff members and unstacking dishwashers that were both not in my job description and in the area of the office space, I did not work in. I was expected to check in frequent times in the day with specific people in my team, but the same expectations were not given to them as they walked past me for team lunches, purposely excluding me. And with clear favourites shown in the team, only specific people could 'get away' with certain behaviour such as coming and going whenever they pleased or using managment car spaces while they were not in the office multiple times a week, whilst people like myself were told it was completely normal to change their car spaces every two hours in rain, hail or shine. Due to health issues, I needed to take less than a week off for a 2 part procedure that would have stopped my being in pain resolved the health issue. My manager had the audacity to only allow appointments to be made on a Friday at 4pm, which ulimately lead me to have wait a month in-between procedures which put me at an increased risk of developing an infection. The outstanding contrast between the hoops I had to jump through to take personal leave while frequently showing up to work only to find out half way through the work day from other people in the office that my manager had decided to take personal leave. You have all the appeal of a paper cut. What is also laughable is managements ability to claim inclusivity and and have a pretence of being all sunshine and rainbows on their platforms but openly discuss their plans to reduce sizes in production due to fuller figures not being on brand for their outdoors marketing. Apparently fuller figures don't appreicate the outdoors as much as leaner individuals. Micromanaging was their forte, including forced changes in one or two words in a internal email before I was able to send communication out, however simple words were consistantly mispelt on their end. Maybe later in life, after you have learned to read, write, spell, and count, you will have more success. Romany, You’re the reason God created the middle finger and why my atheist friend is on the fence about whether Satan exists or not.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 250 Reviews

Glassdoor has 282 Kathmandu reviews submitted anonymously by Kathmandu employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Kathmandu is right for you.