Working at Outlaw Soaps: Welcome to the soap mines

Because we seem like a fun and frolicsome company, people often ask if we're hiring... but make no mistake: Being an Outlaw is not for everyone. It requires a lot of hard work, grit, dependability, and (even, with all that) a sense of humor.

It's Saturday morning, and Russ is already at Outlaw HQ (aka The Soap Mines) cutting batches of soap he and Kristy made yesterday. Soapmaking is a chemical process, and chemistry waits for no man (or woman).

I've been reading Queen Bee, which is a story about how Roxanne Quimby built Burt's Bees from a little outfit in rural Maine to the international natural sensation you know today. Over and over, the book talks about how many people Roxanne let go over the course of her company.

We've been very fortunate to have some members of our production team who are super great (Marci and Amy, I'm lookin' at you!), but we've also recently had some turnover related to the fact that we require 100% dependability. If people can't show up to work and keep a regular schedule, we can't depend on them. And if we can't depend on them, we risk running out of stock of your favorite products... which just won't work for any of us (especially YOU)!

As we look to hiring our new team in Reno, we'll harken back to one of the things we included in our Production worker job description: "You must be as dependable as the sun's path across the sky."

Soap is hard work. It's good work, but it's hard. I know our customers are no strangers to work, and we aren't either. Thanks for being part of this adventure with us.

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