Pros
- Amazing & amazingly talented staff that you grow to become very close with & wish you could work with them forever - Inspiring weekly staff presentations - Annual education fund & professional days (upon approval) - Monthly yoga sessions - Free to use the partners's memberships to galleries & museums - Annual lunch provided by the partners - Nice breakfast provided at Town Hall meetings - Lunch & Learns are consistent and well organised (thanks to the librarians) - Sometimes there are prizes to be won from random raffles & draws - Beautiful main studio located in a gorgeous heritage building - Studio is very well organised & maintained - Dogs are allowed & very welcomed - Year end Christmas party is always a blast - Travel opportunities for designers - Workshops in leadership & conflict resolution (well organised by HR)
Cons
- You become close with your coworkers because you work long hours together and go crazy together so lots of opportunities to bond - Can not be a minute late to work even if you stayed to burn the midnight oil (very strict about this) - Unrealistic expectations for staff presentations (designers use their own time to do the work at night or on the weekend) - Hard work is not recognised nor rewarded (i.e. no annual pay raise, can't even pay rent with your bonus if you get one at all) - Weekly timesheets add up to 37.5hrs but OT doesn't count until you've worked 44+hrs (you do the math) (I thought free work stopped after internships?) - Very little room to grow & if you do ask for a raise or promotion, they make it very hard for you to progress - Extreme favouritism towards a selective number of staff - Travel opportunities are promised but not always given, especially to non-favourite staff (favourite staff members get to travel repeatedly) - The partners are overly sarcastic & judgemental which can be hurtful (i.e. makes "jokes"/comments about how employees dress/look/smell & judges employee's choices in fashion, travel, restaurants, etc.) - Bad attitude/bitter/unprofessional towards staff