Pros
-Teammates: AMAZING to work with (but usually starts from a level of trauma-bonding). Teammates are always willing to lend a hand or train you on something new. -Clients: Some clients are great to work with, some clients ask for a lot (and we are told to not do what they ask, under the guise of “controlling” a client), and other clients can be downright berating to their team. We have been told that there is a screening process for clients, but in my opinion, that’s hard to believe when you have clients who treat other humans the way they do. I still have a few clients that I love and would even visit if I had the chance, and I have a few who I’ve needed to talk about in therapy. -Training: The knowledge that you learn on this job is great. The team really works to train any new teammate into knowing the “why” behind digital marketing and the company’s strategies (but with no added bonus or perks to the trainers.) -Work from Home: The company has been a remote company since its origination, and seems to have a pretty good system in place for this. There could be some improvements to help the remote aspect. For example, the management team is pretty strict about what a background looks like, so receiving a stipend to make home office spaces look more professional would be helpful.
Cons
-Management: In my opinion (and many others), the biggest problem of this company is the management (I can’t even call them “leaders”). The management of the company hire, fire, and run the company based off of sudden, emotional reactivity. Quick decisions are never fully thought through, which trickles down the ladder and adds more stress on all of the employees under them. The upper level management teams frequently lie, conveniently forgo the whole story, or stretch the truth and call it “open and honest communication” as a “core value” of the company. Most of the management team itself is composed not of people who have had managerial experience, but from those who have stuck around with the company the longest and were decent at their job. The management team doesn’t seem to know how to manage their people correctly, and they treat each employee like a data metric instead of a real person with feelings. Not to mention the HR department is the CEO’s wife, so any company issues get shot down immediately and are not taken seriously. -Strong “religious” affiliations running the entire company: Key words that are used day-to-day are “dev-t,” “ARC/KRC triangles,” separating departments into “devisions,” having employees fill out “Completed Staff Works,” meticulously updating “organizational boards” and “Hats” (documents that explain a process), having employees map their individual “condition” (danger, emergency, affluence, etc), and interviewees take a “personality test” with very personal questions to see if you would fit in. These are all terms and practices used in Scientology. These practices aren’t ever explicitly announced to employees as Scientology, but the company’s internal operations are based on a book of these teachings, so beware. -Toxic positivity: This company seems to thrive on toxic positivity. Your performance is usually correlated with how often you get and give “shout outs.” To the extent that in the past, employees have been monetarily rewarded for getting and giving shoutouts. If you play along, whether you mean it or not, you seem to be seen in a better light and get rewarded. Management often chooses to give promotions to employees who play along. Those who don’t “rock the boat” will get promoted faster than employees who tend to speak up about issues they are having. -Pay: It is no secret amongst employees that everyone is severely underpaid (even though upper management does all they can to have employees not communicate with each other about salary). The hiring team/management seems to make compensation packages look better than they are by adding hefty bonuses that you typically do not reach monthly. If you do succeed in getting a high bonus that month, your work is triple-checked and analyzed to see if you really earned it. Many other jobs in this field have employees doing way less work for way more pay. -Workload: Obviously, any job expects you to work. However, these positions are riddled with meaningless monthly tasks, excessive client interaction (to the point where clients get upset with how often we’re reaching out to them), and 2-3 large projects to accomplish every month. Each client is said to fit into a “one size fits all” strategy, with the thought being that if the employees complete routine tasks A, B, and C, then the client will be successful. When A, B, and C don’t work, then there is no backup plan, and the excuse gets put back on the client with something like, “well the client isn’t filling out this arbitrary excel sheet so that’s why their results aren’t working.” (And don’t forget, your bonus depends on these meaningless monthly tasks). Employees are told to not work after hours, but are applauded if they do for putting in the “hard work,” and getting projects done first. I once told a manager that I was drowning in work and had to work until 9pm the night before to get everything done and she said “and what am I supposed to do about that?” You are told to work 9-5:30 with a 30 minute break only, however, with the amount of tasks that they put on you, it’s impossible to get it all done within that time. Most days I sat in front of my computer from 8am - 8pm, quickly running to my kitchen to snack, and sitting back down. -Communication: You are encouraged to “practice open and honest communication,” but when you do, management either ignores it, or you get in trouble for speaking out entirely. Management wants to make it seem like they value you and your opinion, but they seem to rather hire worker bees who will shut up and do as they are told. Creative ideas to better the company go in one ear and out the other because “the company is perfect as it is.” They hire smart people who realize this, hence the enormous amount of turnover over the past few years.