Worst Job I've Ever Had - Anonymous employee American Greetings Employee Review

This is the worst job I've ever had. The red flags piled up before I even accepted the job. At the last minute I was told about a 2 year noncompete policy (only applies to Hallmark, more or less), mandatory binding arbitration, and mandatory drug testing. Read the fine print and you will find that in California and a few other places they legally cannot test for pot. In Ohio you are not so lucky. They also have a SEVEN YEAR address history and background check. Literally the same as what you need for a Global Entry card. The employment agreement massively changed during the interview process. As a highly paid technical office worker these have never come up before. Companies are desperate for my skill and usually don't anger the talent. If I had other options I would have thought a long time before accepting. Circumstances made this my best option. What a mistake it was. If someone came up to me today and offered half my salary but no insane management, I'd take it. It is possible that I got a uniquely bad manager, but I can tell a lot of the insane culture permeates more than just my boss. For a solid 4 months I was told the exact opposite of what I was told the week before. Trying to find out what your goals are is like pulling teeth. No matter what you do, you will be hit with double speak about how you should have been doing something else. Somehow everything is a "top priority." I got a "peer mentor" who was clearly given literally no instruction on how to mentor anyone, and management made no effort in making me feel welcome or understand the company processes or culture. I just ran through items on a checklist for a month, then did another project that was higher priority. Or so I thought. My manager then informed me I should have been doing other stuff instead. Despite weekly check ins with management they were somehow blindsided by what was done or not done. I've never loved a boss, but I've usually been able to recognize that they do something. At this job I truly could not tell you what value my boss ads. They are never first to jump on little tasks that the employees would prefer to avoid. They never proactively avoid problems further down the road. They never handle the office politics or follow ups with other departments. They constantly push it back on me to the point where I don't know what they do. Your work isn't done? Management will just say the same 3 phrases over and over. Then wonder why this strategy didn't work the hundredth time. Overwork is common across all departments and staff. You will commonly see people online and sending emails outside of official hours. You will see people on their laptops in the cafeteria at "lunch". Working through lunch is expected. The official hours are 8 to 5, though in practice this is only used to discipline you if you make some other mistake. Nobody works those hours every day, but there is a lot of off-hours work or working that full time period on some days. I have been specifically told that I may have to work beyond the 8-5 hours on some days. The implication was that the average would be above 40 hours per week on a yearly basis. No clear demarcation between work and play. Leaving to get lunch is frowned upon, and staying offsite to eat rather than bringing lunch back to work while eating is uncommon. I've worked in jobs with real life or death impact. I've worked in jobs with billions of dollars on the line. And I have never felt as stressed out as I have been for this greeting card company. HR and management resent you for asking for help. HR is rarely helpful at any company but this is the worst HR I've seen. Good luck leaving. The PTO is a pyramid scheme. It is "awarded" at the start of the fiscal year on March 1st. What they don't tell you is it is very slowly prorated. You don't get paid out for time you don't "earn." It is effectively impossible to take all the PTO you're owed for the month and not owe some money back when you quit or are fired. PTO does not carry over from year to year. If you join after March 1st you get scammed out of PTO. They "prorate" it and round down. Very rigid PTO. If it's February 28th and you want a day off that you don't have, pound sand. Rigid policy followers all around. Nobody cares about work getting done, just if policy was followed. Your recruiter might tell you about the "summer hours" where you get a half day off on Friday. What they don't tell you is you're still working 40 hours. You just pick up an extra hour on Monday through Thursday. These are optional, but just speaks to the insane culture of process over people at AG. Don't tell me you get one extra hour of productivity going from 39 to 40 hours a week. We have science that shows working 32 hours is just as productive as 40. At jobs where they aren't going over time sheets with a fine tooth comb, morale and productivity are higher. Look up Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. They are the shadowy owners of the company and have never been seen or heard from. Talk to people who have been here for years and they'll tell you things were better before the buyout. I suspect AG is enormously profitable but don't have any proof. I also believe I am wildly underpaid in my role. If you work here, be sure to check out the job market and talk with coworkers about a fair salary.