Oh boy, get ready to enjoy this one with some popcorn and soda on the side. If you’re looking for a career setback in the early years of your development, this is the place for you. If you’re a director level or above and you’re excellent at doing nothing but fluffing, this is the place for you too. It’ll get you far enough so you probably won’t have to work very hard to fit into the culture here. But don’t expect to stay too long either. People are put on the chopping block every week so just watch your back. In the literal sense too, since there is tons of office politics here and this place is stricken with drama filled people who are too busy finding the easy way up instead of doing what they were hired to do.
Which leads into my next point of hiring and promoting the wrong people…There’s a reason why there are more people leaving the company than joining. Even then, those who are joining after months are not well qualified enough for the roles and have no idea what they are doing. As a result of this, anyone who has to deal with the new people coming in, easily gets frustrated from fulfilling their own roles, but having to babysit and train another person (in many cases, one that is above their own). Many associate level employees are reaching farther up than they should and much of management is reaching lower than they should resulting in micromanagement or under developed associates in most cases. As there is a lack of structure, people are easily burnt out from having to bear not only their responsibilities, but that of 2 others without the appropriate recognition and compensation.
There are exceptions though, don’t get me wrong. That is if you are a favorite with your manager or upper management/executives because you will get as far as the other side of the world if you are one of the selected chosen ones. One of the bigger issues here is having too many cooks in the kitchen. Everyone wants to have a say, even if they are not knowledgeable in the area and you best be ready to agree with whatever your boss says. That is the golden rule here. Don’t disagree and be ready to just act like a robot without any sense of a learning curve. There will also probably be many layers between you and the head of the company, but there will be no leader. Do not expect to be properly trained by anyone as they will throw you in and expect you to hit the ground running with absolutely no background. You’ll learn the definition of survival of the fittest here since there is no level of mentorship to guide you to success. Keep your expectations low and you will make it farther than most.
Those who are still with the company are either staying until they find another boat to jump onto or they are just on cruise control in this sinking ship. People no longer want to be around each other as they once did; everyone works in their own world and keeps their distance. The degree of communication issues here is beyond belief. Don’t be surprised to find out you lose your team the day of or find out you have a new boss the day of. Everyone here works in isolation and seems to want to keep it that way.
Now, the highlight of it all at this company – they cut resources and staff expecting the remaining people to support the workload with their decisions on the budget cuts that people who are involved had completely no say in. Their decisions to continue to invest in “leaders” at the company who has no idea on the minute details or execution is what is breaking the foundation of this company down. People are working with archaic systems and platforms that they don’t want to spend the time to update or invest the right people into changing. The executives themselves are a mess and trying to figure out how to fix this hole they dug themselves into and people are giving up. They’re tired of having to put up with it all and have zero respect when it comes to the critical decision making, but are expected to put up with the short end of the stick. The company has been too accustomed to looking at immediate ROI that it has lost sight of anything aside from that. As they are trying to figure out the strategy and direction in all areas of the business (creative/digital/marketing/etc.) everyone is forced to work blindly. To sum, the company is full of sheeps being herded by fake wolves.
There are a few mentions that the location is nice, but honestly being on the edge of the city makes it difficult for many to commute to compared to the old offices at Midtown. That being said, be prepared when it comes to rainy, snowy, windy weather because you will be getting the extreme of both worlds when it is hot and freezing since the building is right by the water. Did I mention the food options? Cause honestly, that’s one of the most important matters of work life and the options here are nowhere near compared to midtown.
Overall morale here is down the drain and you will feel it the very moment you decide to make the mistake of thinking things will magically turn around when you join.
TLDR; DON’T EVEN.
