55 KNOTS Reviews

Generally speaking, this company is manipulative and exploitative. They were trying to convince people that this is an excellent company to work at, even though it is the opposite. They were attempting to manipulate the reviews here. Only the higher-ups had a "work-life balance," while the designers suffered from overtime, overworking, no benefits, no salary increase, a low salary, and a heavy workload. Their reviews say it all, as do ours. Designers barely last a year, or 3 months, and sometimes a month, because of these reasons, and they continue to shut their eyes from the reality that this is a bad company. Management doesn’t listen and will never listen. They promote themselves as "empathetic leaders" when they do not process your promotion or salary increase. and instead of hiring designers with specific roles, they hire "multimedia designers" with the salary of junior designers to save. They will give you lots of promises and assurances but will never give you proper compensation for your work. all talk and no work. Full-time job offers aren’t really "full-time," as you will work as a contractor and will not have any benefits, despite advertising that they do. They aren’t registered here in the Philippines and don’t plan to be. They exploit the Filipinos for their own gain.

- Information, especially regarding changes in operations, systems, or management, lacks proper dissemination and content. Often, there are disconnects between announcements and no one seems to keep or record them properly. This leads to constant confusion, heavy inquiry, and general frustration for those affected. - Problem solving is not a strong suit. Missteps in management and information manipulation are likely to happen which causes employees ending up with more questions than answers. It's never 100% transparent. - Promises from upper management are usually never kept. Assurances here mean little. - Upper management cares more about generating new clients and revenue rather than taking care of current ones and examining their current capabilities. Tasks get overwhelming in number due to this. - Adding on the point above, the company seemingly prioritizes its own marketing and image more than its own clients. - Assigning tasks is a struggle because of the lack of necessary designers with specific skills which can lead to mismatches and re-assignments. - Employees (mostly designers) come and go quickly. An astonishingly high number of people stay for only 1-3 months before leaving. It's hectic since tasks get left unfinished yet everyone's overloaded and still have a long queue of tasks left. - Designers are encouraged not to overwork or go overtime, but they still do it because there's little time for the amount of tasks to go through and the revisions needed. - Work/life balance is not what it seems to be advertised due to the point above. It's more of an upper management privilege. - Also, the proper term is "contractors", not "employees." The company is mostly dominated by Filipino workers and it comes across a bit exploitive since the company emphasizes on "big savings" while sourcing creative talent from the Philippines. - Compensation isn't that great too, partnering it with the lack of benefits and amount of work. There are also no performance reviews or expected timely/tenure raises so you're going to ask for raises yourself. - No room to grow. As aforementioned, there are no performance reviews, and efforts to have "upskilling" sessions are lackluster. Although there are art directors and tenured designers that can assist you and point out improvements on certain tasks, there are no real assessments that can help you identify your shortcomings or strengths. Also, everyone's too busy to bother with it in the first place. - Upper management feels cold and unapproachable, feigning empathy yet turns their back on concerns and/or addresses them poorly. - Upper management loves taking care of their public image rather than the internal issues. It is irksome how "excellent" and "amazing" the company looks to the public while employees don't feel the same way. Reviews are manipulated and the company actively works against good criticism. - Employees are given additional responsibilities or even tasks outside of their original scope or job description but this won't adjust their salaries, time, or workload. - "The company is struggling financially" is their blanket-term for all justifications of their actions. - More reactive than preventive. The workers here are all incredibly talented individuals and the company itself is still young and still full of opportunities ahead, but the potential will go to waste if upper management continues what they're doing.