97th Floor Reviews

4.1

80% would recommend to a friend

(72 total reviews)

Chris Bennett

92% approve of CEO

81% positive business outlook

97th Floor has an employee rating of 4.1 out of 5 stars, based on 72 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The 97th Floor employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Media and communication industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

72 reviews
2.0
12 Sept 2019

Worse the longer you stay

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

One of the best reasons to work at 97th Floor is the amount of flexibility you're given in your schedule. That includes unlimited PTO, but always make sure you get your job done. Employees are allowed a great deal of autonomy in how they do their jobs, how much time they take, etc. The company doesn't want your every waking moment to be thinking about work, and that's to be commended. Benefits are pretty generous as well, at least compared to what I've seen elsewhere.

Cons

When you start working at 97th Floor, you'll pretty much think it's one of the best jobs ever. The amount of freedom is amazing, after all. But the longer you stay, the more you begin to see the cracks in the foundation. 97th Floor might be a great company for starting out in your career and getting some nice experience with digital marketing, but don't plan to spend very long there. So what are the cracks? First off, management has clear favorites among employees. If you don't fall within a very tight circle, you'll be constantly overlooked and undervalued. Certain positions within the company are also looked down upon. Communication is also a major problem at 97th Floor. Performance expectations are vague at best, and performance reviews don't actually review your performance. As such, there's no way to tell how the company views you and how you're doing. If someone isn't performing well, or if there are problems, management won't bother to say anything. They'll just let the problem fester. In my time with 97th Floor, I've seen a lot of talented, hard workers get laid off for arbitrary and ridiculous reasons. I've stayed in contact with many of them, and they almost universally attest to how their new companies are so much better and more rewarding than 97th Floor. I hate to keep harping on this, but management is just so bad at communicating. While the company is based in Utah (with an office in San Francisco), the CEO lives in Southern California and rarely visits. To this day, I have no idea what he even does most of the time. On those rare occasions when he does address the company, he uses only empty platitudes. I've heard him say things that are outright untrue about how 97th Floor treats its employees, but I don't necessarily think he was being deceptive. I think he just genuinely has no idea what goes on in the day-to-day operation of his own company. How could he? He lives a thousand miles from the nearest employee. The higher-ups are always so bullish on what the company has in store in the future. The results have been good so far, with revenue continuing to rise each year, but rarely does that translate into good things for the employees. Wages are frighteningly stagnant. When I was first hired, bonuses were a regular thing. Now it's not uncommon to go years between them, if you get them at all. So it makes me wonder where all this extra revenue is going. If it's reinvested into the company, there's not a lot to show for it. Management always has great promises to make about what is right around the corner, but rarely do those promises go fulfilled. The culture at 97th Floor has slowly degraded over the years as well. It used to be a workplace that valued creative pursuits and thinking outside the box. Lately it's only been about numbers and meeting quotas. I don't blame the employees for this. There are few incentives for actually getting really creative. Upward advancement is pretty much a moot point (unless you're one of the favorites). 97th Floor is a company with a whole bunch of ceilings you keep banging your head against. This might seem like I'm portraying 97th Floor as the absolute worst, but I did have some valuable experiences and good times there. And I have worked at worst places. But the one word of caution I would give is to not stay there long-term. Starting off, you'll find a lot to like. But once you hit two years, start looking for your next job. Use 97th Floor as a springboard to something much better.

3.0
9 June 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

97th Floor offers great tactical training. If you are willing to jump in and learn, you will learn great skills in SEO, content marketing and PPC. You will also make a lot of valuable connections within the industry through co-workers and clients. Flexible work schedule with decent benefits compared to other small companies and especially when compared with other Utah agencies. The chance to work with some truly talented and caring individuals and some great clients.

Cons

Constant underlying stress worrying about reaching client goals or dealing with overly aggressive clients. Dealing with poor client contracts that overpromise or are unclear on expectations. This isn't the standard but still happened. There are no set standards for employee performance or quality of work, so your worth is measured by how well your client booking is doing or how you compare to everyone else in management's mind. Mediocre employees can get bonuses simply because a large client stays on while great employees start to worry about losing their jobs when they can't reach a client goal. All of management is young with little to no management experience. They're good, earnest people, but the lack of experience or training can lead to poorly handled situations especially when it's serious and needs to be handled delicately. Several middle managers have been allowed to retain their jobs even though they were poor people managers who would yell and take their stress out on their team. The company feels like it has a great culture on the surface, and in many respects it does better than other companies. But ultimately there's a lot of blaming, bad mouthing and lack of respect. This isn't caused by the people being naturally toxic people but rather by being given very little direction or feedback while constantly being compared to or pitted against each other.

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Glassdoor has 98 97th Floor reviews submitted anonymously by 97th Floor employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if 97th Floor is right for you.