Bebe au Lait Reviews

I have never worked for a more poorly managed company. The creative team and sales team are wonderful. But the upper management/ownership is chaotic, defensive, uninspired, and inept to run a successful company. The owners constantly ask for innovation from their designers, but refuse to engage in any idea/print/fabrication that hasn't already been tested on the market and proved to be successful by other companies (ie it's a copy-cat company). Management treats their staff very poorly. There is very high turnover and they are slow (if ever) to replace jobs so they force their staff to take on more and more responsibilities with no change in salary or job title. They set unrealistic timelines which they change constantly with their moods and then get angry with their designers for not meeting deadlines that are a constantly moving target. The HR person is also the Controller, and the most gossipy person in the company, so you cannot discuss any concerns or issues with any expectation of privacy. In the last year, there has been a 100% turnover in the creative department, that should tell you something about this company. The owners are a husband/wife team and the entire office is very tense when they are fighting. They make very questionable company decisions when it comes to ethics. The salaries are also well below market rate and promotions/raises are non-existent. They install programs to track everything you do, and you must record every minute of your day. I've never worked for a less trusting, big-brother type of micro-managing company. Overall, I would say run, don't walk, away from this company.

Ultimately, this was a stressful and confusing role from the jump. The team is very small but not too welcoming. Working closely with a couple people can have its perks but in this case, it was often cold. I think staff turnaround is quick which is a red flag in itself but it doesn't provide for a great morale. Expectations for roles are very chaotic and unstable. Owning your role is insisted but to a fault -- there is no direction given and there is negativity when asking for clarification. Many projects are given with unclear instruction because they're not fully thought out. When there is a project with an urgent deadline, there's a lot of pressure put on and if it's not done perfectly, there's no chance for improvement and no feedback given. There's not much feedback given, in general, positive or negative. Since there's a lack in creative roles, administrative tasks such as time logging and project management are prioritized based on the rest of the team not being creatives and are at the forefront in a negative way. Those types of things should not be the focus in a creative team, it takes away from daily tasks. In the job posting, benefits were spoken about but they don't allow you to go over a certain number of hours to receive them so that was misleading and disappointing but not surprising.