1-Misogynistic company
Before I started working there, my male friend looked at the company site (it’s been updated since) and asked me, in a somewhat alarmed/joking voice, “Do any women work there?!?!” At first I didn’t think this was a big deal, but as I got to know, it IS a big deal. This is a very misogynistic environment and it comes from the two owners. There are/were about 11 women there for the 50-odd males. That is not an average split, especially for this industry. Of the few women that work there, most have traditionally administrative jobs – admin assistant, accounts payable, HR etc with only one female holding a senior/management title. Even worse, there are numerous males with senior/director/management titles that in any other company, would not be deserving of those titles. I’m not exaggerating when I say that if you’re an intelligent, professional, confident female who cares about her career, you should not work here.
2-Management/owners lack vision and skills
The company and direction of the company lack clarity. It seems like there is no clear vision on who they are, what they stand for and what they want to evolve into. This comes from leadership, because the partners don’t really know what they’re doing or even what their individual roles are; one with his hands in each department trying to implement “process” on the spot without consulting departments or employees, reluctant to adopt better tools and technology, and the other unable to focus on anything long enough to do anything more than schmooze clients and party.
3-Rash decision-making across the board
People are in, then out and it happens quickly. The same goes for clients/projects that you work on and process – one day you work on a project, the next day the client and project are axed. It’s scary to work somewhere where there is so much uncertainty – clearly no planning or thought put into important decisions.
4-No mentorship/career development or training
If you’re lucky enough to know who you report to, you’ll be even more lucky if your manager either physically works in the office, or even cares enough to talk to you. I saw no career coaching/mentorship or career development initiatives happening in the company in any department/role. There is no process for on-boarding or training when you start and an overall lack of support and consideration for your career, development, goals, or happiness.
5-Unprofessional environment
Both of the partners are actually friends with a few of the employees outside of work and that’s a serious conflict on many levels. As a business owner, you should know the difference between personal and professional. On numerous occasions I overhead conversations about things that should not be discussed in the open – it’s not fun when you have to hear the tail end of a conversation about one of the owners of the companies weekend full of partying and females. Gross!
The office space is also not very professional. Sure agencies often go for a casual open environment, but this place was messy, just like a frat house. Random things all over the place because no one has pride on where they work and no space to collaborate. They only have 1.5 meeting rooms and one of those is the boardroom which is always booked. To make it worse, there are 3 additional rooms/offices which are occupied by the two partners and one for HR. Seriously, lose the ego, give up the valuable meeting space/office and give your employees meeting rooms!
6-No social culture
This place is cold. There is no sense of team, and definitely the most dog-eat-dog place I’ve worked at. They boast being an equal opportunity employer but fit is not considered when staffing – but hey, when people are so disposable I guess it doesn’t matter. Of course this all contributes to the fact that there is no genuine socializing, people don’t care to form friendships and even though there are planned company events, it ends there. One HR person once told me that come Friday at 5pm she can’t get out of there faster. So if you enjoy the agency vibe and rituals like after work drinks, friendships, lunches, parties and beer o’clock, you will not find that here.
