Toxic - Anonymous employee Ardmore Home Design Employee Review

Helpful coworkers and management staff

It was a temporary assignment

The pay was fair (at least for my role) and I worked with and befriended some wonderful colleagues on my team and in other departments.

To the copywriter who takes my place: Please proceed with caution when offered a job here. I want you to know what you’re signing up for so you can make an informed decision about whether or not you want to work at this company or take your talents and ambitions elsewhere. That said, here are the cons: • A big “management” and “leadership” problem, or lack thereof. They wonder why the turnover rate is so high here, but it’s truly not rocket science. Let’s break it down: Management here creates a culture of burnout, workaholism, and favoritism. Organization and planning ahead does not exist. I can’t count how many “urgent requests,” “we need this ASAP,” and “oh, just kidding, this is actually due now” communications I received. They will work their employees ragged with almost no praise or positive reinforcement. Frequently, they don’t even know what they want/need in a project so they take out their own uncertainty, chaos, and stress onto the employees. They expect employees to be perfect at all times with zero support or proper guidance. Feedback is not constructive; it’s sporadic and often not given at all. If you value your health and wellbeing even a little bit, please know that this company does not. You also likely won’t know where you stand in the company. One day I received a performance review where I either met or exceeded expectations, as well as a raise. Then, very shortly after, I was called into a meeting out of nowhere and told that my performance was not meeting expectations. I felt very confused and blindsided afterwards. • Very strict about being fully onsite. Numerous times, employees (myself included) have preached the benefits of hybrid work, including work-life balance and saving time and costs commuting. The managers and founders do not care. Their response? “You signed up for this” and “If the warehouse people have to be here every day, so do you.” • The benefits are pretty bare minimum. For instance, you only get a PTO total of 15 days (yes, including sick days which obviously cannot be planned for). Also, given that the work is in e-commerce, you only get 6 paid holidays. • You will be the only copywriter on the creative team, writing and editing for all five brands. I did the work of what easily should have been at least two copywriters. Meanwhile, there were three graphic designers and three production team members. Keep this in perspective.