Beall Research has an extremely high turnover rate for such a small firm, and the turnover has only accelerated over the past year with a steady exodus of employees, an indication of its increasingly toxic culture. The vast majority of these departures were voluntary and most who chose to leave did not have a next job lined up, further underscoring how desperate employees are to leave its intolerable and unhealthy environment. The CEO is aware of this long-standing pattern but instead of addressing the root of the problem by creating a better work culture, she chooses fanciful, self-serving explanations like “People who are just here for the paycheck tend not to last long.” (Many employees at Beall feel they are underpaid compared to the overall market, so I’m pretty sure that’s not it.) Although the CEO has made some superficial changes to try to improve employee morale and retention, these do not address or mitigate the overall harsh culture of abuse and disrespect. Attempts to address the problems with her management style and expectations are pointless, since the CEO often uses her gender as a shield to deflect legitimate, constructive criticism about her poor treatment of employees (“You wouldn’t say that to me if I were a man.”)
Senior management (and those who aspire to it) is complicit in this toxic culture. The CEO and senior managers talk a lot about encouraging a “growth mindset” among its employees but I actually felt my skills atrophy at Beall Research because of their antiquated methods of data collection and analysis as well as their inability to give employees any opportunity for professional growth and development. Rather than perceive mistakes as opportunities for learning, growth, and improvement, the CEO and senior managers berate and scold employees for even the most minor oversight, which is interpreted as a global judgement on your entire professional capacity and ability to perform your role. Employees are subject to extreme gaslighting, and are frequently told they don’t understand how to do good market research or know how to write, given unsolicited critiques of their perceived character flaws, and told they aren’t good at or qualified for their jobs (begging the question why they chose to hire them in the first place). How can anyone cultivate a “growth mindset” when your professional identity is consistently under attack? Rather, the cruel work culture at Beall induces an extremely stressful and anxious mindset that actually impedes creativity, professional growth, and performing your best work.
Work/life balance is practically non-existent at Beall Research and employees are consistently expected to work evenings and through weekends and holidays (some even during their vacations). You can’t even take a sick day without senior management becoming suspicious. I would frequently receive impatient, “urgent” emails and text messages from management at any hour of the day or evening, on weeknights and weekends, that demanded an immediate response. Most of these excessive hours are unnecessary and primarily due to poor communication, inconsistent expectations, and unclear instructions among the CEO and senior managers, contributing to an overall inefficient, dysfunctional work process. Many employees don’t even feel comfortable taking a 30-minute lunch break away from their desks, for fear of it being used against them as evidence that they are not being “productive.” I’m not sure why a company that claims to be experts on research would ignore the numerous scientific studies that have demonstrated that consistently working excessively long and unpredictable hours is associated with lower productivity, lower employee morale and retention, lower mental and physical health, and higher likelihood of employee disengagement and ultimately burnout.
Beall Research is also an extremely micro-managing culture, where you will be asked to re-write and re-write and re-write and re-write and re-write and re-write something until the words and ideas are no longer your own. During my time at Beall, I wasn’t asked to use my intellect and experience to create market research questionnaires or reports, so much as manufacture them like a robot. I was never fully able to use my independent judgement and creativity but was told to follow the dictates of senior managers and the CEO, and yet they couldn’t even make up their minds what they wanted from day to day, but still laid blame solely at my feet for any perceived shortcomings or problems with report deliverables. This is a common experience among other junior and mid-level employees. It is all an abusive, dysfunctional, cruel, gaslighting culture that sowed gnawing self-doubt and anxiety that made me dread going to work every day, and felt extremely punishing, frustrating, demoralizing, and both mentally and physically exhausting. Frankly, it was a relief to finally step out the door on my last day as I felt a great weight drop off of my shoulders.
The good news is that most of us who left Beall have successfully landed on our feet and found new company homes, where we are thriving and feel much happier and healthier, respected, valued, and supported in our careers. You will learn only one thing of value working at Beall Research, and that is what kind of positive working environment you want in your next job.
Many of us ex-Beall employees still keep in touch with each other as part of an extended “family” and we occasionally meet up to celebrate each other’s career moves and trade war stories about how we survived the abusive culture at Beall, which we rarely felt comfortable talking about openly while working there because of its pervasive climate of fear, stress, and anxiety. (It’s like a therapy/support group, except with alcohol and more fun!) We have each others’ backs and support each others’ accounts of our experience at Beall.
You can easily find most of us on LinkedIn and, if you are doing your proper research on Beall before interviewing or accepting a position there, you should reach out to one of us to learn more specifics about what it’s really like to work there. (The positive reviews posted here were written by shills and sycophants, and even some of those people have since left Beall and moved on to greener pastures, or have seriously considered leaving.)