Do NOT work here. Highly toxic, extremely poor leadership, very high burnout - Anonymous employee Digital Trends Employee Review

1.0
29 June 2020
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Only good reason to work here are the employees (NOT the executive leadership team). The employees are really wonderful and welcoming people.

Cons

Overall: This was the worst place I've worked due to the leadership. The only instance you should join this company is if you are desperate for a job and need to make ends meet for the time being. You will likely burn out shortly after joining. Reasons why are below: If any of the following executive leaders remain at this company, the below will likely remain true and you should avoid this company: - Ian Bell (Founder/CEO) - serial womanizer (would often make sexual comments about the young attractive servers when out to lunch) - Dan Gaul (Co-Founder/CTO) - very poor leadership (expect to be micromanaged) - Chris Carlson (COO) - highly toxic individual and openly mocks black culture (if you are working on a project he is overseeing and make any mistakes, expect to be yelled at in front of everybody) - Bob Gruter (CRO) - also highly toxic individual (he will tell you that he has your back but you shouldn't believe it as he will also yell at you and throw you under the bus) Note: The above are things that I have personally witnessed but was not the person that the aggression was directed towards. Environment: They will try to sell you on the idea of working in a "startup environment" but what you will actually get is ALL of the BAD and none of the good. You will NOT get equity and you will NOT get resources. Instead, you will get a highly toxic work environment, a very prominent bro culture, unreasonable expectations around goals, burn out, and a lack of resources to meet those outrageous goals. Another thing to remember is that HR is not on the side of the employees. It is no different here. The HR department has a history of sweeping things under the rug and firing employees when they have voiced concerns or reported racism and sexual harassment. Upward Mobility: The leadership at this company is very clique based. If you are not in the in group, do not expect to be promoted or given raises. You will need to approach everything with a very unrealistic mindset in order to get promoted, which means never voicing when you feel overwhelmed or stressed, not questioning the direction of the leadership, and you will need to remember that its all about money at this company. There is no balance between employee well being and monetary gain, or even morals for that matter. It will only come down to how much money you are making for the company. Praise is scarce, very shallow, and will not result in promotions. Leadership: There is a complete lack of leadership from the executive team. They are not leaders, they are managers. As mentioned above, expect to be micromanaged. Do not expect to be developed into a leader because they do not know how to be leaders themselves. Like most things, they will outsource your development rather than growing you. Direction of the Company: The company primarily cares of making revenue (understandable to an extent). However, where they go wrong is that they do NOT take the time to do things right. Expect bare minimum as acceptable. If you are someone that feels strongly about strategic direction and how to do it properly, this is not the company for you. The time they give teams to meet goals are completely unreasonable so you will likely end up cutting a lot of corners and having to fix it sometime down the road. Expect to be bulldozed often. Immediate money making projects will always be prioritized so expect to be pulled off of projects to support how to make the executives more money.

Explore other reviews about Digital Trends

5.0
16 Aug 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Learned so much about video editing, I felt welcomed and was always assisted when needed, would highly recommend to anyone who is interested in editing or media to check them out!

Cons

Didn't get much of an understanding of the other aspects of the company such as its other brands

2.0
24 Mar 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

-Flexible PTO -Work from home

Cons

Digital Trends Media Group (or Digital Trends, if you prefer) is a cesspool of terrible leadership, fragile egos, poor revenue, and no direction. The CEO shifts direction every few months because he is just a terrible businessperson. Sales can’t make the company any money. All the websites DTMG owns rely on former glory, but traffic on all of them is down at LEAST 80% in the past few years. You will have no tools you need, freelancers won’t get paid for the work they do, you will be lied to repeatedly, and there’s a ton of turnover at this small, failing publisher. DTMG is a complete joke. Finding a job is hard, but there’s no such thing as a career at DTMG. If you’re offered a job here that you have to take because you have bills to pay, get out as fast as you can. DTMG leadership has tons of skeletons in the closet. They’ll tell you that’s not who they are. They’re lying. This company and its people are toxic and petty. Every positive review this company has is solicited; none of them are genuine. I know because the former COO asked everyone to give a positive review here to boost the company's ranking. AVOID DTMG.

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