Dysfunctional Owner - Marketing Graf-Martin Communications Employee Review

- Some nice staff members, willing to share what they know, and collaborate - Opportunity for learning to be resourceful since it's a small business - Working with some interesting clients - Respectful of 8:30am-5pm hours

- Gaslighting, favouritism, and abuse by the owner, who is extremely toxic. Original staff members are cliquey. -Don't fall for the owner's "good Christian" farce, that's only to help her business motives - Few resources to work with, unwilling to pay for subscriptions or software, everything should be free (e.g. only one laptop had AdobeCC for sharing among team members as needed, using generic free stock photos to post on clients' social media accounts, careless use of sketchy free software with no regard for clients' privacy and sensitive data, etc) - Questionable practices with respect to data privacy, email databases, and huge CASL compliance concerns - Pay way below average for the region/expertise - The "core values" the owner preaches about are a joke. Integrity: Use of loopholes that barely comply with CASL; Innovation: Limited knowledge and capacity to produce original content/assets in house; Best Effort: They stick to minimum effort on many clients' work because time=money - Their business formula is basically distributing good marketing assets already made by large clients, or producing mediocre original content for small clients - Working space was uncomfortable, messy, and noisy

The culture has shifted in a positive direction in the last 2 years after there was a change in staff. During the pandemic the owner went out of the way to ensure the team felt connected, genuine in concern for our well- being. With new staff joining the team, our dynamic changed. The office is a happy, exciting place to go to every day, we eat lunch together as a team, and have great snacks! We do extremely meaningful work for nonprofit organizations across Canada and now into the US. We are busier than ever and appreciate the room the owner has given us for personal and professional growth.

Projects with tight turnarounds can cause stress on those who aren't flexible or can't multi-task.