Pros
There really are some wildly talented and genuinely kind people here. I've made a handful of friends/connections that I'm so grateful for.
Cons
Let's start with staffing—the number one issue across the agency. On the creative side, Praytell is bringing in more work than the team has capacity for. My colleagues and I *consistently* raised flags regarding how thin we were stretched, and each time we were met with the promise that they were searching for more talent—but this promise spanned 6 months with no new hires, and little effort to bring in freelance/contractor help. (Meanwhile, we were actively losing more full time creatives.) Additionally, our project manager went *above and beyond* to advocate for our time, but ultimately their efforts were dismissed by higher management. This leads me to the creative work. Because we were so desperately overstretched with creative production, there was little room for brainstorming, trial and error, experimentation, etc.—all things that are essential to good creative work. It was a constant churn and burn—always a game of catch up. Consequentially, there wasn't much opportunity for creative growth, especially for junior/mid-level designers. Praytell is skilled at winning cool/notable clients, but they consistently handed those projects off entirely to freelancers or director-level creatives, leaving the rest of us with repetitive retainer work. I understand the need for these accounts for business, but allocating your entire team to redundant monthly social content is a fast track to burnout and mediocre work. Additionally, because director-level creatives were so slammed with these projects, they rarely had time to invest in us as a team and help make our work better. When it comes to account management, Praytell has no backbone. Saying yes to every request that comes in from the client is not a sustainable business model. As a mid-level designer, it should not have fallen on me to say no to the client. Account management rarely stepped in to mediate or help figure out a path forward when client requests were unrealistic. This was the final straw for me. Diversity / Inclusion - Praytell means well. But it's not enough. It's a classic case of diversity at the bottom and white men at the top. I saw first-hand how my colleagues (who were neither white, nor men) persistently advocated for promotions/raises, only to be met with empty promises. Meanwhile, select men were promoted during a supposed "agency-wide promotion freeze". (One of whom has been repeatedly reported for misogynistic and racist comments/actions—another nail in the coffin for me.) The ERGs are a good resource for community within Praytell, but ultimately I did not feel they had any influence in the professional/business side of things. Benefits are good on the surface, but are difficult to use in practice. PTO (while unlimited) is difficult to use when teams are so thinly stretched. And the 4 day work week (a trial run during my time there) doesn't work when account management can't set clear boundaries with the client on behalf of their teams. *There is some top-notch talent at Praytell, and these words don't apply to everyone. (You know who you are.)*