Pros
Let me start by saying that I left Yellow Scene over a year ago. I cannot speak to the current happenings of the company, but I can give an honest account of my time there and why I would not recommend it to any young designer. I also cannot comment on anything that an account manager might face in their day-to-day experiences as I was not in that position. My notes here are also based on being successfully employed for over a year at a different, even smaller company. Pros: - The work that you get to do can be fun and challenging. - There is a possibility for a raise at your 3 and 6 month reviews in your first year + yearly review - As a designer, the amount of different things you get to experience (photo shoot direction, a little bit of wordpress, a little bit of email creation etc…) is pretty great but is definitely not unique to this company. - The trade ledger can be a huge perk for people but personally I didn’t value it that much., it’s hard to pay rent in gift cards. - The team that you work in is pretty tight-knit. It’s great for bouncing creative ideas off of each other and growing together. - Some would consider getting the day after deadline off as a perk. However, you've basically already put in your day's work the evening before during the 16+ hour marathon. This is also pretty standard for publication companies with a similar cycle.
Cons
- Some of the above perks are lorded over you as a “reminder” that you should be lucky to work at Yellow Scene. I know that you don’t have to offer them and I do not expect them. - I felt that I did not earn my first raise based on my performance, I “earned” it because I happened to be on the publisher’s good side at the time of my review. That is not how performance-based bonuses/raises should work. - You are micro-managed in the extreme regardless of whether you’ve been there for 1 week or 3 months or 1 year. You will never be trusted to do your job no matter the quality of work you produce. - Because I happened to be a few years older than my co-workers, they constantly had to deal with being told that I was more responsible/better/a harder worker than them simply because of my age even though all of us worked extremely hard. - On top of ageist remarks, the publisher makes racist and sexist comments. She passes them off as jokes if you call her out on it and then goes right back to it. Having a “strong personality” is a great thing! Constantly demeaning others is not. - The basement office was very dirty. I think that it’s perfectly reasonable to have the staff clean it up once a week from regular work-related usage. What I didn’t find acceptable was the lack of provided cleaning supplies and the fact that nearly every day we had to pick up dog poop or clean cat urine from the basement hallway that had been there since the night before. - The publisher plays favorites and it can change on a dime. I was lucky enough to be on her good side for a majority of my time there and experienced no difficulties myself. However one of my coworkers got on her bad side and their work started getting rejected for no reason. One day, I started sending their work from my email and visa-versa. Their work that I sent got approved and mine from their email got sent back until I made a minor change and then sent it again from my email. When I left that was still never resolved even though the employee had several meetings with her and the assistant at the time. - The work from home set-up while I was there was basically nonexistent for the design team. Eventually something was worked out but it was still really frowned upon. - The publisher gossips about former and current employees - The publisher does indeed yell. A lot. There was one “argument” I witnessed between her and our editor at the time; the editor was trying to make their point and the publisher just shouted “NO” repeatedly at them and interrupted them. Honestly at times I felt like children in wal-mart were more professional. - Adding on to the previous one, the publisher will berate you in front of your co-workers or even potential clients. And the thin walls in the office allow you to overhear every single word. - Any attempt to suggest change was met with childish resistance whether or not your idea was any good. You simply were not heard out and any new opinions were considered garbage. - While I was there, I did indeed receive two paychecks a month. Just barely some months; I can only think of 2 checks that were less than 2 weeks late. I honestly don’t get why some of these reviews are promoting this as a “perk.” It. Should. Be. Standard. If you can only afford to pay your employees once a month, then change your employment contract. And if you can’t afford to pay your employees then you don’t have a company.
