MOD Worldwide Reviews

If you read any post to the end, please let it be this one. I know it’s long, but bear with me. I imagine you are sitting at your computer looking at the Glassdoor Reviews because you’ve just been offered an interview or a job at MOD. Seeing all these horrible reviews probably has you worried, but the interspersed 5 and 4 star reviews have you do mental gymnastics to try to convince yourself that this job “just isn’t for everyone” like the company's responses and those 5-star “reviews” keeps trying to push. I know the position you’re in because I was in that same position 4 years ago, and I’m telling you, BELIEVE the bad reviews. I used to tell my friends about the absolutely crazy things I had to deal with at MOD (quite similar to what you are reading in the bad reviews), and they didn’t believe me either. The experiences we’ve all had with the owners frankly DOES feel like a work of fiction. I’ve watched countless coworkers and friends leave their office in tears because of the completely inappropriate and unprofessional ways the owners berated them, myself included on MULTIPLE occasions. Below I’m going to try to outline just a select few of the horrible things wrong with this company and it’s leadership because I if I sat here and typed out every story, you’d have an entire book series (and honestly some of it would might put me at legal risk to share, and I don’t feel like going to court). I think the best way to do this is to walk you through what you are likely to experience if you DO take a job at MOD. Chances are you are fresh out of college (they love a new grad who doesn’t recognize that their abusive work culture is not actually the standard). You will go into your interview where you will meet the owners and think “wow! I actually got to meet the owners directly and they’re SO cool and personable. This seems like a really cool, laid back place to work!” (They will pull you in with the promise of dogs and “special perks” which seem cool, but I promise are not nearly as cool in practice lol). Then you start, if you’re working close to John and Nina (the owners) on an in-house project, they will make you feel special and important. They will make you feel like you have a real say and real responsibilities that can have an impact. “What a resume builder!!” you will think. They will try to espouse this same level of love and caring to you if you’re distant from them, although perhaps to a lesser degree. This is when they will likely tell you about the “Glassdoor problem” (or someone they have control over will) and hint that you should write a positive Glassdoor review to help. Back in the day, I was tasked with “fixing our Glassdoor review problem,” did research, and proposed the only acceptable response: Respond to the reviews, acknowledge their pains and frustrations without admitting fault, and talk about what you’re doing to address those issues to ensure no one ever feels that way again. (You’ll notice this is now the exact approach they take, which I regret ever suggesting to them.) But, at the time, their response? “I’m not giving into terrorists! Figure out how to get them taken down.” You might think I’m embellishing, but no joke, this is exactly what they said to me, and I’ve held onto that line ever since. Now, you’re roughly 6 months to a year into the job, depending on how much you seemed to buy their false niceties, and you suddenly aren’t getting the same attention and support. You’ll find friends throughout the office, go to happy hours, talk real with them, and start to realize “hey, me and a lot of my coworkers are having similar experiences to what I read on Glassdoor.” You’re beginning to notice the inappropriate comments John is making or the way he talks differently (aka talks down) to women. You’re starting to hear about the owners screaming at people or talking over them just to put them down in super personal pointed ways totally unfitting to the situation. You’re noticing that the same people are constantly being “asked” to work through the night (which is not the “sometimes” occurrence or “industry-standard” they will try to say it is). This is when the “maybe I’m the one who can help make changes for the better” mindset kicks in. I mean John has been saying “I want you to tell me when I have spinach in my teeth” (his favorite line), and they’ve been so supportive of you so far, so why wouldn’t you try to help change them for the better? You will poor your mind, body, and soul into side projects and advocacy for you and your coworkers who are having horrible experiences. You will think “oh, maybe I can help fix project management by proposing ways to streamline the process” or “maybe I could advocate for more realistic timelines on my coworkers behalf” or, in my case, “maybe I can help launch a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion group to help educate them on issues of Diversity, give productive support to employees feeling discriminated against, and get policies changed (or get those childish trans-exclusive bathroom door signs changed. You’ll see what I’m talking about if you ever go into the office).” You’ll bring this idea to leadership (or probably HR now), and they seem on board and supportive of your ideas. They love your “initiative!” They want you to present your ideas to them. So you do! You form that group or make those suggestions and maybe they make you feel heard, but chances are they will shoot down your ideas for (insert random excuse here). OR, which is more likely the case now, they will insert another person into the process that they have control over. They will seem SO nice. They will tell you they are there for YOU. All the while, they will just protect the owners from taking responsibility for undercutting everything you do. They will serve as the voice between your initiative and the owners. But as soon as you are frustrated or pushing them too far to be somewhat decent human beings, they will say “we just want you to be able to focus more on your primary role, so some other employee they have a chokehold on is going to take over.” And after all the time you spent getting the initiative off the ground, they will give all the credit to whoever they installed in your place while trashing everything you set up. Then, finally you enter the stage every MOD employee reaches sooner or later, the “This place is awful, and even though I thought I was making progress with them, they reverted right back to the same way they were before.” You will feel trapped. You will feel gaslit (seriously, it’s like their favorite pastime). You will feel inadequate. And you will feel helpless. Around this time, you’ll give up on trying to change things and just put your head down and do the work you have to do. You will tell yourself you are going to look for another job, but they will have sucked away all your confidence and energy leaving you stranded at a dead end company where you close coworkers are the only solace you have. You will rely heavily on your direct manager to serve as a buffer between you and them so you can avoid dealing with the owners’s completely inappropriate mood swings. You will have been got and wishing you has listened to all the bad reviews on Glassdoor so many years ago. This sounds dramatic. This sounds incredibly specific, like there is no way this could apply to other employees. You may be thinking I’m just some disgruntled worker who “wasn’t the right fit” and wants to punish them for letting me go. But I was let go “for purely business reasons, absolutely nothing personal,” and I’ve been collecting these thoughts and experiences for years. I’ve watched this story play out year after year, not just in my own experience but for almost every single employee who comes through. I am glad I let go because I was trapped in the final phase I described above, but I pride myself on exposing corruption and creating a better world. I always intended to share this information regardless of whether I left on my own or was laid off, and I hope you will believe me on that. (I would’ve shared these thoughts and experiences with them during my time there, and did try to an extent, but as I mentioned, telling them about the “spinach in their teeth” only puts a target on your back and leads to you being berated in very personal ways. I can only cry at work so much lol) There are a few other important things I’d hate myself for not calling out, so here’s a list: - every decision the owners make is almost entirely based on how it will make them look, not on whether or not it’s actually a good decision for the employees OR the business. They’ll likely say I just don’t understand the business decisions they are dealing with, but I sat in their office across the desk from the owners for the first year. I promise it’s all ego.) - the owners pretend to be super progressive, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. I was an LGBTQ employee and it’s clear that only white gay men (like myself) are on their support list. Even then, you can’t make too much noise on anyone else’s behalf. After doing a series of talks for Pride month, I was starting to come up with other ideas for the Diversity and inclusion group to focus on. Unprompted, the owners told me “no more of the gay stuff. We’ve had enough of that,” (paraphrasing a little but not much 😳). I was also in charge of making a post for Pride as the head of social (because I literally did four full time jobs for them). I have never felt so disrespected and unheard in my life. They wanted to show off my community but refused to do literally any concept which actually helped our community (such as drawing attention to anti-trans bans or non-binary inclusive design) because they didn’t agree with the “politics.” We posted a flag 😐. Oh, and when I was randomly uninstalled as the head of Social, every single post about Diversity and inclusion (that the owner literally approved) was IMMEDIATELY removed by the owner without telling anyone. Don’t believe me? Check out their Instagram. Ultimately, despite having a great group of regular Diversity & inclusion teammates I worked with in the division, the owners chose someone outside the group to lead. They clearly aren’t progressive in any way. But as the founder of the division, I was close with a lot of diverse people that have gone through MOD, and their stories are much worse. The company is likely going to reply to this comment and promise it’s in good hands, and swear they are doing things to address it, but I beg you not to trust them. This is not a diversity-aware or inclusive environment and with the owners at the helm, it never will be. To my LGBTQ folks and POC, please do not put yourself through this pain. You deserve to be in a safer work environment. - Working in accounts, the owners love to randomly insert themselves into projects or client meetings with zero notice or background, say a bunch of things that are out of scope, already rejected by clients, or just straight up bad ideas directly TO the client. I LOVED my clients, but when the owners tagged along, they made the clients SO uncomfortable with inappropriate jokes, bad ideas, and diversions from the meeting for like half the allotted time. They really think they are super funny and cool, but every single one of the clients beg to differ. If you are joining accounts, be prepared to clean up their messes a lot and have them blame you for “not catching them up to speed” when they join a meeting unannounced and frustrate a client. Ok, I think I hit on most of the things I wanted to mention. I hope you really do listen to my warning, or at the very least look out for the signs when you start working there. As soon as you notice any of what I’m saying is true, run! I’m sure you are absolutely incredibly talented, and I’m sure you are a tough nut that can put up with a lot, (literally everyone at MOD is), but that is all the more reason to give your skills to a company that deserves you and will actually invest that same energy back into your career. MOD is a dead end, and despite the fear that comes with turning down a job, I PROMISE you will be much happier and better off in the end. Sending you much love in your job journey❤️