Skip to contentSkip to footer
      employer cover photo
      employer logo
      employer logo

      Obsidian Digital

      Is this your company?

      Obsidian Digital Reviews

      3.7

      64% would recommend to a friend

      (25 total reviews)

      Emil Ignatzi Reinholdt

      49% approve of CEO

      64% positive business outlook

      Ratings by category

      3.9

      Career opportunities

      3.6

      Diversity and inclusion

      3.2

      Work/Life balance

      3.1

      Culture and values

      3.1

      Senior management

      3.0

      Compensation and benefits

      Obsidian Digital has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 25 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Obsidian Digital employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Media and communication industry (3.7 stars).

      Reviews by job title

      25 reviews
      1.0
      27 Mar 2022

      Underpaid and overworked

      Consultant
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      One of Obsidians unique selling points is the very young and social working environment. This is true, but it comes at a price and it can be a bit like a high school for adults; drama, gossiping and bullying amongst coworkers, managers and partners. Life is very cheap when you work at Obsidian because we often eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at the office and on Fridays, there is an unlimited supply of alcohol. It is possible to progress quickly, although it remains to be seen how Obsidian job titles compare with similar job titles at other companies. At Consultant level and above we are able to attain frequent pay raises and the conditions are much more favourable. It seems things only improve further once you are promoted to Senior Consultant and above.

      Cons

      Obsidian primarily hires fresh graduates due to issues with hiring anyone experienced as they have earned a terrible reputation within the Danish marketing scene. Obsidian promises you the world if you are willing to make an “investment” in yourself, which is code for working long hours every day without overtime pay. When you begin as an entry-level employee, you will learn and have a lot of responsibility from the beginning. However, the in-house “learnings” are not particularly impressive. You are mostly trained by other entry-level or junior members of staff who have only been in the industry a few months longer than you. We rarely have the time to teach things properly and the words “I don’t know or ask someone else '' are very commonly used in response to asking for help because our workload as more senior members of staff are equally high and we do not have time to train the newbies. It is a very unhealthy and competitive working environment. People are not afraid of doing whatever it takes to get ahead and there is absolutely no team spirit. You are expected to work extra hours every day without financial compensation and you may get offered a sandwich for dinner or leftovers from the canteen lunch as compensation. It is considered unacceptable to leave at 17:00 when your official work day ends and if you do, managers, partners and colleagues will take note. This has been known to affect your performance review negatively along with drawing negative comments from other members of staff. You are informed about the long working hours during the interview stage with the promise that if you put in extra hours you will progress quickly and get a promotion within a year. However, the departments vary greatly and in some more technical departments, people receive their first promotion within a year and in others, they have to wait longer. Management cares more about how many hours you spend at the office than your work and skills. Some people manage to sit and watch youtube videos and yet have still convinced management that they are great workers because they spend so many extra hours at the office. Gender inequality is definitely an issue at Obsidian and very few females are in senior positions. This is something the CEO has vehemently denied during meetings and despite very clear evidence that it is an issue has so far been totally unaddressed. Working from home is allowed only under very specific circumstances and requires permission from management. This is not a company that has embraced a hybrid working model as management has zero trust in employees. Even during the pandemic, whilst we were technically allowed to work from home, management would question why people weren’t in the office and pressure would be exerted on people who had chosen to work from home to return. This also resulted in many members of staff coming to work sick and we’ve had many illnesses including covid spread around the office due to the fear many staff feel about taking sick days. The attrition rate is extremely high at Obsidian. Employees leaving due to stress is very normal. Whilst I have been at the company at least 5 people have been signed off due to stress and have then “left” the company, disappearing from one day to the other. Obsidian does nothing to prevent stress and the causes of stress are never addressed, even when management has been informed. No benefits such as pension are offered at Obsidian and we have to use our private phones for work purposes which means that both clients and colleagues are able to, and do, call you 24/7 even when you are on vacation. The office equipment at Obsidian is all very cheap and often quite old/used. This budget mindset is also true of Christmas presents and company events.

      avatar
      Obsidian Digital Response
      4y
      Hi former employee While we would prefer not to make this a public thing for everyone to read, we feel obliged to call out both the misunderstandings and deliberate wrongful accusations on your part. For this reason, we would like to note that some of the following statements may appear harsh, but we do not want to let this stand here unopposed and we are willing to lay the facts on the table. Knowing who you are, we are not surprised to see this review. Despite our collaboration lasting only a year, you took more HR-resources than anyone in our six year history and made at least one employee quit our organization. While we tried to make it work and kept investing resources, we believe you finding somewhere else to work was for the best. This 'review' only confirmed this belief. We hope that you find more success in your next employment at a new agency. For everyone else reading, here is a short breakdown of the 11 accusations that we found in this ‘review’: -- "Obsidian only hires newly graduated people and have a bad reputation" We are proud of training the CMOs of tomorrow. As one of relatively few agencies, we would like to hire people without experience and train them ourselves. This included you in the beginning.. We do also hire senior personnel as well, but we prefer to promote people inside the organization as one of the benefits of working with Obsidian. If our reputation is poor, it is only amongst people you talk with. Growing with inbound marketing only and receiving +1000 yearly applications across our offices are proof of the opposite. -- "The training is inadequate" As an inbound marketing-agency with no contractual obligations for our clients to stay with us, they only do so if we deliver a great product. We can only deliver a great product with great training. Our growth from the last six years in itself disproves this accusation. However, as the saying goes, we can only get the horse to the water. We can not make it drink. If people do not want to learn, the best training in the world can’t change this. -- "The environment is hostile" We actually believe that you felt this. This 'review' is a great example of the hostile attitude you had towards our agency and your co-workers. We’ve never had a person with this many controversies with people from all departments. Fortunately, this does not reflect the experience of the average employee. -- "A lot of work is expected" Yes. With Obsidian, we wanted to create the digital marketing-equivalent of working with McKinsey, Kromann Reumert or Deloitte. This means setting a high standard with our product. We are 100 % transparent in all of our recruiting material and in possible talks with possible hires that Obsidian is for you only if you are looking for a career and not merely ‘some job’. While more than average work is to be expected for the first year, after being promoted to the next level, it is possible to work with Obsidian at a regular working hour-tempo - or continue in a higher gear with more responsibilities and a higher salary. This depends on personal preference. An example of this is that the majority of our senior personnel have a familiy at home and for that reason works regular hours. -- "Poor food" We offer free breakfast, lunch and dinner for all employees. Lunch is served in the canteen of Parken with three tables of hot and cold food every day. The food is made in a kitchen with several dedicated chefs. Every single night, we order out from different restaurants with delivery for those who stay for dinner. If this is not good enough, you are free to not participate. -- "Facetime means more than real work" We evaluate based on merit. Merit comes from delivering great results for your clients, delivering on time and receiving high ‘quarterlies’ from your colleagues above you. We understand your disappointment of not getting a promotion, but rest assured it was not a lack of facetime. -- "Working at the office is required and is a bad thing" We are open about the fact that we would like people to work at the office. We are able to provide better training in person and we believe that the culture - our most valuable asset - is best carried out in person. -- "Gender equality" While 1 out of 3 managing directors and our CFO is female, we would greatly like to see even more female leadership and we encourage anyone (male or female) with the right qualifications to apply with Obsidian. -- "Pension" We offer a voluntary pension scheme for anyone who wants to participate. -- "Christmas gifts" This is a strange item on the list, but we are sorry that you were not contempt with last year's Christmas (or Easter) presents.
      2.0
      20 Nov 2023

      Company for beginners

      Associate consultant
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      The company provides valuable learning experiences for beginners in digital marketing but faces challenges in fostering a fair and respectful work environment, particularly in terms of workload distribution, communication, and career advancement.

      Cons

      The initial pairing with Danish colleagues, who may not necessarily have more expertise, leads to a faster learning curve for them due to direct client communication. However, this often results in exclusion of Banja Luka's colleges from meetings and strategic planning sessions, despite being considered teammates on certain clients. In the Banja Luka office, employees often find themselves in a support role for Danish colleagues, handling emails, reports, and execution on their behalf. This dynamic sometimes extends to explaining tasks and creating guides for clients, highlighting a lack of equal distribution of responsibilities. Juggling 12-15 clients, or even more, is the norm, with the expectation to be proactive, generate new ideas, and provide daily updates to Danish consultants. Career evaluations and promotions heavily depend on the comments of these consultants. Positive reviews and raises appear to be more likely with kind and knowledgeable consultants, but this is not guaranteed. Dealing with consultants who display egotistic behavior, narcissism, and poor English skills can lead to stress and passive-aggressive communication, potentially obstructing well-deserved promotions. There seems to be a frequent lack of respect and appreciation from Danish colleagues towards counterparts in Banja Luka. Although management acknowledges the issue, the proposed solution is often to wait for individuals to tire of the situation or leave the company. The company's defense against criticism is that only underperformers complain. However, recent resignations of several senior employees, with more considering leaving, suggest a failure to acknowledge and appreciate the workforce. Raises and salary are not even worth mentioning.

      1.0
      24 July 2022

      Avoid Obsidian if you can

      Senior consultant
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      If you enjoy drinking there is free beer every Friday and at times we have stayed until the early hours of Saturday morning. There has also at times been free dinner provided if you are prepared to stay late. You are given a reasonably high level of autonomy almost from day one. They will hire you whatever your skill level. I know of quite a few colleagues who have gone on to much better roles having started at Obsidian so if you can handle a couple of years it can be a good stepping stone. Since they have the backing of a pension fund they are probably a fairly secure place to work and getting fired is almost unheard of.

      Cons

      During the past 2 years I have seen Obsidian grow a lot, but the company is still ran like a small business - and not in a good way. The pay at Obsidian is definitely below market rates, you will start somewhere under 30k and even managers are on less than 55k. Student workers are paid less than 20k which I honestly think is outrageous considering how poorly they are treated and the hours they are expected to work. They rely on hiring the weaker applicants which other companies didn't pick. I can speak from experience that after failing to get a job elsewhere due to doing the wrong degree and lacking any experiences - Obsidian were my last chance and luckily they did hire me. The progression is poor, even after 2 years I am still on below what my friends at other agencies make and they have far more benefits like pension, company phone and a Macbook. This is obvious from the fact that the turnover at Obsidian is very high once people have got their first 18 months out of the way. There is rampant nepotism - a recent round of promotions and raises showed the companies true colors. One person was promoted far earlier than is usual and no questions were asked despite it being well known that they're dating their manager. Pay rises to even match inflation were also nowhere to be seen, I have friends working for other similar companies who have been given bonuses and generous raises but we were given almost nothing. The selection of clients Obsidian have is a mixture of a small number of medium sizes companies which are generally new to the market and then the majority is made up of small webshops. Which clients you get given really effects how you will progress technically and whilst I believe I've been trying my best I know even the managers don't have the same technical skills which you will get taught at other more successful agencies and this can be limiting. Perhaps the worst part of Obsidian is the constant bullying and lack of compassion both from colleagues and managers. Over the two years I have worked at Obsidian I have seen one mass resignation of 5+ people which led to the formation of a competitor, at least 10 people go down with stress and multiple other people suddenly disappear without any explanation. This goes with being expected to work 50+ hours a week with no overtime pay and I know of colleagues who push closer to 70 hours a week and management make no effort to look out for them.

      Viewing 1 - 3 of 25 Reviews
      Related searches: Obsidian Digital jobs | Obsidian Digital salaries | Obsidian Digital benefits | Obsidian Digital interviews
      ReviewsObsidian Digital reviews

      Glassdoor has 26 Obsidian Digital reviews submitted anonymously by Obsidian Digital employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Obsidian Digital is right for you.