-Extremely high turn-over, lacks interest and/or actionable plan for long term employee retention
-Needs proper training/mentorship for junior staff, and official onboarding process to set employees up for success
-Low pay, roughly 15% lower than local industry standard
-Not ideal office for employees with children who need flexibility. Even if PTO is approved, the disappointment in your needs will still be passive aggressively expressed and openly gossiped with employees.
-Extreme lack of healthy company culture
-Employees uncomfortably reprimanded in public spaces, rather than taken into private offices to have a professional discussion
-Values and zen lifestyle promoted on social media does not align with energy in the office environment
-Management promises collaborative work environment, but will openly yell at team members if you are working (which involves speaking) as a team in the OPEN CONCEPT office space designed by said management.
-Micro-management: Every single detail of every project needs to be approved by management, which delays projects especially if owner is traveling.
-Owner travels often for work, and projects her anxiety onto the team leading up to trips
-Meditation room was used more for employees to cry, than to meditate.
-Lack of human respect and condescending communication, including senior team members literally being shushed in client meetings
-Current employees encouraged to leave positive employment reviews to offset honest, negative reviews
This is a firm for architects/designers who are only comfortable designing someone else’s ideas, rather than applying your own creativity. Employees who are agreeable and prefer to keep to themselves seem to have the best success. If you’re interested in a job for a year (the average tenure), this is a firm to get your feet wet, gain experience, and understand the rights (and wrongs) of how the design world works.
