There's a reason for that headline... you are not going to grow anything as an employee other than an ulcer and perhaps some new mental health issues from working here because:
Training
• No established practices
• No manual or training video
• Not every conversation needs to be “training”
• No one truly knows or fully understands WHAT they are doing therefore, they never understand HOW to properly explain tasks to other employees
• Conflicts in what is “supposed” to be correct; how does anyone know if there is no standard set?
Lacking in Resources
• Marketing team really needs MS Word; without it you are guaranteed to have devastating formatting issues that tarnish your brand
• Adobe Creative suite: Invest in it! You are severely crippling your Marketing capacity by not having a cache of visual media to promote the brand. Your brand is basic, generic and forgettable partially because that is all we have available (SEE COMMUNICATION FOR MORE)
Environment
• No breakroom
• Soundproofing is a joke
• File cabinets under desks always have random s*** in them when new employees get them
• I was moved around 4 times within the first two months of me working there, then when I finally settled into a workspace, I was asked to move again!
• We know nothing in the office is officially “ours,” however, if an employee has settled into a desk, please:
o Do not allow new employees to settle into a desk that is clearly occupied
o Do not move people without warning
• Stop worrying about the quantity of wastebins in a given area, no one feels “disempowered” by it and furthermore, WE RARELY HAVE GUESTS to the office so who are you attempting to impress? Unless the waste is putrid and creating a miasma of foul odor and/or is visually nauseating.
• It is a simple fix to either sequester the whiteboards in large armoire, gather the whiteboards behind a decorative curtain with the company logo on it, or store the blank ones in the storeroom adjacent to the executive office
• The parking lot needs to be plowed BEFORE all of us arrive… not as people are filing in
Communication & Leadership
• If you have the time to print a screenshot, then email it with instructions for what it’s for
• Not every conversation has to be “training”
o Just say what you want done
o Be direct
• Consider that using Disney as an example to live up to is a bad thing, they are known for their corruption and abusive business practices. Disney is only “delightful” for consumers—it is hell for the actual employees whose job it is to provide the “surprises and delights.” Choose a better metaphor.
• Use complements sparingly… some us find them disconcerting and your particular brand of complement giving feels empty and meaningless
• NO EMPLOYEE CAN READ YOUR MIND
o We truly madly deeply DO NOT know what you want
• Inconsistency is destructive: You are entitled to change your mind, but realized routinely you will approve language on written content only to say it is unacceptable
o Example: You approved a Facebook ad with a list of features, I reused those same features on a different Ad, and you called it “Marketing BS” when hilariously… they were word you chose
• Listening to you speak employees get the sense that our office if a soft dict@torship masquerading as a democracy
• When you hire people, they expect to perform the job duties of the position they applied for. You cannot expect a former journalist to want work in customer service if you hired them to be a writer.
• You have a full team of talented, intelligent and capable people (a few of which are media industry professionals)—BUT—you routinely impede them as they attempt to generate a brand identity on your behalf
Bottom line:
You should serve your time, learn what you can (if that is available to you), MOVE FORWARD. This place is a zero (a placeholder) in one's professional journey. Best suited for college students or someone who needs job experience.
