Strategic Factory Reviews

I worked with this company for almost seven years and was an integral part in building their brand, organizational structure, marketing, and culture. During my time there I believed I could really make a difference and was truly thankful for the opportunities I had. The team has some amazing people, and I have a genuine love for them. Conversely, I feel a moral obligation to write this review to try to shed some truth and expose some serious issues as a warning to others. I know this company very well. I was involved in almost every aspect of it and witnessed a lot over my years there. If you are a loyal, diligent, and trustworthy person, they will want to have you, but they don’t deserve you. They will take full advantage of you and use you until you have nothing left. They will likely take this review and tell you they have changed and made improvements, but I am here to tell you that as long as the owners and executive leadership are who they are, this will never be a good place to work. Any efforts to improve are hopeless with their leadership in place. My top ten reasons are as follows and if you want more details, you can continue reading below: 1. Complete Lack of Integrity and Moral Compass 2. “Nobody Cares, Work Harder” 3. Loyalty Demanded but Not Returned 4. Manipulation is Their Strength 5. Top Heavy Organization 6. They Do Not Trust Their Team 7. Lack of Training, Support, and Clarity 8. Master of None 9. Artificial Charity and Community Giving 10. Won’t Admit the Issues are There Below are further details on each of these points: 1. Complete Lack of Integrity and Moral Compass: They don’t care about the truth, they just care about looking good and making a profit. These reviews are a fine example - many of the good ones you see were urged by leadership. I have seen them lie to clients and employees alike. They make promises when they hire people and then never fulfill them. I advise anyone who works there or does business with them to check everything twice. You have to advocate for yourself. Do not trust them to take care of you or do honest business. They conduct their business with questionable morals and shady legality, and they will use you as a pawn. 2. “Nobody Cares, Work Harder”… This was a personal motto of Lamar Jackson and though I appreciate the motivation it has as a personal influence, this should never be the stance of a company. Our CEO had us put this on shirts to hand out to the company as part of a Raven’s campaign. As irony would have it, this is the most honest slogan we ever had. It doesn’t matter if there is too much on your plate, if you don’t know how because they never trained you, if you hardly have a team because they all quit, if jobs are pouring in beyond what you have the capacity to accomplish – you do whatever you have to do and give everything until you have nothing left. I know – I did this. I gave so much that I had no energy to give to my personal life and I was encouraged and lifted up as an ideal team member. Team members who didn’t give as much were looked at as less exceptional but what they really were is more balanced. They have a culture that makes you feel bad if you have to call out or if you put your personal life before the company. There is a complete lack of empathy for team members and no support for those who are giving their all. This leads into my next point… 3. Loyalty Demanded but Not Returned: They expect team members to put Strategic Factory above all else in their lives…if you are sick, if it is snowing or icy, if there is a pandemic, if people are rioting in the streets, if you are dealing with a lot in your personal life…all that doesn’t matter. Trust me, I was exactly what they wanted. I am loyal to a fault, and I gave everything to them. I came to work no matter what. I came in at 2am if I had to in order to keep things moving and get things done. I worked my tail off to try to take pressure off the rest of the team. I spent sometimes 60 hours or more a week there (the average was 50) with no extra pay. They loved it and they encouraged it, but it was at the expense of my health, my personal life/relationships and my soul. I understand and take responsibility for my part in this. I am just trying to warn others. I saw it time and time again. Unfortunately, despite expecting you to give everything, they will not give you what you deserve in return. They spend huge amounts of money on sponsorships, equipment and failed marketing campaigns, and then tell you they can't give you a raise or take care of you when a pandemic hits. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve worked there, or how much you give, they will take and take and it all goes to benefit the ownership. They thrive on young hires, low salaries, and turnover. The company policies, health benefits, and paid leave are in favor of the employer rather than the employee. They make you feel like there is something wrong with you if you are not able to handle everything…this brings me to my next point. 4. Manipulation is Their Strength: I went through so much time believing that the problem was with me. That I was crazy for having these thoughts and that I could make it better if I was good enough. Their mottos are a great example of the trap. “Can do, Will do, Happy to” translates to if you can’t do it or you won’t because you have too much going on, you are a bad employee with the wrong attitude. So put on a good attitude and give us everything because you are no good if you can’t do that. You don’t want to be a below-average employee with a negative attitude do you? “Yes, Yes, Yes” translates to here is more work that we said we could do but we actually can’t. You have to figure out how to do it along with everything else you do and if you can’t, it is because you are not good enough. “See it, Own it, Fix it” translates to, it is not our problem to fix, it is your problem to fix and it is not getting better because you are not good enough not because we won’t help you. They are masters of gaslighting, bullying, and hypocrisy. 5. Top Heavy Organization: The number of people managing the team vs. doing the work is ridiculously out of balance along with the salaries. They hire a crazy amount of high-level executives for a team of this size. The vice president/director-level team has little to no idea what is really going on with the overworked remainder of the team. They just keep throwing work and demands at them without properly training and helping to direct/manage the workload. They come up with ridiculous campaigns (that have failed over and over) and push that into the already over-stressed and overburdened flow of work. They put constant pressure on the team to achieve at a level that is far above what would normally be above-and-beyond. The executive team meets and has team-member reviews but they don’t fully know the people about whom they speak. They can’t seem to figure out how to do standard annual reviews with direct managers (likely because that normally is associated with raises which would be out of the question – just a theory there). They have a large HR team for that size company but they can’t seem to hire the much-needed team members – I don’t blame HR honestly, because the salary offers are low and the work environment is not good and not flexible (no matter what they say). They need to invest in the workers who are keeping the business going but instead they pour money into the salaries and ideas of the executive leadership team. 6. They Do Not Trust Their Team: Some of the executive leadership have very controlling personalities. They won’t let people work from home even if it makes sense for their job. They intend to have a great culture but they truly discourage team comradery. I cannot tell you the number of speeches we got about “side conversations” which basically meant we were not allowed to talk to each other. The CEO would say if you go around and talk for five minutes to three people, you have just wasted 30 minutes of company time. That is crazy talk. He himself will take people off task for much longer than that (including making us do personal projects for his kids). I understand the importance of not wasting company time and believe me, I gave every minute of the day to them. Conversely, don’t tell everyone they can’t talk to each other for five minutes. The leadership makes it feel like you should be under constant scrutiny and surveillance. You have to clock in for everything to give an account for every minute. Again, I am all for the need for accountability and tracking to evaluate results, but that isn't what they were doing. We couldn't even get budgets on the marketing team to help establish ROI. They do not understand the concept of treating people like professional adults. The truth is they cannot trust because they cannot be trusted. If you put the CEO under the same standards and surveillance, he would be put in jail. 7. Lack of Training, Support and Clarity: There is often so much pressure to get someone to fill the seats that no one has time to properly train team members. This is a huge problem. Direct managers are forced to do too much work because the turnover is ridiculous and we can’t keep afloat without them working their tails off. Not to mention, responsibilities are not clear for many positions. Because they put so much emphasis on growth over quality (see next point), they let people figure out where they belong and sometimes even wait to see how the dust settles after team members work to prove themselves. This creates a very confusing and stressful environment. Before you know it, you are held accountable for things that should never have been your responsibility and you are doing way more than you signed up for. Again, I take responsibility for my part in this (for taking on more and more) but it is all over the place. It is an indication of poor leadership. It is driven by the CEOs attitude. He holds people accountable by his gut feelings rather than clear expectations. When you ask for clear expectations and responsibilities, he turns it on you and tries to say you need to come up with them. It is leaderships responsibility to set expectations for their team, but with them, it is always changing and never clear. As a result, good team members take on more and more and it never stops. It is all a mind game that will drive you crazy if you are the type of person that really cares. 8. Master of None: To the ownership, growth is more important than doing the work well. They have a “fly by the seat of their pants” decision strategy which puts the rest of the team under unnecessary pressure to make it work. They constantly take on acquisitions without vetting them and properly planning to onboard them. They add new services without establishing the best and most quality-driven way to do them. As a result, not only does the team have to do the work, they have to learn how to do it while trying to do it quickly. The team is way overstressed, the quality suffers and the clients suffer because of this. 9. Artificial Charity and Community Giving: They will talk and publicize as if they are great community partners who care a lot about giving but they do not give without receiving. Our “sponsorships” are trade and we often end up making a profit. The team has tried many times to do donations and fundraisers but they are shut down. They will give examples of personal generosity, but it is rarely, if ever, given without receiving more in return. 10. Won’t Admit the Issues are There: Despite bringing such issues to the executive team, they dismiss them. They like to believe that everyone there is happy and those that bring up issues just have bad attitudes. The CEO surrounds himself with people who worship him instead of taking feedback and changing. This is the biggest red flag out there. My advise to anyone considering a job here is to know your worth. Don’t fall into this trap. Life is not worth the anxiety and pain of this place. The owners are bad businessmen, poor leaders, and terrible human beings.