- The job ad: The job advertisement seemed really fake, and I soon figured out that was because the company also seemed fake, once I got in. It’s really hard to tell what they actually do from the website so the entire interview process I was convinced the job would eventually fall through as a scam. It didn’t fall through, but I’m still not totally sure what the company actually does.
- The CEO: Thankfully due to my timezone I never had to attend the big company meetings with the CEO, which upon reading everyone else’s reviews on here, sound like quite a nightmare. On reviewing one of these meeting recordings, I found him to be very erratic, confusing and demanding. Demands from him seemed to trickle down very quickly, with things being suddenly cancelled or changed. I thus feel I can somewhat confirm what others on here have said about him, though I personally have no real evidence of his actions.
- Retrenchment: Myself and others were retrenched (after five months of me being at the company) due to the CEO cancelling our project with no warning. We were told about 6 weeks before our end date, but work ended around two weeks before said date, as there was nothing left to do. I feel as though work should have continued as per usual up until the end date, as I lost out on a lot of pay unnecessarily. This project had been going on for around 2+ years, and there was no sign of it slowing down until we were told outright it would be cancelled. The project wasn’t gaining any traction online, sure, but this had never stopped it in the previous 2+ years, so what did we have to question?
- I didn’t learn anything. Okay, maybe I learnt some things about admin, the way the company works, and what not to do, but I didn’t get much training in how to properly embody the brand’s voice. I was given feedback but not real training, just attempting to copy what those before me have done.
- No room for creativity or individuality. Work is laid out in extremely tight systems so much that even in creative roles, where you are somewhat encouraged to add your own flair, it is almost impossible to do so.
- Other staff 1: Some staff have poor reading comprehension and are unable to answer your questions correctly, or will ask you, someone who has been at the company only a few months, how to solve a simple problem. You feel as though you are working among AI people, as they speak very robotically over the messages (being remote work). I can’t fault this too much though, as I do believe it's because many employees have English as a second language, so take this point with a grain of salt.
- Other staff 2: Another review here points out that the company seems to attract staff from countries that are less economically developed. This does set off alarm bells for me when combined with my next point on super and benefits - there could be an argument made that the company is taking advantage of these countries/people from these countries.
- No super or benefits. Yes, I had to invoice the company as I was technically sub-contracted. Therefore, they didn’t have to pay me any superannuation. It seems like a way of getting around paying staff any benefits, and of not having to obey different countries superannuation requirements.
- Tracking: You are required to track every working minute of your day and submit an invoice based on this at the end of the month. You can easily lie, as long as the check in hours line up exactly with your daily task tracker hours, otherwise they won’t pay you unless unless it’s perfectly lined up. Tracking every minute of the day creates a massive sense of distrust, as the management is clearly not trusting enough of the staff to use their time properly, and want to keep tabs on every single thing you do.
- Invoicing: The invoicing system is a pain - if you are going to have staff approve the tasks you add into it, and staff who won’t pay you unless every detail is correct, then you may as well have staff to do your invoice on your behalf based on your daily task tracker, which everyone in the company can access anyway.
- Onboarding videos: The onboarding process included a lot of videos voiced by AI or text-to-speech. This again added to the company seeming ‘fake’ and as though no real people worked there. The videos (including a course you are required to complete and give feedback on) were voiced by something that would clearly have the wrong emphasis on parts of sentences and words, and was completely flat and not engaging. As a company that employs (sub-contracts) podcast hosts and street interviewers, it was disappointing to see that it would not also spend money on real voiceover artists to voice their training and course videos.
- Administration: As an aside on the end of my review, as I'm really not sure what to make of this one - a friend pointed out to me that the administrative staff I worked with remotely were all women, and could point to misogyny in the recruitment process. This is simply speculation, as it could be the case that only women applied for those roles.