Brickfish Reviews

Compensation: Pathways to growth and raises are completely unclear and the way they are ultimately managed is hugely unprofessional and sporadic. They start you off very low - somewhere in the 20k range - and gradually move you up by 2k here or 3k there whenever they feel like it. There is no formal application or internal review process for growth and 90% of the time it just boils down to the mood the boss is in. At Christmas is was decided (and widely publicized) that only employees who had been working there for over a year (a very small % of the employees, mind you, the turnover rate is very high) would get a holiday bonus. However, there was a bit of mystery money leftover and the CEO decided to let our co-workers decide who was "worthy" of also getting part of the bonus. Bonuses, growth, and raises should not be reduced to a popularity contest. It devalues the employees and discounts any hard work they may be doing. Playing favorites is not a way to run a company. Value of Employees: Management does not value his employees. I can remember at least two instances when an employee was told "if you don't want to do this then I can find someone who will." Ultimatums are made frequently and it is not uncommon for a person's job security to be threatened publicly. Hugely unprofessional. It does not instill confidence in the employee or the work they're doing. This definitely contributed to the high turnover rate. The company could actually produce some high quality work if they didn't make it abundantly clear that they kept employees because they suck up and not because they're talented and have useful skills. Saw some very skillful people come and go. Work Load: When trying to lock down clients we were encouraged to say yes to everything and figure out how to execute later. The company's capabilities were frequently overstated. When it came time to actually provide the work that was promised it led to panic, stress, and a whole lot of blame. And of course more "if you dont want to do it then I'll find someone who will." This led to a consistently unreasonably high amount of work in a small time frame without the proper tools. I guess this is also an example of how management doesn't value their employees, because if they did they would be creating a work environment that was more reasonable. Expertise: The staff is very young and nobody has really mastered what they're doing. There are probably 2 employees who are over 5 years out of college. This is due in part to the high turnover rate. Nobody really sticks around long enough to become fully competent at their position. Additionally, since people are always leaving roles are being switched - forcing people to do jobs they didn't interview for or may not have the skill set for. Example: one of these shifts involved the office assistant becoming the manager of social media. I guess thats another example of how growth is unclear... people dont really advance they're just shuffled around. Professionalism: There are a lot of young employees in the office, and often times the social aspect of the office would leak into the "professional" aspect of the office. People hooked up (not at work, of course) and it would spread around like wildfire. It seemed that management got a kick out of it and really enjoyed participating in the gossip. HR does not exist. Inappropriate jokes are made all the time. It's very clicky and people kind of play favorites. Potential clients are more likely to be given to one of the favorites.

Unfortunately, the majority of these positive reviews are written by the CEO or by current employees after being asked to by the CEO. The way that Brickfish is run is unfortunate. The CEO doesn't connect with his employees and lies to his clients / future clients, creating chaos in the office. He purposely hires people right out of school because their lack of knowledge and desperation for employment is easily manipulated. If you trust him, then you are making a deal with the devil.  Brickfish is a digital agency that doesn’t create their own content because the CEO is too cheap to hire a production team, which means there is limited work to do. The very few clients that have stuck around have decreased the work and money in their contracts or have left Brickfish for more reputable agencies. Upper management and the CEO have a lack of respect for their employees and think that they can do anyone’s job better, which creates tension and outright fights / scenes in the middle of the office.