I wish I had never worked here - Multimedia Designer Common Thread Collective Employee Review

CTC destroyed my belief in what a positive company culture could look like. A full 2 weeks of onboarding led me to believe that deep down, CTC actually cared about their employees. I genuinely believed their core values, flexible WFH policy, generous PTO, and emphasis on protecting the mental health of workers while fostering their growth as employees were REAL. I was so relieved for one single moment I had found a good place to work, that when reality hit me square in the face, I was in denial for months. They champion work life balance but nothing could have been further from the truth. I worked an average of 50 hours a week (the company's supposed policy is "to not work more than 30 hours a week including meetings") The understanding that communication is the best thing possible because "Clear is Kind" backfired on multiple employees who shared genuinely concerning feedback on their experiences. Retaliation was real and power dynamics were routinely abused. I was gaslit about adjusting the size of my workload so many times, I just stopped asking. The company downsized by almost half its size by the time I was laid off (as part of the fifth or sixth round of lay offs in 2022 alone). I didn't even get to work here for a year but I had the highest score possible on all my performance reviews. This company is failing more than it is succeeding, and it's because the CEO is a former major league baseball player who runs the business like it's his favorite hobby, oblivious to the lives and careers he destroys along the way. He apparently built the company to "help entrepreneurs achieve their dreams," but all he has done is crush mine and plenty of others' to smithereens. I wish I would have saved myself the heartache and never joined Common Thread Collective.