Growth but at a Massive Cost - Manager Dig Insights Employee Review

2.0
28 Apr 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Growth: you learn a lot due to how many projects come into the company. We are constantly exposed to new methodologies, clients, and products. Talent: the people that work here are the best of the best at the work they do Reputation: the company is well-regarded in the industry. The innovation at DIG is unparalleled and other companies are trying to replicate DIG’s successes constantly.

Cons

Exhausting: the work is not just intense, it’s also too much work for the amount of people that work there. So many people will have to work hours and hours of overtime to meet tight deadlines. VPs never seem to want to say no to clients, which is great for profit but terrible for workers’ mental, emotional, and physical health. The amount of hours worked are starting to feel like the norm, and not like a crunch-time-only situation. And of course, because we are able to make those tight timelines by working overtime, people start thinking the timelines are reasonable and they repeat. Imbalance between talent and company growth: the company is growing immensely, especially now that it’s been acquired by Beringer, but it seems there haven’t been enough people hired to pick up that slack. While the company is getting bigger, the salaries remain the same while the workload gets much more intense. Time off paradox: we technically have unlimited vacation, so long as it works for our team and can be approved by our manager - except sometimes the manager will be reluctant to even let us have less than a week off because of how busy we are. We’re told to take our time back whenever we work overtime, but that never happens because there are so many deadlines and tight timelines, it becomes impossible to take that time back at all. Not being heard: with the growing distance between management and employees, it’s harder to have our concerns heard. It used to feel like DIG is people-first but now it’s all about the clients. This wouldn’t be a problem normally, but in this case, it feels like employees aren’t being heard and concerns are shrugged off. The sentiment feels very much like ‘we are so sorry that you are suffering. It’s concerning to us… but there is nothing we can do.’ As much as I think the founders are genuinely kind people, our experience at work relies heavily on middle management, who are not always concerned about our wellbeing. It’s the VPs that have the direct line to the founders, not the other employees who are suffering more. Overemphasis on culture: a positive work culture is great, but it’s not a replacement for work-life balance, salary increases, or bonuses. As nice as company events can be, I would rather lose some events if it means more resources to help us balance work and increase our mental health. Plus, when there is THIS much work to get done, events need to be skipped because it would only put us more behind. Salary issues: the pay is low, especially considering the amount of work. 40 hours a week is definitely not the amount many people end up working - so the hourly rate is lower than what we are told.

avatar
Dig Insights Response
2y
I appreciate the amount of time you put into providing this review, and I apologize for my delayed response. This is a very heartfelt review by someone who clearly cares a lot about the work they do and the people they work with and feels they are near the end of their rope. I hope you know that is not everyone's experience, but I do appreciate that this is (or was) yours. I am in the office 4x a week, and if you are still at the company, I truly would love to hear from you or anyone else about how you are feeling. When I do have conversations with others in the office I ask how they are, and see what they are working on, we often get into conversations about what's happening, what they like, or what we can improve, and I do act on it - all of my partners do, when we hear about it. As a company, I do think we empathize with everyone who feels they are working beyond their limits because we know what that is like. We don't want that to be the norm, but it sounds like it is or was for you. We are getting to a place where our work is being truly valued for what it is and what we have to offer because taking on extremely difficult work with short timelines for little money is actually not profitable for us. We have had a culture of never saying no, because we do value our clients and their business immensely. We want to do the best job possible for them - but not at the expense of our team not feeling valued (and quite the opposite, feeling exploited). I'd love to have a conversation with you or anyone that feels this way. There is always a fix, and if you are in the office and want to chat in person, I'll be here. Or we can chat online too. - Paul

Explore other reviews about Dig Insights

1.0
7 Jan 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

People are nice and enjoy the laid back culture

Cons

The work and projects are not challenging. They rely highly on their internal tool, some leaders do research with so many bias! All in all not a great place to work if you want to grow as a researcher.

avatar
Dig Insights Response
1y
Thank you for your feedback. We're glad to hear you’ve appreciated the culture at Dig. Our technology is a key differentiator in the industry, and we’re proud of how it’s helping clients achieve better insights. We understand that research can sometimes feel repetitive, but our commitment to innovation ensures we're always pushing the boundaries. If you have any specific suggestions on how we can improve, we’re open to hearing them. I will say though, that Dig has the smartest people I have ever met working here. Our collective thinking, the R&D we do, the innovations we pursue, and the onboarding (which by the way, every time I talk to a new employee they are blown away by the amount of knowledge and information we have) makes everyone at Dig a great researcher if that's the area you want to grow into. Paul
1.0
14 Jul 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Can’t think of any Pros

Cons

Low salaries compared to other research firms, work is so dependent on their in house product basically to cut costs and fast track research. Senior leadership will talk about empathy, diversity, inclusion and in real it lacks all of it, employees not treated right.

3
avatar
Dig Insights Response
3y
Thank you for providing your feedback, though I'm disappointed to see you've rated our company as 1 star and can't think of any pros to working at Dig. Clearly, your experience is not the norm given our typical ratings both here on Glassdoor and in our internal employee surveys. You are correct - we have been increasing the number of studies we do with our Upsiide platform. It's a best-in-class platform that is easy to use, has amazing data visualizations and built-in analytics, and increasing the speed to insights. This is a competitive differentiator for our company and one that we are proud of. You are also correct that we do talk about empathy, diversity, and inclusion - because that is a pillar of our employee values. We brought in an empathy expert to help the company understand the fundamentals of empathy and have done workshops internally. Diversity and inclusion are part of that, but they are also addressed separately with a dedicated committee and resources. Without specifics on how employees are not treated right, it's difficult to reply. Lastly, our salaries are competitive based on benchmarking, and we do look at the total compensation package that includes RRSP/401K matching, work-from-home stipends, reimbursement allowances, and executive-level benefits packages - all of which we take guidance from our staff from our employee surveys to remain competitive. If you would like to discuss any of your concerns, please feel free to reach out to me directly or to our HR team. We’d love to understand the reasons behind the negative review.
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All