Pros
-As it is a small company, there is a lot of opportunity to be self-directed and independent. -The work environment is fairly loose and causal, to the company’s advantage and disadvantage. -There is a lot of camaraderie among employees, and I left the company with close friendships.
Cons
I worked at Meruscase for a couple of months as a Social Media Marketing Manager, in a position that had been abandoned by a number of predecessors. On my first day, I asked why. By the end of two weeks at the company, I knew the answer. - Communication with superiors was highly inflammatory. Work discussions would quickly devolve into anger-fueled tantrums, sexually graphic language, discriminatory remarks, and disparaging comments. More than once when I asked for clarification of a task or assistance with something, I was yelled at and called "stupid" or other more problematic words that I am not able to post here, even in their semi-redacted forms. - The work environment was exceedingly unprofessional. In addition to the above, superiors would regularly undress in the middle of the office before going to the gym, resulting in occasionally sitting at their desk to finish their work shirtless. Dirty clothes would be left on the floor surrounding their desk. - There was a strong dislike of clients. For an industry that is inherently service-based, there was very little respect for our clients. As someone who has worked in the legal sector and continues to have personal ties to legal professionals, the devaluing of the clientele’s intelligence was disconcerting. These were things I found unpleasant and very uncomfortable. However, I was willing to work around them. The real deal-breakers for me were: - Superiors were unsupportive and distrusting. Leaning in to the conversation was rarely perceived as an act of engagement by superiors—it was considered a challenge. When objective feedback reflected well on work (e.g., Google Analytics or HubSpot), first reaction from superiors was that the results had been tampered with and that there was some finagling of information in a blatant attempt to present the work in a better light. I personally found that very short-sighted from a business perspective, as company success was continually undermined since it was tied to employee success. Most successful companies are able to recognize that they are only as good as their employees. This one seemed to claim that it was successful in spite of them. Employees were regularly told that no one works as hard or as well as the superiors, and that the superiors could do a better job themselves. I suspect they will have opportunity to test that theory sooner rather than later. Disruption was prized over integrity. - Ethical conduct was not a priority, and it ultimately led me to coming home one Thursday from work and deciding not to return. When I originally aired my concerns about the ethical ramifications of a task I was given, I was told to “sleep on it,” as if I could magically sleep away morals. I was not interested in adversely affecting my reputation for a company that ultimately found such matters (as well as their own employees) trivial.