Good work-from-home vibe but heavy workloads - Junior Programmatic Trader Open Partners Employee Review

Working at Open Partners has been a fantastic experience so far, it's by far the best job I've ever had and I feel part of something exciting, cutting-edge - we are really at the forefront of our industry. The company is growing quickly and it's opening up all sorts of opportunities to get stuck in to test yourself and grow your career. Everyone is kind, collaborative, and it's clear their staff is up their with clients as one of the most important stakeholder groups. Other pros: Flexible working hours Friendly and sociable culture Excellent exposure to latest tools, technology, and innovation in the advertising industry Great clients and benefits Lovely office environment - modern, accessible by public transport, great on-site cafe

No cons to report, the agency has been incredibly supportive since I started the role. There is a lot of working from home which I personally find to be a huge perk but some may find a bit isolating, however the office is always open to use.

They've grown a lot over the past 5-6 years of opening. Their clientele average out at a much greater level than most agencies. They do things by the books. They now have a hierarchy, where they never used to.

They stick to doing things by the books, even when the books are suboptimal. HR (with the backing of the directors) have introduced systems that treat humans as resources as opposed to offering resources to the staff. It is an agency attempting to run at the highest level during its infancy, which can be great or terrible depending on your values, standards and goals as an employee - with HR having so much control, there is no wiggle room. I was handed a nice wage increase (never negotiated), then made to feel I wasn't providing enough value for that wage, which is when HR and my management placed me on a disciplinary under the guise that my work was not good enough (their own opinions; never backed by the clients who received the work). My honest response to how I feel I was treated at Open Partners is: In the beginning, things were great. The company was growing rapidly. Once that growth appeared to stall or slow down, questions were asked and people started leaving. I spoke with multiple leavers who each said the pressures became too much. My experience is that HR's newly devised disciplinary plan was a way to help the company get people out based on internal opinions alone. There was never any client feedback to back up their decision to place me on a disciplinary, because my work was satisfactory, at minimum. The department was in ruins by the end of my time there, due to changes made to the internal company structure and constantly changing digital landscapes. I felt pushed out. By the final month of my time there, I had checked out, feeling unsupported against a poorly handled internal problem, which led me to telling the company that I believe they now run under an "efficiency > people" stance.