A Cautionary Tale for the Aspiring Professional - Comms Strategist Reach Strategies Employee Review

The title says it all - if you are looking for meaningful work and a great team of people to do it with, REACH is the place for you! Important, impactful work with a mix of writing, event planning, and creativity. Not to mention, the team is filled with wonderful people I enjoy spending time when we get the chance. I'm thankful to feel part of a team that cares and supports one another all while producing excellent work for our clients.

Accountability, time management, positivity, and exceptional standards are all qualities for success at REACH and not everyone has them. Oh, and egos are not tolerated.

Healthcare benefits are solid. The only real positive was the people I met—many of whom had similar negative experiences. A number of us have stayed connected afterward and support each other, which says a lot about what it was like to work there.

Leadership culture is deeply problematic. Employee concerns are often dismissed or reframed in ways that feel like gaslighting. Comments from leadership can make you question your own judgment, even when the issues are obvious. Extremely high turnover. I personally counted well over a dozen employees who either left or were let go within a relatively short window. That level of churn is not normal and should be a red flag to anyone considering joining. Performance management is disorganized and inconsistent. Expectations shift, documentation is sloppy, and processes lack transparency. Micromanagement is intense—down to tracking time in small increments—which creates a culture of surveillance rather than trust. Workflows are chaotic. Feedback and edits are scattered across multiple platforms (Google Docs, Slack, etc.), making it difficult to keep track of direction or priorities. There is a pattern of overpromising in proposals and expecting teams to deliver work that isn’t realistically scoped or resourced. Decision-making is highly top-down. Senior leadership sets direction but pushes execution challenges onto middle managers and staff without adequate support. The environment is stressful to the point of being unhealthy. I experienced significant physical effects from the stress, which ultimately led me to leave.