Nice people, but dramatic reviews reflect reality - Designer SYPartners Employee Review

- Brilliant, thoughtful co-workers who care - Interesting, challenging and highly collaborative work - Amazing design and creative thinking, interdisciplinary growth - High standards and ambition - Incredibly generous benefits (healthcare, PTO, etc.) - Compensation equity (clear bands, external audit for biases) - Hybrid work / work from anywhere - Reliable tools to make work easier (IT, platforms, workspaces etc.) - Surprisingly robust internal teams (people, talent, ops, etc.)

- People care a lot, which means things can feel and get too personal - Projects focus on big, thorny issues, which can be high stakes / high stress for clients and teams - Lack of relative perspective / experience and limited outside exposure make it hard to benchmark progress and challenges within the firm - Consulting is a demanding service business, hours can be long - Intentions are consistently good, but don’t always translate to the desired impact - Structures and approaches benefit self-starters, which is especially hard in a hybrid environment

The work is interesting and meaningful, the clients and projects still have strong potential. Most colleagues are talented, collaborative, and dedicated. The best of the best are truly exceptional.

Many partners and execs have left recently. Decisions are being consolidated in a group of SYP "lifer"-leaders that have little experience outside the company. HR and people functions are being revamped to try to "fix" things, but are making it worse . CEO is totally checked out and detached from the day-to-day. Programs and initiatives are introduced, then changed or replaced the following year. These frequent changes create confusion and cause confusion about how to progress or plan. Leadership isn't diverse and highly sensitive to any claims of discrimination or inequality. This leads to very strong responses to issues raised by a small group of employees. As a result, others feel their views are not equally considered and treatment is inconsistent. Many employees are cautious in what they say because accusations escalate quickly. Bonuses are harder to earn because the company misses performance targets. Compensation has seen little to no increases for several years despite rising costs of living. Benefits have been reduced as part of cost-saving measures from ownership. All of this has led to loss of strong talent. The environment is more challenging and less predictable than before.