LaFORCE Reviews

Accepting a position at LaForce was the biggest mistake I have ever made. As with most PR roles, this job will take over your life, but with the added factor of working in a catty, toxic environment where management focuses more on optics and politics than supporting employees. The company has experienced extreme turnover in the last year, especially at the junior level, as they are willing to let dedicated employees leave the company in order to keep toxic leaders. The teams lack structure which causes regular miscommunication and a lower quality of work. Verbal and emotional abuse is the norm at LaForce and is considered "part of the job." Most people operate on a "head down" work style to avoid being the target of team leaders' continued harassment. The company places no value in the growth of employees nor does it challenge them to think of new ideas, resulting in very cookie cutter client campaigns that lack any sort of creativity or out of the box thinking. Lunch breaks are nonexistent here so be prepared to spend upwards of 10 hours at your desk staring at your computer screen and when you finally leave expect to receive texts/calls about work at all hours . While the company has a fair PTO policy, you'll never be able to use those days because of "client conflicts." Team leaders lie to and push back on clients regularly and bill inappropriate and wildly expensive meals/drinks back to clients. Additionally, the company does not have strong name recognition within the media community which makes pitching and securing placements much more challenging than at companies with stronger name recognition. I didn't realize how truly awful LaForce's structure and culture was until I moved on to a new company and saw what another work environment could be like. It's one thing to have long hours, a toxic environment and poor leadership but LaForce is a combination of all three that truly makes working here unbearable.

This is one of the worst experiences of my career- period. The work was draining, the company culture sucked the life out of me, and I have never felt more defeated on a daily basis. This is coming from someone who adores PR and marketing- they literally will make you question the industry as a whole. I learned that this feeling was felt by many after I left. There were certain days I was treated sub-human. It was one of the most toxic environments I have ever seen. The fake change of leadership feels like someone just changing out the same, fake backdrop. These are trying times, and it just gets worse with this company. There are no real processes, no real people that know what they are doing. They had to bring in a consultant because of the lack of leadership. They also constantly find scapegoats for issues rather than being reflective and seeing their own issues. This is kind of shocking considering the myriad of reviews and similar feedback. Favoritism is the name of the game here, this is NOT the place to grow if you do anything differently than leadership. There is no innovation, no room for reflection my management—nothing. The scariest part is the lack of transparency and how much shady business goes on behind closed doors. When I would flag excess client charges, disparities in pay, issues with company policy vs. what was actually allowed, I was reprimanded or even worse, ignored. It made me feel as though I did not know what I was talking about or was a bad employee, when I was merely trying to solve problems at hand. To echo another comment on here, for a women-led company, it is defeating to women. The lack of flexibility and support felt during COVID was and is overwhelming. The people are drowning. The mothers are drowning. From top to bottom it is a mess. Their recent “restructure” only fueled an endless fire of favoritism, thoughtless leadership and strange office politics. I have never been so confused by a company in my life. What scares me the most are the clients that stay on or new business that comes in if they read these reviews. Teams are miserable, people are overworked, underpaid and devalued.