Olin Partnership Reviews

Extractive and toxic business structure/workplace culture. Overwork, burnout, high turnover create poor morale. Company ownership structure is shrouded and drives inequality but also propels (fierce but aimless) internal competition between project teams. Hierarchies are overdeveloped - there are 5 different levels/titles for production designers below the management level: titles that are not conventional across the industry. This granular hierarchy within the lower 2/3 of the company incentivizes workplace mobbing among those wishing for a tiny raise or a substantively meaningless promotion. Favoritism and coddling-up (or "managing up" as subordinates are constantly urged to do) is pervasive, as is the threat of layoffs. Knowledge gained from a Partner or Associate often comes with a host of bizarre/obsolete perfectionistic practices that won't serve you in your next job. New employees are almost never hired into the Associate or Partner level, which means that knowledge and innovation in the field are doomed to stultify at Olin. The gratuitously hierarchical company structure actively stifles knowledge development that enters the company through its bottom ranks. Recent DEI efforts have resulted in catastrophic consequences for new recruits who were subsequently exposed to preexisting toxic patterns that were never acknowledged or addressed. The physical, energetic and psychological toll of working here was significant, and difficult to convey. My 2 cents is: do yourself a favor and don't work here.

The CEO is severely terrifying. Endless pressure to stay late and be “on call” for the work. Insist on people working 8 hours, and if you take any kind of lunch you have to stay the equivalent time at the end of the day to make up for it. Most employees eat at their desk as a result. Extreme micromanagement, that stems from the CEO, very little autonomy even for meaningless tasks Horrendous pay, and no overtime even though they insist on a minimum of a 45 hours per week and weekly ask for you to stay later, Different treatment and rules depending on who your “boss” is, which is fine in a big corporation but gives a bad impression in a small office when desk mates can do things others can’t because of boss restrictions.