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      StudioBinder

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      StudioBinder Reviews

      2.2

      24% would recommend to a friend

      (11 total reviews)
      avatar

      Robert Kiraz

      25% approve of CEO

      28% positive business outlook

      Ratings by category

      2.4

      Career opportunities

      2.1

      Culture and values

      2.0

      Compensation and benefits

      1.9

      Work/Life balance

      1.8

      Senior management

      1.5

      Diversity and inclusion

      Reviews by job title

      11 reviews
      1.0
      21 Sept 2018

      Miserable Work Environment

      Designer
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      - Snacks - Located near public transportation - Cool co-workers

      Cons

      - CEO micromanages everything and expects too much from his employees. - Hostile work environment including rampant gender discrimination and nepotism. - Illegally classified as contract employees. If you don't stay late off the clock you're reprimanded by management. - Lunch breaks are required to be taken all at once, frequently turned into meetings. - CEO belittles employees to other workers behind their backs, publicly shames employees, and leaves passive aggressive notes around the office. - Required to use your own computers and equipment. - Required to use software that is not industry standard. - VERY high turnover rate. - CEO will threaten to withhold letters of recommendation unless positive online reviews are made. - Poor salaries - No benefits - One bathroom for an entire floor, shared with multiple companies.

      avatar
      StudioBinder Response
      7y
      Thank you for the feedback. I’m sorry you feel that way. First, we don’t discriminate against gender. In fact, StudioBinder’s CTO is female. We don't "reprimand" employees for leaving at the 8h mark. That’s silly. If someone is struggling with the duties of a job, they need help. This can sometimes be understood as "micromanagement." But there are very skilled employees who are left alone for days to be creative. So it really depends on the person. You are correct - there was indeed a time when we did a 3-month work-to-hire, but we've since retired that approach. Lunch breaks are taken at the same time daily and adhered to per CA employment requirements. Lunch is a great opportunity for employees to socialize (if they're inclined to). If an employee wishes to chat about the project they’re working on during this time, that’s great (but it wouldn’t be fair to refer to it as a “meeting”). People should be free to chat about anything they want. Management typically does not join employees during lunch (unless it's a catered Friday lunch). In the early days of the company, some freelance writers did indeed work on their own laptops. Now every employee at StudioBinder is provided an iMac or iMac Pro. The turn-over rate is something that we worked on in 2017-18. It’s a common challenge for companies, and we've made huge strides with our process and how we filter new hires. These days we have a "band" versus a "group of rockstars” approach and it’s been really positive. When the company was just starting out salaries were lower (though still higher than competing blogs), but it's above market these days with 3 weeks paid time-off. The pay is in line with the experience. Oh, the bathroom — We weren't fans either. We've since expanded our office and built our own en suite bathroom. - Updated 4/11/20
      1.0
      9 Sept 2018

      Inexperienced leadership and micromanagement leads to poor overall experience

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      Office is close to the beach and Santa Monica promenade.

      Cons

      You will be underpaid, you will be asked to do a lot of work in less time than you can do an adequate job in. You will be heavily reprimanded, sometimes in unprofessional manner, for mistakes. You will be micromanaged by the minute, watched like a hawk, reprimanded and questioned for how you spend your time in breaks and lunch, as well as how "productive" you are- and this hyper vigilant watching calls into question some of how management spends it's time. You will be reminded of your cost to the company per hour, if for example you spend too much time in a meeting, or a person in a meeting doesn't need to be there, management will make mention of how much money you have wasted/lost them. The sprint long and scrums are tedious and the deadlines are unnecessary. Blog posts won't be published for weeks to months after written, but I saw writers criticize, mocked and even have pay threatened for taking more than a day to write them. Parking isn't paid for and it's expensive in the area. Considering the amount of money spent on the office it's remarkable how little is invested in personnel. You may be asked to perform tasks you weren't hired to do. You will be asked to stay late on a regular basis without additional pay- of course you won't be "required to" but you will be heavily encouraged to, and criticized for leaving on time. Either a poor understanding of basic employment practices and laws. or disdain for them, is present and created issues over schedule breaks, the length of breaks or lunch hour. Speaking in the office while working is mostly discouraged. There is an extremely high turnover rate.

      avatar
      StudioBinder Response
      7y
      Payment is on par with skill. Payment terms are always agreed upon up at the start, so it shouldn’t be a surprise. It’s quite common to provide 10-20% raises to employees that demonstrate aptitude and positive attitudes within the first 3-6 months as well. Most of these reviewed were written by folks that were with us less than that. If an employee wants to work towards a higher pay, please bring it up with management so a plan can be created to help them identify and improve the requisite skills to reach their goals. In many cases, we map out a 3-6 month plan to get them where they want to be. We don’t make it a habit to publicly reprimand anyone or “watch you like a hawk.” It’s best to dismiss anyone that would merit such concerns. Some employees in the past made it a habit to take personal phone calls during work, reply to text messages, and post on personal Twitter accounts. This was brought up for good reasons. We have never threatened to not pay someone if they’re late on an assignment. There's is no precedent of this ever happening. It shouldn’t matter when blog posts are released. What should matter is that employees have goals, and they work towards getting the job done. The backlog of work was a result of a previous content editor who struggled to stay current with the release schedule. It’s been addressed for a long time now. We never ask anyone to stay late despite the fact that we are well within our purview to do so, and it would be reasonable to do from time to time. At StudioBinder, days rarely exceed a healthy 8h. The higher turnover at this time was accelerated when a writer was dismissed and a few colleagues got sour about it, hence the singular voice. As always, we take ALL the feedback into consideration. Thank you for the feedback nonetheless, and the notes have been heard and addressed. Updated 4/9/20
      1.0
      19 Sept 2018

      Micromanagement and microaggressions

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      The air-conditioning is so cold you need a sweater

      Cons

      This is a sneaky office where they keep your passwords, read your emails, and are afraid of face-to-face confrontation. The culture is caustic. Constant anger outbursts and lots of negative feedback. There's no trust in you and no reason to trust them. When someone leaves or is fired they are constantly talked about and given a smear campaign. The CEO even wrote a violent and actually offensive "short script" as a joke about one of the former tech employees. The place is prone to bullying and intimidation. I would not be surprised if there were not lawsuits in the works.

      avatar
      StudioBinder Response
      7y
      I’m sorry you feel that way. It’s quite normal for a company to provide company emails and accounts, otherwise you’d be using your personal accounts at work. We do not read emails and private messages. That’s silly. When an employee is no longer with us, we do have to touch on it. These days it's a neutral 2-sentence statement, and everyone move on. If you find that there is no trust in your work product, perhaps you should question the work itself? You may find that there may be some room for improvement. We have a very open and collaborative environment at StudioBinder, which means there is a casual air about how colleagues at the office engage. I could see how a new hire may feel left out. Will work on that. Management is always careful not to offend anyone, and we do our best to keep a professional tone at all times. Bullying is never acceptable. - Updated 4/8/20
      Viewing 1 - 3 of 11 Reviews
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