Oh the Places She’ll Go...to Tear You Down!
Pros
Intelligent, supportive coworkers. Great location. Bagel Mondays (sometimes). I actually learned a lot from my coworkers. I learned how to populate a website from the programming team, how to ensure designers get the right files and direction they need, how to support the events team with the manpower and materials they need, and how to use big words from the CEO.
Cons
Once you look through the smoke screen the President puts up around the company, you'll see the fraud, lies, and disrespect that she scrambles to cover up. Don’t waste your time and energy here—as a client or an employee. I know you’re thinking as you read these reviews that your experience will be different or you’re different than everyone else and won’t have these issues. I’m sorry to say it, but you are terribly wrong. I cannot even begin to explain what is wrong with the company, but I’ll try my best. If you want to be constantly humiliated in front of your colleagues, personally attacked, and have your self-confidence beaten down into a pulp, then this is the place for you. For those who want to work in a positive environment and thrive on good energy…do not work here. As she will regularly remind you, you are replaceable to her and her company. The president/CEO is a tyrannical micromanager who likes to take frequent, unnecessary power trips. She lashes out on employees at any given moment—typically her designated punching bag for the week. She makes up reasons for doing so and blames her employees for anything gone wrong, even if they carried out her instructions to a tee. She lies to clients and forces her employees to do so as well. I understand that it’s business, but there comes a time when it goes too far. She’s so far past the line that she can’t even see the line! The line is a dot to her! (Shameless ‘Friends’ reference.) Be prepared for being called derogatory names and expletives to get thrown at you. A “good” week is when you’re not publicly flogged and have minimum contact with the CEO. Account Executives are told to do the bare minimum for their client so as not to "waste money" but the client eventually realizes that they are not getting what they deserve or what is actually contracted. One thing she is good at is knowing when a client is teetering on the edge of satisfaction and on the verge of dissolving their retainer, which is when she begins blaming and pressuring the account executive to work overtime to accomplish what is now nearly impossible tasks to win over the client again. If the AE could be trusted to do their job in the first place and not told to ignore them by her, this wouldn't be a difficult thing to manage. The workload isn’t always impossible; it was nice to be distracted to the point where you don’t notice how miserable you actually are. Salary works out to be far below industry standard and less than minimum wage with all the overtime you’re required to put in. Forget about leaving at 6pm every night. You’ll get berated for leaving on time, even if all deadlines have been made. If you arrive four minutes late due to train delays, expect a lecture then too about being lazy and undependable. If you’re in event planning, expect to be at events multiple evenings during the week, on the weekends, and out until 11:30pm only to go back in at 8:30am the next morning. Work/Life balance does not exist here. Sick days are only sanctioned if you work the whole day and can prove it with emails and finished projects. The president also recently changed the employee handbook without telling anyone before or afterwards, cutting sick days and vacation days significantly and retroactively. She also threatens to withhold paychecks and not pay employees the fully contracted amount depending on her mood. Illegal, in case you’re wondering. Be aware that if you take a job, she will make it seem like it’s for PR or Event Planning but it will actually be as her personal assistant or a manager for an association. It depends on whatever the opening is. You won’t find out until you commit to the job though. In the time I was there, a total of 24 full-time employees quit the company. 24 in 15 months! They didn’t get fired; they realized that no one should have to endure this kind of misery and simply left. I wish the current employees the best—they’re the ones that kept me going. They, too, know how difficult it is to work there and forms a team of support for everyone around them so the blows of her wrath aren’t too difficult to take. Oh, did I mention she dates her clients too? The jig is up.
