Beware, Beware, Beware. I can honestly say with my full chest, that this was the worst job experience I’ve ever had.
I’ve worked with big egos before, but none as big as this CEO’s. And I’m still working through the trauma of this horrid experience.
During the interview process and immediately after starting, they’ll butter you up. You’ll be praised on team meetings and in-private. You’ll feel like a rockstar and like you’re really appreciated. Until about a month in, then the CEO will start tearing you down (this was a common experience among employees) in front of others.
You were and are set up to fail. They’ll bring you onto the team, provide limited training, and then act surprised when you failed. Failure, which, was never an option. There is no safety net in place to fail, if you mess up, you’ll be made an example of, no matter when you started.
If you misplaced a comma or misspelt a word, it was the end of the world. You were called stupid and careless and she said if we lost a client it was your fault.
On top of that, you were micromanaged within an inch of your life. Time sheets had to be filled out in 15-minute increments with unimaginable detail (working at Other Agencies, I’ve never had an overbearing experience like this). And the CEO would watch your “Active” bubble in Microsoft. So if you were in the bathroom and your bubble switched to “Not Active” you’d get a message from the CEO, Wondering where you were. We worked from home and if your bubble wasn’t “Active” for eight hours straight, you’d get reprimanded. The level of micromanagement showed such a huge mistrust of employees and it was detrimental to morale. We aren’t kindergartners, we don’t need to be monitored by Big Brother.
Oh and if you did something wrong, you were subjugated to public humiliation on team meetings.
Please, please, please be warned. The company has had such large turnover. And know that even if the CEO builds you up, she’s more than happy to tear you down consistently and in-front of people. She’ll tell you she wants you to grow, but it’s impossible to grow in toxicity.