Designory Reviews

3.4

56% would recommend to a friend

(142 total reviews)

Paul Hosea

65% approve of CEO

46% positive business outlook

Designory has an employee rating of 3.4 out of 5 stars, based on 142 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Designory employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Media and communication industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

142 reviews
1.0
26 Jul 2016

An Apple Rots From the Inside Out

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Like many of the reviews will tell you, there are some great people here that make the workplace pretty fun. The hours are standard 9-6 with some flexibility if work on the global accounts or if you have some unexpected childcare/personal issues that come up. Upper management is friendly with everyone and generally approachable, when present. Breakfast twice a week and weekly afternoon socials.

Cons

Leadership positions have been occupied by the same individuals for over 10+ years. Little advancement opportunities and promotions are empty titles. Most teams are disproportionately staffed with too many "leaders" who are always out of the office at some conference or [NAME DROP] networking event. If not then it's vacation because they need a break. Like another review mentioned, it wouldn't be a nuisance if they didn't have to approve projects. Training is a major problem since it's non-existent. New team members are left to flounder around until they figure things out or have a team member show them the ropes. Across the board insanity on how to do a project if someone get switched out midway. The global accounts are managed in complete chaos. Multiple high level individuals on the same project yet having no tangible evidence of work other than forwarding emails - so others can actually do the work. Account leaders don't draw a line with clients so all requests are fair game (no matter how unreasonable). Other Cons - -Empty promises of opportunities in other office. Sure a couple of people switched to other offices, but that's hardly a program to brag about if it's only temporary until someone local is hired. -People get hired for one role and then get placed in an area where they are unqualified. -General incompetence is not frowned upon but the norm. -If you have hobbies, forget them. You won't have time. -Little to no effort to retain talent. I get that in the ad world agency hopping for raises is typical, but then again so is rewarding those that have put countless of hours get the job done. -Management makes promises to clients that aren't practical/feasible and then flip out on the team when there are issues meeting deadlines. -No communications on team members that leave/get let go. Work seems to get diverted to people at random with little awareness to ability/workload. -Ethical problems aplenty. Management ignores issues so most go unreported. Even if you do go to HR they can't be trusted to actually do anything to the tenured or those that were hired because of nepotism. Open door policy is kind of a joke.

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Designory Response
9y
Here is a real and honest response, similar to the others, as this site works two ways: We are sorry to hear that you have not had a great experience at Designory and that your issues are many. Some of your points are valid, and we welcome your comments as items that will be discussed internally. On the flip side, several of your comments are hyperbolic, contradictory and frankly, untrue. You offer no constructive advice or solutions outside of your criticisms. While we would hope a majority of our employees are generally happy, it is possible that Designory is not the right place for you.
1.0
20 Dec 2018

Culture of High School Bullies, #MeToo breeding ground

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Nice view of downtown Long Beach from balcony. Free coffee.

Cons

The culture is full of cliques and emotional abuse. If you don't find your tribe, you will be set up, and taken down for sport. HR is a joke, as they allow this to flourish and continue. Don't make the mistake of reporting. Prepare to be asked out non stop by the many men in the place, who will stand at your desk and text you at all hours. When you tell them you are not interested, again your head will wind up on a wall. The first warning sign is the creative teams love of Jimmy Johns sandwiches and beer. Of course the project management is so lacking in any type of system, you are also guaranteed to have to work all hours with these people as well so that accounts can appear on top of things. Tech capabilities are lacking and switch off at 5pm. The leaders of the team wear computer related T-shirts to establish their early credibility.

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Designory Response
7y
We are concerned to learn of the behavior you have reported and we take these matters seriously. We would appreciate it if you would report your experience to HR or another senior level manager so that we may investigate and correct the problem. Please know that our employees' well being is very important to us.
1.0
26 May 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Everything is temporary. If it's too late to avoid this company altogether, remember that even if you've accepted an offer that you can quit at any moment, with no notice, and save your soul.

Cons

Can't wait until this company comes crumbling. The verbal abuse from management is unheard of. I've never experienced anything like it before. No transparency about pay, hierarchy, career mobility, responsibilities, schedules. Managers have been reported to HR dozens of times and then get promoted to new titles that didn't previously exist with huge bonuses. You want a cost of living adjustments for inflation? Nope. If you think a few dozens reports of verbal abuse and misconduct get you fired, don't worry. Here at designory, it's basically a requirement to be an awful, vile, lying, monstrous, incompetent human being in order to be employed here. Need to get a hold of HR? Good luck. And if by the grace of god you can, they'll go to the ends of the earth defending upper management and add something to your record. Questions about your pay? Radio silence. I need therapy from my employment here. I cannot possibly tell you how important it is that you avoid this company at all costs. I've lost my sanity dealing with Account Directors and Project Managers who expect unpaid and undocumented overtime on a weekly basis. Work life balance? Just accept that you'll never have a peaceful waking moment again once you start working here. Want to take a lunch? Don't even think about it. You'll be hounded with messages and told to reschedule. Being assigned work that is explicitly not under your job? Shut up and do it anyways. Project managers lie and pawn off their workload to anyone they can. Time off request? Immediately rejected. Manage to get a time off approved 8 months in advance? They will call you and ask to join calls on your day off. Are you sick? Have COVID? They will only ask why you don't log on work since you're home anyways. COVID outbreak in the office? Still won't require masks. Still require you to come in. Office culture? The least diverse group of people you've ever seen getting drunk on the clock. I've lost all motivation to live working here. It's soul sucking. It's abusive. It's been the worst experience of my life. Hoping the board of labor gets involved STAT and this whole entity comes crumbling down to prevent more suffering.

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Designory Response
3y
Thank you for sharing your perspective. Your feedback is surprising as we don't feel that the sum total of this post reflects the current culture of the agency. We care deeply about our people and an office culture that promotes growth, transparency, learning and equity. We don't always get it right, but we are constantly working to improve our employee experience based on constructive and thoughtful employee feedback. We support healthy work-life balance, including encouraging employees to take vacation time and to make use of mental health days off. Our commitment to increase diversity is real, we are not requiring employees to return to the office, and follow local guidelines regarding the wearing of masks when employees voluntarily come into the office. We and many of our 500 talented, collaborative and hard-working employees are proud of who we are. We of course invite employees to share any concerns or challenges they may have with our People Ops team or to or Paul Hosea, CEO - we are always available to discuss.
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Glassdoor has 177 Designory reviews submitted anonymously by Designory employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Designory is right for you.