Stifling Growth With the Magic of Bro Culture - Digital Marketing Clearlink Employee Review

Clearlink's values do not line up with their actions in the marketing department. While the company promises an open-minded workplace where people can grow, learn, and improve their career, in marketing it is often the exact opposite. There, ideas are stifled, people are undervalued, and nepotism runs rampant. New ideas, good and bad, are discouraged almost across the board, not by words but by actions. For an industry that moves as fast as digital marketing, Clearlink's middle to upper management is strongly set in their ways and extremely slow to adjust. The CMO lords over the entire department, promoting personal friends and ignoring the ideas of newer hires and people outside his select group of friends. His pet projects often receive undue attention and resources, regardless of their success. These same friends, a literal boys' club of long tenured Clearlink employees, are promoted regularly and often into roles indistinguishable from their original roles. These promotions are also celebrated via department-wide emails, emphasizing the frequency and disparity of these promotions versus promotions outside the boys' club. While "People" is a core tenant of Clearlink's culture, turnover is incredibly high - on one small team there were zero promotions in 2 years while over a dozen people on that team quit or were fired. This type of environment is extremely discouraging, especially as executives are very publicly promoted and re-promoted. The only department that sees significant hiring is management, which is close to eclipsing actual workers. Managers are hired to manage managers while other departments are left struggling for resources. If you are a white man who likes to ski, hang out with good buds, manage marketing employees, and you've worked at Clearlink for 10 years or more, Clearlink is a great place to work!