Pros
- Before they left the company, I learned a lot from my lovely mentor (a gem) and my peers - You’ll grow comfortable with confrontation and defending yourself through constantly defending your creative choices - You’ll most likely pick up skills outside of your expertise, since employees are often expected to perform multiple roles in one (for no extra pay) - It’s an opportunity to beef up your resume, learn, and get paid while doing so - You’ll have great stories to tell at social gatherings because of the wild things the owners say and do
Cons
Strap in friend; I’ll lead with what you need to know, and you can read on for the dramatics if you wish. - Heavy micromanaging. The owners are too involved where they shouldn’t be, and not involved where they should be. - Never received the benefits promised in my hiring contract despite being there for 1 year and 1 month. - Pay was short on multiple occasions, had to constantly keep track. - Payments were made through e-transfer. - The owners “don’t believe in titles” and didn’t provide job descriptions. - Was told by one of the owners that anxiety isn’t real. Imagine discussing mental health struggles with someone after that. - On-boarding was terrible, very baptism-by-fire-esque - Any discussion asking for a raise? Like pulling teeth. What could have been a short conversation amounted to a long winded analogy to say that they didn’t want to pay me more. - Claimed to pay “industry standard”. $35,000 is not industry standard for a copywriter. - Weekly 1 hr “trainings” are often led by the owners and used to accuse staff of not performing to their standard or not following process - Was included in meetings with senior staff, tasked with hiring and conducting interviews, created training materials, trained staff, and then was told I was not a senior. - When I asked for feedback on my performance, I was told that I need to be “hand held” and should make my future employers aware of this. - Was asked for my feedback on the company and potential changes, but this proved to be solely performative. - Feedback was mostly criticism with no rhyme or reason—not constructive. Consistently challenged on things like my use of commas and capitalization by people who have 0 professional writing experience. - There was a period where multiple employees left consecutively (for the reasons listed and more). Lots of bad-mouthing ensued. Lots of lying to remaining staff about how bad these employees were, how they made false promises, etc. Name calling also. - After the great resignation, I was pulled into office with the owners on multiple occasions, 2 on 1, and was questioned about my loyalty to the company and when/if I’m planning to leave. - Favouritism was blatant. You can’t take certain staff on spa or lunch dates and expect people not to raise eyebrows. However, “favourites” were still spoken about poorly after they left. - Was told (loosely quoted) “we forget peoples names after they quit”. But that doesn’t seem to be the case, since you need to remember names in order to bad mouth people. - Often pass off half baked ideas for the team to figure out and execute. - Only recently hired an HR representative, however they more-so take on the role of falsifying company culture. - Over 15 people quit in 2021.