Save Yourself - Associate Venn Strategies Employee Review

Let me start by clarifying that I had a better experience than most Associates who had the displeasure of working at this company: CEO/MT: - Health Team leadership is absolutely incredible but clearly has no autonomy over their own department, which speaks volumes about how the CEO micromanages everything they can. - The CEO loves to pick favorites. The only problem with being one of their favorites is it means they can use you as a punching bag for when they're in a bad mood. - The CEO can't figure out why junior staff turnover is so high, but they refuse to consider a cost of living adjustments, pay raises, additional vacation days, etc. for anyone below the VP level. - Last year, the CEO was acting Chief Strategy Officer for one of Venn’s clients, while they were on the client’s Board of Directors and leading the same client’s lobbying team through Venn?? It was a very confusing and murky situation. - Even though this was a hybrid job, I still received plenty of passive-aggressive comments about not being in the office. The CEO is a real stickler for attendance, even requiring some employees to come work from the CEO's house while the company was moving buildings and did not have an office space. - For the 2+ years I was there, Venn only hired senior staff because of their connections, not because of their skillsets. Once those connections were used up, these managers were fairly useless and became burdensome to the rest of the team. MT ended up just trying to find busy work or transition them to new projects so they would feel useful. These managers are paid too much to rely on everyone else to do their job for them. Culture: - Venn has no real HR department, which means there is no real accountability unless administered by the CEO. Sexual and verbal harassment is rampant but goes ignored unless MT is concerned about a lawsuit. - Diverse junior staff turnover is disgustingly high, but MT can't figure out why young gay and people of color don't want to work for a company that exploits and tokenizes them for the optics. Venn's DEI Committee is stifled by the CEO/President's antiquated perspective on maintaining bipartisanship within the firm, making it feel like MT is unsupportive of diversity and inclusion efforts. - Venn touts their levels system as “innovative” for professional development, but it truly is just a BS mile marker for whether or not they like you. Only a select few (aka the ones the CEO likes) will get to skip levels (even if your current level doesn't appropriately reflect your skillset). If you're not on a strict lobbying path at Venn, you're not getting promoted, no matter how hard you work. - Venn will quite literally ignore any cries for help from burnt-out employees as long as they're meeting deadlines. Taking mental health days is necessary in this line of work, but is frowned upon here unless you're in the midst of a literal breakdown. - Having 6+ managers at a time is wild for a junior staffer. The structure of teams and management can be overwhelming for some employees. Advice: - It will take you some serious time after leaving this company to feel like a normal, valuable, worthy person again. I suggest investing in a good therapist! - I'm sure I will get an email from a member of management asking me to take this down very soon if they don't try to get it removed.