A Growing Design Firm - Senior Designer workshop/apd Employee Review

Great design projects and opportunities

A lot of work and long hours

The junior staff all seemed super cool and welcoming, and the office itself was really nice and in a great location. I also thought the projects were strong

The biggest downside, in my opinion, was the overall office culture. While the junior staff themselves were generally nice, very few of them actually seemed happy. I worked in Studio 1, and there was a noticeable level of fear surrounding the studio leader. I genuinely have never heard so many people openly talk about feeling verbally mistreated by a manager, yet no one seemed comfortable enough to address it directly. It also definitely felt like a boys’ club. The office was outwardly LGBTQ-friendly, but leadership was primarily, if not entirely, white men, and the dynamic reflected that at times. The work-life balance was also rough. The project manager I worked under regularly expected people to work at all hours with little warning. It was common to receive non-urgent assignments late on Friday afternoons that were suddenly expected by Monday morning. There did not seem to be much respect for personal time or the idea that employees have lives outside of work. From talking to others, it sounded like experiences varied somewhat depending on the project manager, but everyone working under the manager I had seemed consistently unhappy. Overall, I would not recommend the office based on my experience, and the general atmosphere felt unusually negative and burnt out.