- From 2012 to 2013, company had almost complete turnover in employees - 9 employees quit while I was there, which is a pretty big deal in an office with under 20 people.
- At first it's cool that everyone is relatively young - until you realize that no one has any idea what they are doing, especially the management. Agency is 4 years old, yet has no handbook or documented policies on file about days off, employee conduct, etc.
- Internet access was sporadic at best, which is sort of terrible at a digital agency. After months of dealing with outages multiple times per day, it was only addressed after owner started experiencing the same problems.
- Time off is 5 days a year (plus 2 sick days) for the first TWO years. Industry rate is 2 weeks starting out.
- Office is next door to a man who lives in an office. Restrooms were filthy because he'd bathe in them.
- No supplied company computer equipment. If you don't have one or yours breaks, you're SOL.
- Owner is a nice guy, but frankly has no idea how to run a company or relate to employees
- After a key player of the company left (because they were fed up with owner), owner hired his wife, who had absolutely no experience, in a very high role. She immediately began calling 3 hour meetings and demanding to have input on every client. She also brought their one month old baby to the office and let it cry, loudly, while she held these meetings. Babies are nice, but having one scream two offices over while you're trying to work isn't.
- Compensation is not competitive - they hire people at entry level pay, but then have them doing the work of 5 people.
- Employees routinely worked 50-60 hour work weeks. When this was brought up to the management, the response was always "Why aren't you managing your time correctly?" or "You're salaried, that's how it is."
- At one point we ended up with an employee who was completely under qualified for the position - she would routinely ask about the difference between "to" and "too." This came about because the interview process was so long and drawn out, all qualified candidates usually found other positions by the time they got back to them, not to mention the agency offers very low pay. When you offer subpar money, you get subpar talent.
- Company engaged in dishonest practices. At one point entered to win an Ethics award and was very misleading (read: lied) about recycling practices (put a recycling bin up when committee came to visit, took it down after) and detailed to them that every employee had a "clear path to partnership." There are no partners in this company, nor was this "path" ever disclosed to any employees. They accepted an award which was for the most part, a lie.
- Benefits were terrible. At one point we were scheduled to move to a new insurance provider because they offered better rates. We didn't because of the owner's child on the way. Obviously, no one begrudges them having a baby. However, some people's insurance went from $180 (for a couple, no children) to over $500.
- Interns were used as unpaid workhorses. They usually ended up with good experience, but mainly because employees didn't have enough time in their day to do all the client work, so we pushed it off to the interns.
- When people left to go to better jobs, management would tell clients that they were fired due to poor performance.
- Owner *REALLY* wanted us to come into the office the day after Christmas (despite the majority of our clients' offices being closed Christmas week), and it wasn't until everyone decided to take one of our 5 PTO days that he relented and offered a "work from home day." The day after Christmas.
- Owner spends a day or so a week in the office. However, he wants to be appraised on every minute detail of projects, which made it difficult to get anything done, because he didn't respond to emails. Many situations occurred where clients were left waiting because he didn't follow through.
