Worst management in the world, starting with CEO - Anonymous employee Time Out Group Employee Review

1.0
29 May 2018
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

None anymore. Did have a great culture pre-current CEO and management.

Cons

CEO and MD's are self serving bullies. Absolutely ripped the company apart. No one actually has a clue what they are doing. Turnover is laughable. Loving the fake positive reviews Time Out management is frantically attempting to post lately to reverse the insanely high negative reviews. Not surprising the share price has nearly halved. How the hell has the CEO managed to keep his job?

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Time Out Group Response
7y
Thank you for taking the time to write your review. We are of course aware that there has been change, but it is the kind of change that is required to transform and successfully diversify this business to drive growth on our journey to profitability. Despite the change and hard work, it is an exciting time for our business and we are proud that we have achieved a lot within a very competitive and ever-changing industry – we know we owe this to our very passionate, dedicated team; we are sorry that you didn’t feel this was the right place for you. We also want to take this opportunity to address the last comment you made in the above ‘advice to management’ – we are a public company and as such, you can consult our publicly available Annual Reports which provide transparency around business numbers. There was also a presentation to all staff to take everyone through the numbers the business reported, the performance, strategy and focus.

Explore other reviews about Time Out Group

5.0
12 Mar 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good ideas are welcomed from the bottom up, and you can make a real difference. The team is great and managers care.

Cons

Growth mode comes with challenges.

1.0
6 May 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Two days a week in office

Cons

The NYC office has undoubtedly the worst company culture I have ever experienced. I see a lot of complaints on here about management (which are all accurate), but the staff are unprofessional and rude. The toxic culture makes every RFP (the few we receive) and every live campaign an insufferable experience. On a related note, advertising partners are not supported properly by campaign managers, leading to implementation errors, constant technical/optimization oversights, and ultimately unhappy clients. The lack of accountability/attention to detail has lost us business time and time again, and management continues to turn a blind eye to the systemic issues that have fractured company success. While there are essentially no career growth opportunities, the company is generally a sinking ship that treats valuable employees like they’re disposable but inexplicably keeps the dead weight. Last year, there were multiple rounds of editorial layoffs, and the NY sales team has been a revolving door of both layoffs and departures. The edit layoffs in particular significantly hindered the brand identity we’d been working hard to revitalize, since there was no longer enough staff or budget to execute franchises and custom shoots anymore. Time Out has lost its cool factor because we can’t keep up with the pace and evolution of other digital-first brands. Last but not least, the “office” is essentially a 200 sq ft room with one small conference room (seats 7 but we squeeze 25 people in there for team meetings) and a broken AC/heater. People take work calls sitting in the hallway because there isn’t ample space inside the office. Also… You’ll simultaneously freeze and then overheat in the same day.

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