A Toxic Family - Anonymous employee Vital Design Employee Review

Thank you for leaving us a review. First and foremost, I want to apologize for your experience at Vital. I take responsibility and I take your feedback to heart. Based on your review, It sounds like you haven’t worked here in a couple years. A lot has changed. Pros: “social stress”. These days we have a hybrid work schedule and those who want to work from home can request to be fully remote. We’ve always been empathetic to our employees’ needs. We’ve baked thoughtful benefits and perks into the Vital experience since inception and this new “Hybrid / Work from Home” policy is a keeper. Paraphrase: “If you’re good at your job, you can drift thru with the occasional, unrewarded request to do more ”. At Vital we work hard for our clients and most of us love what we do. Since 2012, we’ve gone through a lot of growth, expanding from a 8-person to 85-person agency. At times, we lacked the management, the communication, the systems, and the tools to properly manage, reward, and acknowledge our amazing employees. Which is why we adopted the EOS operating system a while back. It provides us with the systems and tools to be better leaders, promote healthier communication, and provide clearer direction. It helps with every aspect of running Vital, but specifically it empowers employees to surface and resolve their issues. These days, our teams participate in meetings intended to advance their role, their department and the company as a whole. When employees feel unheard, we have forums for their issues and we resolve them quickly. Cons: “If you’re great at your job it won’t be good enough.” These days, we are clear about what is expected. Our Core Values include being Client Advocates, Marketing Nerds, Helpful Teammates, Humble, and Accountable. We've adopted these values as our own, we hire with them, evaluate issues with them, use them as review criteria, and more. Being “great at your job” is important, but saying it might lack humility. ” Similarly, “just doing your job” is a good start but are you also being a “helpful teammate"? Being clear about our expectations is helping people feel aligned. If your personal beliefs diverge from our managers, they will diminish you. This is unacceptable. We’re following the 37 Signals approach. There are too many unique perspectives, individuals and experiences to pick sides. Political and societal discussions can sow discord in an otherwise harmonious workplace; there’s plenty of time to have these discussions in our personal lives. We believe work should be a refuge from the divisive political climate. You mentioned that Vital encourages a culture of fear and bullying. Bullying is unacceptable. I hate to hear that this was your experience. These days, we have weekly department meetings. Everyone has a voice. No issues go unresolved. Cons Examples: Unlimited Vacation and Blackout Periods: Our policy of unlimited vacation still exists. Now we're down to 1 blackout period. The Fall period supported NHFF. We were small, NHFF was an all-hands-on deck and they had no money. The month leading up to it, we needed contributions from everyone. In exchange, employees got a day off to attend; free VIP tickets for themselves and their friends; and the philanthropic reward of supporting the arts. The blackout went away during COVID. We had outgrown it regardless. These days we only have one blackout period per year, Dec 1 to Jan 15, why? Because we want everyone to take off the 9-10 days between Christmas and New Years as a team. "Bonuses are received based on participation in social media…” We can chalk this up to a memory thing but this was never true. We have one official bonus a year — the Christmas bonus — which is paid through payroll. That said, years ago, at a companywide meeting, where we were going out on the town afterwards, the Fun Committee gave out some cash, so no one would have to buy their own drinks. We started by awarding those who were prolific on social media or helped move the company forward in other selfless ways with some twenty dollar bills. When we ran out of acknowledgements, we made sure everyone who attended had a $20 bill for a couple of drinks. Our Fun Committee is still planning events and running contests. They even take requests and have a suggestion box. Just today, I approved a guest list for our skating event and a date for our summer party. “You might occasionally be asked to work late but they’ll buy you dinner”. These days, with everyone working from home, sometimes you don’t get dinner, sometimes it’s just a note. Ultimately, I’d like to think the reward is a job doing what you love, working with amazing people, making a difference for clients, enjoying awesome perks, all while getting paid. I'm sure there is more. If you have the time, reach out offline, I'd love to the feedback. We've never been complacent, we're sincere in our efforts to make Vital, the best place to work.