Hook & Loop Reviews

Most of us could kvetch for hours about this place's shortcomings, but here's the CliffNotes version. H&L has some of the most toxic, maladaptive management many of us have seen. They are like four heads of an ugly hydra. I would say it's two hardened narcissists enabled by two sycophants. Turnover is high thanks to people constantly leaving and nearly annual layoffs that decimate teams and hang years-long projects out to dry. Essential roles are either never backfilled or outsourced across the world -- leaving major gaps in day-to-day workflows. Worse yet, managers celebrate failures instead of "learning their way forward" as they always tell us. This includes openly gloating about a brutal round of layoffs at a nearby bar just one hour after firing about a dozen people. It was sickening to witness but so symbolic of the dysfunction. They take solipsistic pleasure flexing in their little fiefdom with no regard for how it affects productivity and morale. The lack of care and self-awareness on their part is shocking, but sadly not surprising... For those considering accepting an offer here, I'd advise you to proceed with caution and consider your career goals and wellbeing before taking the plunge. Read the recent Glassdoor reviews for Infor, and it's the same story. Pay is submarket, raises are zilch, and management is allergic to investing in people. They treat employees like human brake pads with not much upside for us.

This is an internal design agency within the larger company, Infor. What this means is that there's a group of designers working in silo from the rest of the organization, completely disconnected from the dev or product teams, churning out a bunch of nice looking stuff that very rarely gets implemented. Secondly, the management running the place is grossly incompetent. Sycophants are rewarded. Anyone with opposing views or ideas are seen as threats. There is a culture of lots of empty talk without any momentum. Majority of the management are folks that have been around for a while and ended up getting promoted. However none of them have any leadership skills whatsoever, and spend most of their time in closed door meetings that lead to nowhere. The culture is very laidback, to the point that no one has much work to do. A lot of time is spent in idle group chats or organising impromptu parties. This is all nice, if only work was getting done. There is little to no opportunity for career growth or development. Folks that have been around the longest have formed sort of a close-knit circle, where they watch out for each other and themselves, protecting or covering up for each other's incompetence - which inevitably leads to a suppression of new talent or career growth for people outside of that circle. Since work isn't getting done, and it catches up at some point, management employs knee-jerk solutions such as shoddy re-orgs, layoffs, etc., without really addressing the underlying problems. This is not a place recommended for any talented, ambitious designers or product leaders.