After being hired, a non-existent onboarding process should have been my first red flag about this organization. I was told HRF functioned like a startup, but this place has been around since the early 2000’s so you can imagine my confusion with this statement. There is no HR department who could answer specific questions about my role and job duties. There was no structure or reasoning behind anything that happened my first week. I learned one aspect of my role, and then I was alone without anyone delegating tasks or telling me what my daily responsibilities would be, or to notify me about any deadlines coming up. As an associate, I essentially ran my entire department by myself, doing the work of a manager or director, on an entry-level salary.
Morale was so low in the office. Associates were killing themselves to meet deadlines assigned to them by C-Suite execs, yet the executives would miss their own deadlines by weeks with no consequences, leading to more burdens on low level staff and accruing late fees for outsourcing materials and expedited shipping for events - the blame for which, of course, fell on the associates. Upper level staff were not held accountable to anything. The pay gap from Directors/C-Suite to Associates was astronomical, to the point where the workplace became a joke.
There was no sense of boundaries between work-life balance, or appropriate workplace conduct. I was spoken to by C-Suite executives multiple times inappropriately. These interactions ranged from publicly shouting at me in front of colleagues and potential partners, to disclosing information about employee personal situations and reasons for termination.
The expectation was to make this job your entire life, while shouldering all the responsibility that upper level management can’t handle or refuses to be held accountable for.