Pros
There are still some fantastic, highly intelligent people who work at Rise, despite all the chaos and drama. The health benefits are top-notch. Many of the entry-level employees don't realize this because they have never had to worry about health insurance coverage before, but as someone who has had several jobs in digital, the benefits are truly amazing. Other perks include: free gym membership, free snacks, nice kitchen area, relaxed dress code.
Cons
One of the cons that bothered me from the start is that 100% of the executive leadership team is white males who have known each other for years and years. The only real diversity that exists in the company (on an intersectional level) is among the most entry-level positions, and even among those positions, diversity is scarce. It's sad, but until that changes, I honestly don't think much progress (think top-down) will be made among any of the issues mentioned here. Work/life balance and lack of resource management is by far the number one issue I personally faced and that so many of my coworkers faced at Rise. It honestly became unbearable; 70 hour weeks were a regular occurance. The Sales and Account Management teams have little to no idea how to scope for new client projects because they are not the one's physically executing the digital marketing campaigns. Consequently, Account Management constantly questions and distrusts the channel teams use of billable time, causing constant friction between internal teams. The root of this problem is that since Sales and Account Management are directly client facing, they make endless promises in order to win business quickly, and this has an incredibly negative domino effect on all of the execution channel teams. Due to the lack of accurate scoping, lack of clear project timelines, and lack of general resource management, your personal life, mental health and relationships will likely suffer as mine did while working at Rise. In some cases, Consultants and Account Managers are worked until they become emotionally distraught or physically ill (there is an ex-Riser emotional support group, that is a real thing). Most people describe being "scarred" by Rise, and I know for a fact that I was. I was so overworked that I honestly felt like I was in a blur for so many months. I felt stuck and even brainwashed at times because the pressure to perform at lightning speed was so encouraged at Rise that it became habitual. A part of me actually bought-in to it all (The "Rise Way" of "Being All In" and "Providing Remarkable Experiences") for several months thinking my insane, unhealthy work ethic would help get me promoted sooner or perhaps help me gain the recognition needed to help push through to the next level. As that premise faded and as my understanding of the lack of leadership and organization developed, I was able wake up to reality with the support of friends and family and started looking for new opportunities. If you decide to take a sick or PTO day to compensate for being so overworked, you'll likely still be emailed/called/texted throughout the day with random requests, thus fueling the resentment cycle again and again. There is no protection or boundaries put in place to prevent this from this happening. Rise's work culture is modeled from the top-down. Emails are sent out at all hours of the day, 7 days a week, by all levels of the organization. This brews a culture of "you should always be checking online, always thinking about work" no matter if you are at a family funeral or trying to enjoy spring break in the Caribbean with your best friends. Looking back on this, I deeply regret missing out on several special family moments due to being so caught up with the work pressure I was under. The work environment seems pretty nice when you are given your initial tour of the space (Nap pods that no one uses? Check. Fancy lights that make it seem like you're going to be working in a night club? Check.), but within 1 month of working at Rise you'll experience uncomfortable, cramped spaces and headaches from the loud noises. As another reviewer put it, it’s a frat-house type of atmosphere that is obnoxious and at times literally impossible to work in (at least once a day you'll hear an F-bomb being shouted around the office, people talking over one another, etc. ). There is so little personal space or privacy to get work done with the current "open concept" set-up of high-school looking lunch tables and large monitors overflowing on top of one other. I remember feeling professionally embarrassed on many occasions when guests were in the office. There is also no formal management training program, which, as you can imagine, will cause a world of issues across the entire company. Since no training program is put in place, very young adults are promoted to management levels after 1 year without ever being taught how to manage a team or several workflows. Due to the knowledge gap here, many times it is the newest employees who suffer the most because their supervisors lack professional experience, clear expectations, resource management and emotional intelligence. Pay is not competitive for many of the positions at Rise. I know past co-workers who quickly left and went to another agency that paid a full 15% higher for the same exact position, except now they work less hours and receive better treatment. Rise discourages salary negotiations and will tell you that you have the "highest possible" pay range for your position. Rise has "All Hands Meetings" where the whole staff meets every other week. These meetings were required but after awhile they made me feel sick to my stomach because I felt like they were being used to drown employees with what I'll call the "Rise Kool-aid". The executives use this meeting to fluff up employees for the week using the same regurgitated Rise-branded language. These meetings were too long, extremely repetitive, and felt disingenuous.
