I worked at SeneGence for less than a full year and the experience I had while there was anything BUT positive. First and foremost let me point out, SeneGence is an MLM company. Which, unfortunately for me, I didn’t quite understand that it meant it was a company that’s business model was that of a “legal” pyramid scheme, until after already accepting the job. It wasn’t until after, I realized what I was trying to get people to buy into that it became a HUGE moral issue for me. I worked in marketing on the corporate side, so while I don’t have the experience of sinking all my money into the fraudulent dream of being my own #girlboss and losing all my friends and family in the process, instead I lost my sanity and A LOT of my passion for the job. Here’s why:
1. Management is HORRENDOUS. With the exception of the Art Director (she’s actually a great person and manager), everyone else in the management position is extremely conniving. If there’s an opportunity to point the finger or throw someone under the bus, you better believe they’re going to seize it. The amount of times MY OWN MANAGER threw me under the bus in emails with many other people cc’d on the thread was more times than I could possibly count. It got to the point that I had to start printing out our exchanges and bring them to HR because it was becoming a serious problem within our team.
It’s everybody for themselves at SeneGence and the managers love to play the game. Nobody will take responsibility for any mishap as long as there’s someone below them to put the blame on. I would actually have conversations in meetings about certain actions that needed to take place and be given the “go ahead” to do whatever it was we discussed, but when I would actually be proactive and take action, I was scolded (via large email thread, of course,) and told I needed to have a conversation about it first, despite already having said conversation. This happened so often that I had to start sending emails after every meeting, recapping every conversation or request a third party be present.
What’s even worse, is the executives of the company blatantly ignored any complaints even if they were accompanied by solid textual evidence of what was going on. Actually, they even fired someone for attempting to sort things out properly through HR.
Management also cannot seem to grasp the definition of “constructive criticism” as there were many occasions where myself and the other copywriter were met with extremely rude and vile comments on our work. I have pretty thick skin at this point in my career, but when someone scribbles HORRIBLE across an entire page of work with no other comment as to why or how to make it better, that’s where I draw the line of unacceptable feedback. The negativity amongst management and the executives in this office is astounding which results in extremely unhappy lower-level workers and low office morale, making the work environment extremely tense and unpleasant.
2. Company Culture. Don’t be fooled by all the tacky, blue watercolor flowers everywhere and the display of seemingly fun cosmetic products throughout the lobby. Nothing about this place is fun, flower-y, or cute. Fun fact about the pastel paintings hung all over the walls: the artist who made those paintings sued the CEO for copyright infringement, but I digress.
In the interview they try to act like the company culture there is so fun and they do all these exciting activities together, but that is FALSE. In the time I was there, any company “party” or “event” that had taken place were during work hours, in the warehouse of the building, in the middle of the day, so it was more of an “extended lunch,” if anything. What a reward for all the hard work.
If you want to do something ACTUALLY fun with your co-workers, that needs to be done on your own time and your own dime. Oh also, SeneGence is an EXTREMELY religious company so you’re gonna have to pray at any company extended lunch party thrown. Which brings me to my next point, the religious aspect of the company.
3. As stated before, SeneGence loves Christianity and loves to be extremely out-right about it in the workplace, even though not all of their employees are Christians, awkward. This aspect also has HUGE influence on the marketing strategies they use. Meaning, anything even SLIGHTLY “edgy” or “risque” will have upper management clutching their pearls for dear life while spiraling into a fit of rage via emails until it’s fixed. For example, the line “Suns out bums out” was “too provocative” for the brand when presenting a summer collection, and an image of someone biting into a fruit to show off a lip color was considered “too sexy.” The horror!
Their extreme persistence to be as clean and saint-ly as possible in their marketing is extremely stifling, especially in the cosmetic industry where being edgy and going against the grain is often praised. Oh, and it’s not just upper management and the executives that are hell bent on flashing their purity rings, it’s the women that are Distributors (aka: the #GirlBosses) that contribute to that platform too. And if you think SeneGence is going to allow their top Distributors to get their panties in a bunch over every little thing, YOU’RE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT.
At SeneGence, the only people that actually matter are the CEO, Crown Princess Distributors (if you don’t know what that means, don’t worry, we’ll get there), and upper management, IN THAT ORDER. If you don’t fall into one of those categories, GOOD LUCK getting anyone to hear anything you have to say, EVER.
4. The only thing that's worse than having to deal with management, is having to deal with SeneGence Distributors. The amount of disrespectful and homophobic comments that these women display on our public pages is unfathomable. The poor girls in the social media department are CONSTANTLY in damage control mode because no matter what they put up, Distro’s (especially ones that have high ranks, i.e. the “crown princesses” I mentioned before) are always “deeply saddened.”
Since SeneGence products are sold by Distributors instead of through a store vendor, the women who started back before the market was saturated (aka, the only ones who stand a chance of making any money at all), are the people that management puts above everyone else. These women have more power in this company than you could imagine. For example, during Pride month, SeneGence caught heat especially from one top Distributor in particular because they made an inclusive post about celebrating Pride and that “goes against Christian values.” Instead of upper management letting the girls stand their ground and keep the post, they were told to take it down and change the wording because GOD FORBID one of their biggest money makers not agree with something we put up.
It’s disgusting to me that a company would rather soothe the concerns of the Distributors with hateful, vapid ideals rather than stand up for what’s right.
5. Now onto the products that these #girlbosses are slinging for a measly payout. Here is probably the only paragraph with the exception of the miniscule “pros” section where not everything I have to say will be negative. A little background, I love cosmetics and have worked in the industry for 4+ years, so I have a pretty vast knowledge of products and ingredients in products, from trying them and selling them (in a store, like a normal person,) myself. I will say SeneGence has a pretty good mascara, tinted moisturizer/foundation and skincare products despite the science behind their anti-aging products being QUITE questionable.
However, LipSense, their flagship product is complete garbage and the ingredients in there shouldn't be allowed. They give the Distributors a whole script that explains away why your lips are LITERALLY BURNING when you put the product on in the hopes that the people buying the product won’t do their own research and see that it’s the chemicals in the product making your lips burn, not the “natural exfoliation process” they want you to believe.
ShadowSense, their eyeshadows, are also just the worst. As someone who wears eyeshadow almost every day, you couldn’t pay me to use ShadowSense over any of the palettes I already own. ONE tube of eyeshadow costs $25. One color. So, in order to have a 12-pan palette’s worth of colors you’re looking at well over $300. Good luck to the Distributor barking up THAT tree. Quite honestly, I didn’t have much to do with the products besides providing copy descriptions and taglines, so the prices of the product didn’t affect me, that was just to give perspective on what kind of junk the Distributors are expected to try to get people to buy. That fact alone is exactly WHY the Distributors turn to just acquiring more downlines (here’s where the pyramid scheme comes into play,) because they’ll make more money through their downlines than through the products themselves. Duh. Moving on.
6. Lastly, but certainly not least, their policy on PTO and sick days is absolutely ridiculous. There is ZERO concept of work life balance OR empathy at this company. They don’t care if you’re sick with a literal doctor’s note, if you don’t have the PTO/sick hours they will not allow you to take a day unpaid. They would rather you come in and be sick at work and hear you hacking and sniffling away than just let you rest.
Having car problems? Expect a rude text from your manager reminding you to make sure you use your PTO for the couple hours you missed in the morning in ADP. They. Do. Not. Care.
Working from home? Nope. Not an option. Don’t even ask about it because the answer will always be no, unless you’re a manager of course but even they’re barely allowed that option.
TL;DR If you’re thinking about working here, DON’T. This place is an echo chamber of negativity. Run as far away as you possibly can.
