Pros
- Union Staff - Work from home Fridays - Office dogs - Amazing coworkers
Cons
I knew from reading these reviews that I might not have the best experience working here, but I never expected things to be as bad as they were. At first I was charmed by the company’s dedication to animal rights and their content guidelines, but soon realized that I would never be able to meet the unrealistic expectations set by my managers. I was told that I could be open with them with my problems, but was repeatedly condescended to, and even punished for bringing up issues with our workflow. They made me feel stupid, small, and worthless. As you can see from the pinned review (everyone knows this is written by management) they believe that since their employees are young, they don’t know how good they have it. But I have had many jobs, with many different managers, and I have never felt as disrespected, used, and depressed as I have when I worked for the Dodo. After a few weeks on the job I realized that everyone at the Dodo is completely miserable. It’s not even a secret. Every single person (management excluded) was actively trying to find another job. A common refrain was “I’ll stick it out for a year, and then I’ll quit.” I knew several people who quit with no job lined up because their managers bullied them. I heard from many people that one of the higher up managers blatantly said they don’t care about turnover. They hire young bright eyed people, work them until they’re burned out, and hope they quit or fire them if they step out of line. The stories I heard of bullying and harassment from managers shocked me to my core. I had no idea people could be so cruel. I walked to work with dread every day, hoping that my managers hadn’t come up with some new way to blame us for not meeting their completely unrealistic output expectations. As for the animal-centric content, I quickly realized that the Dodo doesn’t make content about happy animals living their best lives. My managers weren’t interested in animals unless the animal was injured, disabled, or abused. Instead of feeling like I was creating uplifting content that aligned with my morals, I felt I was essentially making snuff films about animal abuse. I heard from many other people that their managers, in trying to increase eyes on the content, forced them to look for more and more brutal stories of animal abuse. To know that I was getting my paycheck from the stories of these abused animals made me sick to my stomach. I was so, so, incredibly micromanaged, and learned to keep my concerns to myself. I was told that the only way to keep my managers off my back was to “stay positive,” and essentially shut up. My managers believed that we were supposed to be available to work at all times of day, and I often got emails from them at 2 or 3 am or on the weekends asking me to make tedious changes to already-approved videos. That said, the non-management employees were absolutely some of the best people I’ve ever met, and I believe I have made friends for life. The union has their work cut out for them, but they strive to protect editors and producers from management’s constant attempts to ruin their employee’s lives. There were no opportunities for growth. I never once believed that I or any of my coworkers would get a promotion. Nobody I knew ever did, even when they went above and beyond for the company. There’s a great article on Gawker from around 2014-2015 that details some of the ways that the Dodo is broken, from top to bottom. Nothing has changed. I feel like I compromised my morals, and devalued myself as a person by working here. I wouldn't do it again, and I would tell anyone to run far away.
