deviantArt Reviews

Lack of meaningful direction that started at the executive level and trickled down to various departments. There was one major layoff over the course of my time working here, which made me want to work even harder and meet the goals of the company so we could get back on track. The CEO didn't truly listen to the people around him (and the people he hired to make some very valuable decisions that could benefit the company long-term). He would turn unvetted ideas into action. This was extremely dangerous.

What's left of the good company culture is slowly dying out in favor of micromanagement, outdated methodologies, and poor communication. People keep their heads down now, instead of contributing to a creative environment. Most of my colleagues are very unhappy as compared to a year or two ago. DA fails to prioritize important projects over unnecessary ones. And those amazing people they hire? Most of their talents go to waste. Interesting work done is mostly thrown away or never implemented, which is probably why the site hasn't kept up with the times. Which brings us to the third major issue: The executives are insular and do not cooperate with each other. There's lack of cohesion, lots of talk, and not enough action. The newest upper management hires have been hit and miss. The final problem is that there's no infrastructure to support collaborative processes. Almost half the company is remote which means HQ doesn't benefit from their insights, while HQ employees have a different set of standards applied to them when it comes to hours. Everyone has their own way of doing things, which makes it nearly impossible to be efficiently productive. Edit: shortly after contributing this review, DA laid off roughly 25% of their employees.