When I took this job over a higher level job at another company, I was excited to be working with other innovative, hardworking, intelligent people. I had high hopes for staying at this company. I read the bad reviews but figured my work ethic would mitigate any issues. I also thought that with the extreme vetting process, I had nothing to worry about and hoped I could learn from my managers, who I assumed would be supportive of my growth. I was completely wrong about this company unfortunately. Here is my best explanation of my experience in hopes I can help others make good decisions for themselves.
There are some poor people managers with inadequate skills, there is disorganization, no collaboration, no team orientation, and no resources to do the level of work the dept should be producing. There are reorganizations 2-3 times per year that seem to be haphazard decisions to appear like positive change is happening but the changes don’t make sense and just create more chaos. Some people managers don't listen to the needs or dept ideas of hard working employees and take a competitive stance plus mostly make decisions with self interest. Resources are seriously lacking. Support staff does not exist. The hardest workers are just given more work, and often not recognized at all, while those who spend their time befriending and feeding the egos of some people managers seem to get away with doing whatever, and they get rewarded. Most people managers have no idea what's going on with their employees day-to-day. Managers are often passing work they get down to other employees or traveling or sitting in meetings, with unknown contribution to revenue generation. The weight of the entire division of business is on the marketing manager. If employees don't spend considerable time sharing with managers and others how much work they are doing (regardless of whether it's true or not), managers assume work isn't being done and this comes out in mild bullying during meetings. There is a lot of negativity that starts with people managers and this deflates employees who have to keep defending themselves which is tough especially for those working around the clock. A typical workweek is 70-80 hours. The job includes every role in a typical marketing department. The structure is backwards - for example if you need copy which means at most companies you set up a project outline and send it to a copywriter, in this dept you have to write the copy yourself and send it to the copywriter who will just critique you and tell you how to improve it. Senior marketing managers do the equivalent of several full-time jobs and are squeezed from above and from below. The company says that moving jobs within the company is encouraged, but several people who tried to transfer out to a better role or dept were stopped or fired by their manager. Often if it’s decided by a manager that an employee is to be fired, a performance problem is created and their exit is planned, regardless of the severe impacts to other business units or to the employee and their family, and regardless if there really is an issue that would warrant an actual firing. It’s completely unethical to decide to fire someone first then try to create a performance issue after to support it. Firings happen all the time, which is really strange when these same leaders go to extensive lengths to vet candidates and approve them for the role at the company. I watched highly educated skilled people go out the door for reportedly not adhering to one of the leadership principles while managers do not have to seem to adhere to these principles themselves. Verbal abuse is common and when I experienced this from my manager I just felt embarrassed for them. There should be some training for those managing people (bias, ethics, retaliation, bullying, leadership). Many employees that are hardworking are overlooked for promotions and kept in their jobs to keep producing. Trust in marketing from other business units is limited because of the high turnover, observed disorganization and lack of resources. The company principles say that taking a stand, making suggestions for improvement and disagreeing if things are not efficient are looked upon as positive but if employees take a stance and mention such things, they earn a black mark and are treated as if they are a problem, often leading to a trip out the door. The return to the office was mandatory regardless of whether you were a remote hire originally and requests to remain remote or for a grace period to figure out this shift were immediately denied. Employees were required to find a way to keep up the 70-80 hour work week plus commute many hours per week. Vacation is lower than most companies and it's assumed work still happens on vacations. Your overall experience relies mainly on your one manager, even though the review process enables feedback from many people, which does not ultimately hold much weight.
