It's decent/I LOATHE IT. Employees say both of these things daily. - Anonymous employee XYZ Employee Review

2.0
Sep 14, 2015
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Free Friday lunches, really friendly and smart people, great new location in Santa Monica, and there's starting to be more of a corporate structure (which is desperately needed). Despite what I'm about to say under Cons, I think this place is going to get a lot better.

Cons

Employees are expected to work at an insane, frenzied speed. Upper management thinks they can do everyone's job better than them, and as a result, they get in their own way constantly. The owner loves to say that he hires people that are smarter than him. This is half true. He definitely hires people that are smarter than him, but he doesn't actually show that he values that hire, because he doesn't really let anyone do what they know best (to his defense, I think he's usually just trying to be helpful, but his helpful suggestions are not as helpful as he thinks they are). Nepotism runs rampant here; they went through a phase where a ton of fraternity brothers were hired, seemingly without much reason, and then found places where they could fit. Someone's (100% inexperienced) brother was also hired, given a VP title, and then his job duties were repeatedly changed because he couldn't do what he was being asked to do. There's a lot of that at XYZ. I think eventually they'll grow to a point where upper mgmt HAS to give up some control, and that will be a great day for everyone at that place. For right now, it's the place where creativity goes to die.

XYZ Response
10y
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on your experience. We also thank you for offering some great constructive feedback. We would have to agree that we sometimes let our passion run into our actions. We’re definitely aware of that and have since put further mechanisms in place to spur autonomy and creativity throughout the process. We can also see how you can perceive nepotism. When many companies start out, they bring on the smartest people they can trust. Early on, these people tend to be those they have closely worked with in the past. But as they grow into successful early stage companies, they bring in the best people regardless of who they are. That’s why we have completely revamped our processes over the last two months in recruitment, performance management, and succession planning.

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