Vantaggi
Employees and most of management are fantastic. We work together, back each other up, and consistently try to inspire one another to do great things. The culture is very relaxed and it contributes to how great it is to work on this team. Clients are exceedingly polite and very well attuned to working with designers, developers, and others in our field. I've worked here for years and seen a lot of new faces, but the overall "feel" has mostly remained the same. But, things lately have taken a turn...
Svantaggi
Despite the great teams and talented management, many people are leaving. Some are even considering giving notice without a new job lined up! The culture is nice, but there is NO flexibility you would come to expect at a digital marketing agency. Considering the competition here in Louisville, you can't afford to be an unattractive place to work - Talent will go to our competitors. Turnover is spiking again - But the CEO is simply blaming this on the business being in a "transition" and ignoring everyone's concerns. It's NOT a problem that will solve itself, and she needs to talk to us. The business isn't in "transition", it's in a free-fall. Management is hurting. Honestly, this is the only company I've worked in where management actually feels close to the employees. We're all friends, and we really try to inspire and help one another. That said, management doesn't seem to be trusted by the CEO. They have very little to no control over things, and despite their very diverse backgrounds and rich skills... They aren't being leveraged to help projects, clients, or even bring in new business. When problems arise, management doesn't have the control they need to fix them, and higher up simply doesn't care. It's extremely disconcerting when the CEO of your company doesn't even seem to trust her senior management. Their ideas and contributions are minimized and more than once their work has been pushed aside to make way for an idea from the CEO... Employees are overworked and criticized when projects don't exceed expectations, even if they pushed 45+ hours a week to get it done. Management is doing everything they can to help, but as I said before, they have little control over things. Projects frequently miss the mark and production quality is suffering on many fronts due to everyone being overworked. There were some really exciting upcoming projects that have seemingly fallen to the wayside now because there simply isn't capacity to take them on... Because we aren't hiring to expand. Everyone is annoyed that instead of expanding or contracting out, management has been overruled and told to "trust in the plan" from the CEO. Many are frustrated that they're expected to work well past their normal 9-5 because they're tasked with the workload of two people. Just a month ago a contractor was brought in to meet all of us and he seemed like a glimmer of hope - We all thought Cyndi has finally hear us and management and we could finally stop rushing and being worked to death... But from what I heard, the CEO didn't approve so now we're all still stuck working even longer hours still. I've even heard whispers about the company financials not looking too great. If work is overflowing, and financials aren't looking good... We should raise rates - But we haven't? All in all, the problems facing us are very easily fixable - It just seems like the CEO would rather go down with a sinking ship in order to be in total control... Rather than give up some of that control, listen to her employees and business partners, and try to fix things by deviating from her own ideas. Senior management knows where DBS is hurting far better than the CEO, but voicing their concerns and needs usually just makes her frustrated we haven't solved the problems ourselves even through we can't. I get it, we all get it, running a business is a lot of work, and hard work at that... But that's absolutely no excuse for being verbally abusive and disrespectful to the teams you rely on to produce the work that you sell (apparently not even at a high enough margin either). The CEO refuses to listen to input or advice from the people with actual industry experience on anything. It's her way or the highway, even if that highway leads to disaster. Senior management is fantastic, they have a diverse background with a variety of skills among them - But it all goes to waste because they have NO control over the business and the CEO refuses to leverage their talents on projects and listen to their experience-backed contributions. She has a very talented team of senior management, along with a team of very highly skilled employees, but all of that goes to waste because she feels like she must do and control absolutely everything. Employees are overworked, Management isn't trusted by the CEO, and clients are starting to notice a rift within the company - It's bad. The blatant refusal to bring on additional help - be it contract or new hires - while employees are pulling 45+ hour weeks (and management pulling even more!) is hilling morale and making many of us feel the best option is to leave.