Vantaggi
The team is constantly being built which gives an opportunity to get to know really amazing, talented people and learn new tricks from them. Random tasks and cross-department involvement lets observe and take part in creative magic being brought to life. The overall excitement and enthusiasm cultivated by the top management assemble an illusion of great things being built or waiting ahead, which awakens the inner resources and the team can work tireless day & night.
Svantaggi
Stinginess leading to absurd. I personally know several people that have not got payed for this or that kind of service they have provided for the company, as well as those who have spent their own money on company needs and have not received this money back. If Phenomen doesn't want to pay, they will use any instrument possible to avoid payment including not picking up the phone or answering emails, psychological manipulation (using your sense of guilt or ambition), threats, etc. This lawlessness was particularly directed on Russian or/and young employees, as they are less likely to talk about it out loud. The greatest problem though is the head of the project and the director Ilya Khrzhanovsky who allows himself to aggressively poke his nose in every business, no matter if it has any relation to the creative part of the project at all. Starting with non-constructive criticism and verbal abuse which can be met by any employee at any moment, he creates an atmosphere of constant fear and despotism around. People can get fired in 1 minute, there are no guarantees based on your experience, skills, degrees or any other acknowledgement of your expertise. In fact, you may not get any contract at all, but still be pushed to work on common grounds. There's no security or respect whatsoever. It is important to know that there's no room for career growth. If they tell you a successful story of a personal assistant who suddenly became a producer on the project, that's probably because this PA has never had a feeling of self-value of self-respect. The rest have never gone so far. What is also very well known, but is actively being veiled, there has been several cases of sexual harassment or abuse of lower level staff by director himself and some heads. This is a flagrant violation of business ethics, but nobody seems to care. To sum up, if it was a creative idea behind the project, say, an experiment, you could at least have time and physical frames of this abuse, a so called navigating system. But the fact is, it's just a sick fantasy of a single man who is deeply disturbed and constantly on stimulators, substituting normal life relationship with a so called "family" of the project.