I experienced several staff overhauls, RTO policy changes, etc, so these are the cons I've grappled with from the time I was hired. I would've absolutely left sooner if it weren't for the current job market.
1. Work is Sisyphean: Projects are repetitive, mindless, and thankless, making it a bad environment for creative minds/go-getters. My portfolio saw zero growth in about three years of working and I was never promoted because there was no position to be promoted to.
2. Terrible pay: Only senior employees are paid competitively. Annual raises are marginal and implemented weeks after you’re told they will be. Don’t expect a bonus, either.
3. Quantity over quality: The content I created for Secret Media was static and unoriginal. Plus, conflicting yet strict expectations leaves little room for creatives to have agency over their work.
3. Everyone’s disposable: I voiced concerns about changes that were made to my position but was told repeatedly that it’s the nature of the job and was not taken seriously when I implored about an internal role change. This mostly bothered me at the end, when I was officially the most senior member of my team, thanks to high turnover, still with no say in how my skills were(n’t) being used.
4. Inconsistent schedule: An understatement. You either have tons of downtime or are working overtime and often don’t know which until the day-of (or sometimes in the middle of the afternoon). This makes it difficult for creatives to branch out independently. "Last minute" campaigns also crop up way more frequently than they do at functional companies.
5. Constant chaos: Other reviews speak to this, so I’ll leave it at that.
