#Matchbook creative full

Management also attempts to make work 'fun' by imposing a Friday happy hour, but because of massive amounts of micro-managing it's hard to take a break when you're getting hounded about deadlines and project hours. The entire time I worked here I was a stressed-out mess worrying about my hours, especially during low-work seasons, because I didn't want to get fired for not having a client project to work on. Pay is also lower than average, you won't get paid for overtime, and you will probably not receive a bonus while you work here. Most of that should be client work/billable work as well, because if it's not you will get called into the office to discuss what you have been doing regardless of if you have billable work assigned to you or not. You are expected to clock exactly 8 hours a day and if you don't, you'll receive a passive-aggressive email from management. While it's not stated outright, you are expected to work after hours more often than is necessary. Leadership does try to set up events or focus on staff when they see burnout or people leave, but fundamentally doesn't shift and problems persist.Įchoing what another review stated, management pushes for a work-first attitude that will burn you out fast. It takes away from even the most exciting clients and jobs. (You are often reminded 'as a salaried employee' that you are costing the agency money.) If you stay in budget on a client job to 'protect the agency,' you are told you’re not doing your best work for the client and you should be going above and beyond. You are also then asked by ownership to work over hours on a job that might not have the budget it needed or if there's a client they want to impress more, but then flagged later for going over budget and costing the agency money. Somehow you, as the employee, are to blame for them not having enough work to give you. The CEO watches everyone's timesheets throughout the day to make sure 8 hours of actual work ends up completed, but there’s not enough billable work to go around. Getting to an exact 8 hours is a constant pressure, and that is not ‘in-office’ time, but only billable work activity that you record by the minute. Sometimes feedback can attack you personally.

A lot of low budget jobs with high expectations. Culture and benefits get introduced, then cut.

Owners make quick, convenient decisions, then revert. Again, no one wants to come freelance a department of a company who makes 3 million a year for a barely $70k salary.

#Matchbook creative full

You cannot call yourself a full service agency if their isn't someone in leadership who has a grasp on all of this. I was a 'Senior Web Developer' but my duties were that of a CTO including IT, server management, leading development discussions in meetings, mentoring and helping a younger developer, helping other employees with general IT/computer/G Suite issues, leading new website builds, the list goes on. Management doesn't understand what goes into the web development department. There is no leadership or feeling of cohesion, you will feel like you're on your own island. Management only looks at numbers, so there's minimal opportunity for push back when your next 2 months has already been scheduled out. You may never feel like you have enough time to get things done appropriately, leading to burnout and feeling like you're failing at your job. Leadership is nonexistent, CEO duties seem to be split between two people, neither of who seem like they want to take the lead role. This is just going to lead into people 'working from home' when sick and giving 25% instead of taking a day to recover and come back strong. Unless I literally cannot physically work, I am not wasting a PTO day or two to recover from being sick. You should give people a 1-3 day range of sick days a year. Poor benefits (only 10 days PTO when starting, most agencies in the area offer at least 15).