AlphaGraphics Reviews

- Other reviews were spot on. If you're not a personal friend to the family ownership of this particular branch, you're treated as a black sheep or an outcast. See below for more on this. - Ownership of this particular branch seems to demand that you act enthused in their personal victories or life. If you're more concerned with what you have on your plate at work, rather than stopping to laud over managements personal achievements or events outside of work, you won't make it far. Case and point, there were impromptu meetings called to compliment a management member on personal attire and decorations for an event in their life. - Health Insurance is only a stipend. Benefits package aside from the 401k is lack-luster. - Work performance means little. Even with the poor workload management, what matters most is 'personality' and that you always smile. - Poor workload management - Where as management is able to take great amounts of time off, the workload is shifted to non-management. However, when non-management takes time off the workload is not shifted to management to aid the remaining team members, it is expected that the team members will simply work longer. - Often times, you'll see people trying to do the job of two or three people. This makes mistakes inevitable, and despite that, those mistakes are punishable by 'review' - see below for that. - Often, people are working at their desk during lunch, and breaks (Despite federal Law) of fifteen minutes twice a day are reprimanded and frowned upon. They 'allow' two five minute breaks and a 30 minute lunch. Keep in mind, Federal Law requires two fifteen minute breaks, twice a day and a 30 minute lunch for the first eight hours worked. You're expected to eat lunch when you can on-location with others. If you prefer to leave and eat somewhere downtown, then you're treated as a black sheep even more. - 9+ hour days. No excuses. Work/Life balance is poor at best, and non-existent if being honest. Expected to fore-go all personal commitments in order to commit all time possible to managements wants. Often on days off you will receive and be expected to respond to emails, and at times complete work from home - Including Sundays at 12AM. This time is not compensated nor respected. - Despite the expectations, compensation is below industry standard by far. This could be because the workforce here is younger and mostly fresh college graduates. - Most middle management seems to have completely dedicated their lives to their position. As said above, it's not uncommon to get emails from a small mid-management team through-out the day on Sunday, Saturday and Friday nights after hours as well, being expected to jump to and perform tasks even remotely. Hourly and Salary employees are expected to also do the same. They seem to consider your personal time a part of their time they are allowed to use as they see fit. - Hourly workers are expected to accept cut-time during slower periods, while also being expected to adhere to an after-hours schedule to fit 'managements' needs. There is little consideration for the needs of the employee. - Production is expected to often give up their time off, I've seen many 14+ hour days for the older employees, while those who are close with the owners are always able to get out on time. - Leaving on time is frowned upon. Even if you've completed assigned tasks and/or more than your expected workload for the day, you're expected to stay late. - The ability to deal with personal issues that everyone has seems to be a hypocritical point. Where as Management can take weeks off to deal with family or personal issues, one or two days for non-management personnel are frowned upon and usually punished. Trips to the ER or Hospital for family or ones self are not excuses to use a personal day if you're not on the management team. - Time off: You get a minimum of time off. Personal days are given however if you use them you'll be reprimanded upon return. Overheard an employee who had taken a personal day to deal with family issues was told "Your family would not want you to give up your career for them." - This is a major red flag for any employee to their employer relationship. - Philosophical differences in personal views are viewed as and will cause you to be called - No joke - "Culture Cancer" by management. You'll be reprimanded and insulted should you not agree 100% with what the management personally believes. This includes personal life philosophies and personal views. - "Reviews" - Critiquing during 'reprimands' or 'reviews' is more akin to berating and insulting. Constructive advice is a minimum, and you're expected to sit and take the berating or insulting as "life advice." - "Team Building" exercises are mandatory and after hours. You're expected to travel to and from at your own expense and often times the exercises are made to be convenient to get to for the mid-management or person arranging it.

AG has many cons, but nearly all of the problems come down from the company's "Leadership". The franchise is family owned and operated, which leads to some uncomfortable situations and an extreme lack of accountability. The leadership and managing styles at this company can only be described as a circus ring that has caught on fire. The work environment is incredibly toxic which leads to employee burnout. Employees often work right through their lunch due to the insane amount of workload. Crying at your desk is considered a right of passage for new employees and even senior team members are not immune to breakdowns. Due to layoffs and an unwillingness to hire, it is expected that the sales employees spend hours of their week on the production floor where they will assemble, print, and quality control the projects that they manage. Naturally, a sales person who is not a trained digital operator or bindery specialist is bound to make mistakes and then is critiqued by management for making errors. The team is also forced to do free projects for leadership's friends and family. The projects are highly scrutinized and it adds to the pressure and mountain of work that is already on each employees plate. There are also issues of privacy and security. Without letting their employees know, management had security cameras installed throughout the building. This was never addressed with the team and no explanations as to why this was now deemed necessary was offered by management. This destroyed team morale and made the atmosphere extremely uncomfortable. There were also instances where management would reference personal conversations that employees would have with their colleagues over email. They were actively reading private messages and monitoring the cameras. These constant paranoid behaviors indicated that they did not trust their employees to do their jobs without being monitored. The turnover rate at AG in the last year has been ridiculously high for such a small company. There were roughly 30 employees beginning in 2020 and that team is now down to less than 20. The remaining workers are left to cover several unfilled positions and they are stretched uncomfortably thin. Benefits and pay are lackluster and way below industry standard. Promises about compensation, flexibility, and bonuses are not fulfilled by management. Raises are often dangled over employees heads and then redacted. PTO is nearly impossible to get approved and when it is finally approved, the expectation will be that you are available on call. Management will often call, text, and email employees who are off, as they do not respect employees boundaries or personal time. Overall, leadership is a disaster, the workload is unrealistic, morale is nonexistent, and the employees are exhausted. Don't do it.