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Digital Operative

Acquired by 85SIXTY

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Digital Operative Reviews

3.9

75% would recommend to a friend

(25 total reviews)

BJ Cook

96% approve of CEO

63% positive business outlook

Digital Operative has an employee rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars, based on 25 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Digital Operative employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Media and communication industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

25 reviews
1.0
Jul 28, 2015

Drinking the poison Kool Aid

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

When I started, I was full of hope and thoroughly convinced Digital Operative was a great place for the next step in my career. It was good for a time, and I was happy that I chose DO over other offers. And they had dogs.

Cons

It seems impossible that the Glass Door rating for this company is as high as it is. The reviews are skewed by starry eyed interns and employees drinking the poison Kool Aid. DO has become a culture of toxicity, driven by one of the owners. In fact, I have heard the term hostile work environment mentioned by more than a couple of people who are not "inner circle" minions. This company has entirely lost its way.

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Digital Operative Response
10y
It's never easy as a company seeing a negative review. As this is our first ever, in over 7 years of being in business, we thought we'd set the record straight on a few things. While it may be that "starry eyed" interns have skewed a result I'd like to note that 25% of our employees were former interns. And of those former interns 4 of those employees have been with us over 50% of the time we have been in business. I'm not a mathematician but those are really good odds. In terms of turnover, we are an agency and a growing and scaling one at that. We've been one of the Fastest Growing Companies 4 years running and have made the Inc. 5000 twice. We have highs and lows. We pride ourselves on finding the best people we can. But, sometimes people outgrow each other, sometimes they move out of state, or change careers, or simply just don't work out. Regardless of the issue, I don't think our turnover is anymore unusual than what you would find in any agency in the San Diego area. Using the term hostile work environment is strange. Considering that the average length of tenor for employees at DO has been over 3 plus years. We enjoy a pet friendly office, a casual dress environment, unlimited vacation, flex time and free food (more bagels please). The only hostility I see is when someone loses a foosball game. Honestly, no one here is drinking poison anything and Kool Aid? Kool Aid is gross. We are however drinking a heck of a lot of Diet Coke and the occasional Margarita. No company is perfect and honestly we do not purport to be. What we do claim to be is a team of DOers, we value each other and the work we do. We may not always get it right, but if we don't we try again.
1.0
Jul 15, 2019

poor leadership

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

dog friendly, treats.

Cons

if youre looking for an uplifting environment that doesn't discriminate or to be treated equally and to have opportunity to really make an impact and grow, look somewhere else. There is a culture of favoritism, sexism and manipulation that runs through the office and the executive team seems to turn a blind eye to it. The directors are not directors, they're just senior workers with a fancy title. The people who seem to get recognition the most seem to be the biggest offenders in the company. In the time I worked at Digital Operative, INC., I watched the place crumble.

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Digital Operative Response
6y
I'm sorry to hear this was your experience at DO. I don't want anyone here to feel that we have an environment of sexism, discrimination or favoritism. That's not what we stand for as a company nor do we want anyone to feel this way. Please email me at hr@digitaloperative.com so I investigate and resolve these problems.
2.0
Mar 14, 2019

Management is terrible. Snacks are great.

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Benefits, dog friendly office, snacks.

Cons

Very little structure, boys club mentality, culture used to great but it has taken a nose dive into the great abyss of what-could-of-been. Would not recommend to anyone with serious career growth aspirations

avatar
Digital Operative Response
7y
Thanks for your feedback! We put a lot of time and effort into the culture here at DO and I would genuinely love to hear how we can make it better. If it seems like things have taken a turn for the worse please stop by and we can talk about what has changed. That goes for everything you wrote about. We know we don't have perfect process and procedure in place but we working things smoother. Please stop by at any time and talk to me, or anyone on the Leadership team, so we can talk through how we can make DO better for everyone.
Viewing 1 - 3 of 25 Reviews

Glassdoor has 29 Digital Operative reviews submitted anonymously by Digital Operative employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Digital Operative is right for you.