Who’s the Boss? - Studio Manager Cinco Design Employee Review

Great Team of People/Lots of Great Clients/Mentoring

Career Advancement, Management Issues, Few Issues

Hybrid work environment. Amazing health insurance.

While the studio has implemented many 'DEI' initiatives it's unfortunately still a bro's first work environment. I'm witnessing an increasing amount of off comments about female clients. Aggression pointed at even out our studio director (who happens to be female). There are several male employees who make it clear they don't want to take direction from what little female leadership we do have. If you're female or don't fit the conventional 'bro designer' mold prepare for your work to be scrutinized more then your peers, edged out by the bros club, excluded from even basic professional communication about projects, and left out of critical meetings. I've quietly tried to bring up these instances at multiple levels leadership but it's just met with retaliation or denial. Other creatives have told me they've hit similar 'walls' when trying to voice issues in an attempt to improve the environment. We have less then 3 BIPOC employees so its hard to say if this would extend to males of color. I've been working for this studio for several years now. I write this because I don't believe it will get better as the main culprits are peopl/ account directors/creatives/contractors who were hired because they were 'friends' of someone on the team not necessarily the best person for the job but because they're 'friends' when they operate with out even a basic level of professionalism it's constantly excused. Even with actual DEI workshops its not getting better.