Megalomania and micromanagement - Marketing Consultant Content Guru Employee Review

Where to start? Do not believe any of the things you are told prior to working at Content Guru, aside from the constant reassurance that the company requires hard work. During the recruitment process, I was told the following things by JamITC, the recruitment company, none of which turned out to be even remotely true: 1. That the job was a graduate scheme – The job, by no stretch of the imagination, is a graduate scheme. There are not clear, designated paths of progression nor any interest in your development as an individual. The rigorous recruiting process does not serve to ensure that the best graduates are fast-tracked in their careers, but to ensure that the company ensnares those that it feels bestow prestige upon the company. The starting salary is the honey in the trap, sweetening the deal and trapping naive graduates. 2. That I would receive training (In evidence, the following quote is taken from a reply from the Director to a previous negative review: “All new graduates run through a training programme, have a personal mentor and have monthly progress reviews”) Of all of the things I was told during the recruitment process, this one is by far the most laughable. During my time at the company, I received no formal training whatsoever, aside from a few orientation presentations. I had no personal mentor and one brief review. The little training I did receive was given to me by members of my team, none of whom had received any formal training either, and which amounted to just enough to get the job done. This is not the fault of those in my team, but a flaw in the infrastructure and organisation of the company. Tasks and projects are designated on such an immediate basis that it goes beyond being a result of the fast-paced nature of the industry and points towards insufficient forward thinking and incompetent management. As a result of the constant hectic and unorganised nature of the working environment, there is not a spare moment for any staff to train new members. However, despite providing no training, structure, time or facilities to do so, the company is not afraid to demand that you immediately improve as an employee or face dismissal. 3. That I would, in my first six months, go on two international training courses- Of course, as it involves training, this did not turn out to be true. And, as far as I could tell, such a thing had never existed. This wasn’t just an exaggeration of the truth, as recruiters are prone to do, but a completely malign promise that had been designed, again, to lure unsuspecting graduates to their eventual demise. As for working at the company, I wouldn’t recommend it. The company is broken beyond repair, and the rot stems from the very top. From the start of your very first day, the threat of failing probation is held over your head as a constant, ever present threat designed to spur each employee to work to ridiculous deadlines until ridiculous hours. Those at Content Guru do not work past their contractual hours because they want to work extra or because they love their jobs, but because there is the commonly held belief that failing to work extra hours every single day, even where there is no need to, leads to dismissal. This unspoken policy of constant overtime, after signing a contract in which you waver your rights under the Working Time Directive, applies most to new graduates, who are all but told that failing to be seen staying late, no matter how good your work, will result in failing probation. Although in another reply from the Director, you are told that only “20-30%” of new employees do not make it through the probation period, during my time at the company, I know of 3 employees being dismissed during their probation and 2 passing it. The reasons given to all of those dismissed were a direct result of the unacceptable lack of training provided and the pervasive ‘if your face fits’ culture. This ‘if your face fits’ culture, however unconscious, means that the workforce is dominated by men, with women only beginning to make significant progress outside of the administrative office. In evidence, I witnessed, during my time there, derogatory comments regarding female employees by extremely senior members of the company, whilst other colleagues confirmed that they heard things of a similar nature. Progressive this company is not. The company prides itself on the quality of its employees and on hiring the ‘best and brightest’ young graduates from Russell Group universities. But it does not do so in order to build a strong workforce for the future nor to train and build these professionals at the beginning of their careers. It does not equip them with the necessary skills to grow and learn, but throws them in, with no training or concern for their development, in the naive and short-sighted belief that their innate intelligence will let them work out the ropes. If they do not learn these very specific and often nonsensical set of ropes quick enough, they are dismissed quickly and without mercy. At best, this is could be attributed to managerial negligence, at worst it is a deliberate strategy to lure naive graduates and trap them with false promises and an impressive salary in order to mould and indoctrinate them with scare tactics and threats of dismissal. Those that resist the indoctrination find themselves strewn aside. ‘There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Company. There will be no love, except the love of Content Guru’ This company does not value its employees. The manner in which the company conducts its business completely undermines all of the ‘we value our employees’ posturing found in the replies by the director on this site. Aside from the pressure to work all hours God sends and surrender all rights to a social life from Monday-Friday, which is all but company policy, how can a company that so wantonly hires and fires employees and gives very, very little positive feedback say that it values its employees? The grand gestures of reward- the Christmas party, the “monthly” events and the on-site amenities- are no substitute for day-to-day support, encouragement and general common decency. If you are a person who likes to receive positive feedback of any kind, then this is not the company for you. It almost tradition for the first piece of work you complete to be eviscerated by the management and for you to receive a sarcastic, blunt email back stating that it is not good enough. Bear in mind, this is after no training, no induction and no guidance and for your very first piece of work as a professional. Yes, the standards are high and employees are expected to consistently produce their best work, but surely there is a better approach to achieving this than completing demoralising a new employee? Right from the very beginning of your employment, you are made to feel inferior, unimportant and, I cannot and have not stressed this enough, that your employment is under question. Working under the threat of wavering job security is not a healthy or sustainable approach to getting the most out of a work force that is full of potential and leads to countless Glassdoor reviews, like this one, that strongly advise that new graduates to never consider working for Content Guru. Taking the time to invest in your employees, as professionals and as human beings, rather than as expendable nuisances, would not only result in happier, more contended employees that choose to invest their time and best efforts in the company, but also create a cohesive, exciting work culture that makes each of the employees excited to pull together and work as a team. Instead, the existing culture promotes unhealthy amounts of internal politics, a complete lack of internal cohesion or loyalty, and a pressure to conform to the company’s dogmatic and archaic principles. Another benefit of hiring new, young graduates is that, for a company that strives to be on the cutting edge, you bring in young professionals full of ideas, enthusiasm and drive to succeed. These intelligent individuals have ideas that can push the company in new directions, giving it a competitive edge and leading to exciting new opportunities. If Content Guru encouraged its employees to suggest and try new ideas, allowed them the time and support to explore and develop them beyond an initial trial, then the criminal lack of training and support could almost be forgiven. Instead, the company forces employees to work under old fashioned business strategies whilst expecting market-leading results. New ideas and approaches are given one opportunity to succeed and if they do not produce impressive results instantly, then they are scrapped and the team is told to revert to “tried and tested” methods that are woefully out of touch with the current market. It is laughable that it fails to see the irony of being a cutting edge technology company that employs business, sales and marketing strategies from the early 90s and wonders why its competitors have the commercial edge. The company is fractured and broken. Each team is full of only the highest calibre members of staff and yet, the management does not allow anything to be done without omniscient control and interference. Quite simply, the management either do not have the confidence and faith in their staff to trust them to complete even the most basic of tasks without sign off from the very top, or they are too scared to let go of the reigns. Whilst reluctance to let go of a company that you built is understandable, it is not good business sense to attempt to maintain control over every minute detail of every piece of work, especially if there is a constant difference of opinion from the top. If it continues to operate as it does, Content Guru is bound to implode as a direct result of the stubborn, myopic megalomania of the management, particularly the Director. 1,700 words in, and still I feel as if I have only scratched the surface of the problems with this company. However, I shall finish by saying this, before working at the company I looked at all of these reviews and I chose to ignore them, believing that they were the words of a disgruntled few. Naivety, optimism and ambition blinkered my good sense and I took the job. Three weeks in, I realised my mistake. During my time there, I saw people fired and told to clear their desks within the hour for no reason, I saw people driven to insomnia by stress, I saw individuals work extremely hard and receive no praise or thanks at all, I saw people demoted from positions with no warning and no reason, I saw vulgar displays of favouritism and employees slowly learning to adopt the cult-like adoration for the company in order to get ahead. I saw the managers tear apart pieces of work for no good reason, send unprofessional responses and demonstrate a palpable apathy towards its employees. Worst of all, the company has fostered and encourages a very nasty blame culture that compliments the oppressive fear of being dismissed, sacked or demoted. Rather than examine a failure or problem as a result of bigger issues, the company looks for a scapegoat on all issues and watches them hang, believing an individual to be the root cause of all of its problems. An individual, without doubt, is the cause, but it is not the one that is now without a job, it is the one at the helm of a company that is full to the brim of employees worked to the bone and at the end of their tether.