Dangerous and Dishonest - Digital Content Manager DoctorLogic Employee Review

The biggest criticism employees have about this company is how dishonest they are about job security, pay, and career growth potential. We essentially have a brand new department every 6 months due to turnover. People resign of their own accord, get pushed to resign, or are terminated in equal measure. Job security here is low to the point of being dangerous--there are very few people who have worked here for longer than two years. The positive reviews on this page from late 2021-early 2022 were part of a company-wide initiative. I don't think a single one of those 4 or 5 star reviews from that period of time existed before that. In fact, I'm pretty sure that the two longest reviews were written by upper leadership, and they don't honestly reflect conditions at the company. Pay: You may be able to negotiate a somewhat competitive salary, but there were pay differences as large as 15% between men and women in the organization, with men paid considerably more, even with the same experience level. I also found it incredibly disrespectful to learn that they were willing to pay employees at least 5% lower than the posted salary range for a job if that employee wasn't savvy with the salary negotiation process and made a low initial offer. You can also expect very low salary increases. DoctorLogic starts its pay competitively, but salary increases could be as low as $500 annually--far shy of the standard 3-5% pay increase. Regularly firing or pressuring staff to leave also helps them cut costs. Advancement: There genuinely is no meritocracy here. Every employee's performance metrics are readily available on our project management platform and we can see exactly how many websites we've completed in a given time frame, whether we've met deadlines, and the rate we're working compared to other employees. We also receive editorial reviews on every site, so you always know exactly how you're doing and what they'd like you to work on. You can be one of the fastest writers with a long list of stellar reviews from the editor and never be considered for a promotion. Job Security: You can also get put on a growth plan out of nowhere so they can prep you for either resignation or termination--which, in talking with several current and former employees, is what has occurred with about half of our department multiple times over the last few years, and maybe going back before that. Many former employees who have been through this process feel that the reasons they were given for being put on a growth plan or threatened with termination rarely matched any real metrics on performance. Again--these metrics are readily available. We're supposed to get quarterly performance reviews, but that rarely happens, especially if they're looking to replace you. My interpretation of that is that they likely don't want you to pay attention to your actual performance metrics--your quality of work is probably fine, and the reasons for your impending termination or resignation have more to do with how much it costs to keep you, and/or the fact that they can afford to keep churning through employees until they find the person they consider ideal. A request for a formal performance review or an attempt to honestly present documentation to rectify a misunderstanding may lead to claims of a failure to take ownership for your work--that you're blaming your managers or colleagues for putting you under fire rather than acknowledging your fault. If you resign or are terminated, access to your computer is often revoked immediately on the same day. Don't bother giving notice. If you do choose to work here, you need to regularly document every bit of work that you do in a safe place, obviously minus work protected by nondisclosure agreements, along with your editorial reviews and your performance statistics. That way, when you leave or get pushed out, you have record of what you've done. In Texas it won't be enough for a wrongful termination suit, but you could potentially use it to support applications for future positions, and to protect yourself. I can't speak to the claims of nepotism some reviewers have put forward, but I think just about everyone at the company is aware that advancement, termination, and salary decisions aren't made based on merit. There seems to be a core, "safe" DoctorLogic team, and I'm not sure exactly what it takes to get into the inner circle, but few have managed it. The rest of the staff is basically regarded as expendable. Turnover is expected, and the leadership team has systems in place for it. DoctorLogic is also pretty dishonest with its clients about the level of support they offer. Aside from a few priority clients, they don't offer great support after the initial website design process. We lose clients quickly and replace them. We lose employees quickly and replace them. That's the business model. There are a lot of companies in need of marketing services, and there are a lot of people who want to do creative, technology-focused jobs for a living, so they can definitely afford to replace both clients and staff. I think you have to decide whether you're comfortable with the ethics and the high risk to your career and finances in that approach to running a company. The last criticism I have is one that I hear often, especially in this industry: Department managers are people who have close relationships and are personally liked by upper leadership, who are organized, and who made strong contributions in their early roles with the company (the Content team lead is a strong writer and efficient with organization, but had minimal prior leadership experience, for example). But many of them absolutely DO NOT have the temperament, aptitude, or skillset for management. I think that's pretty common in thee workplace, but our organization has seen tremendous amounts of pettiness and immaturity. I think the comparison another reviewer made to a sorority group is very apt. There's lots of wildly inappropriate gossip about current and past employees, crass communication during professional meetings, and a leadership culture that generates a lot of blame casting at every level instead of taking ownership for communication mishaps. I think some of that is going to be present at many companies, but DoctorLogic seems to protect its managers' right to behave badly over the security and well being of its people in the trenches.