Good People - Anonymous employee George Davison Studios Employee Review

Its video work in Pittsburgh.

Very low salary. Quality of creative content produced by employees is staggeringly low due to lack of understanding of the entertainment industry, certainly not a portfolio building job. Stakeholder truly believes he is a creative genius but doesn't have the attention span to read a script. Employees are forced to create a pitch for all content they are told to produce to convince the stakeholder that the idea is worthy of producing, the problem with this is that the stakeholder is the person who ordered them to use the idea to begin with so they basically are pitching the stakeholder his own idea. The second problem is that the stakeholder usually forgets what his ideas are and doesn't like them when pitched back to him. Its frustrating to say the least. Stakeholder seemingly has a memory issues but refuses to carry a notebook. The owner whistles at an excruciatingly loud volume to inform employees that he is walking through the building, I believe that he learned this at a male dominance seminar. Probably titled "how to be a millionaire and treat people like you own them". Terrible communication from stakeholders. No clear vision on current state of company or future goals. This company creates content for Davison and New Show Studios among other Davison brands- All companies have very bad reputations. No room for growth. No annual reviews or raises. In all actuality you are more likely to receive a pay cut. Employees are placed in ethically compromising situations where they know they are doing things that are questionable but are afraid to do the right thing. Intimidation tactics used on employees. Part of the Davison Design and Development family of businesses.

Four day work week if you don't mind being in the office from 6am to 5pm. Some departments have very easy standards. Between the lack of experience with projects coupled with the endless tinkering, one can easily spend a week reading sports articles or making tons of revisions and mock ups to the same result. Depending where you are, it can be quite low stress and an easy post-retirement job or a frantic mess of accumulated tasks left over from unfilled positions under constant scrutiny by management.

Injudicious, family-owned upper management with more interests in holding their financial and social status, than actually turning a profit or investing in the future of their company. All is made for the glory of the Davison brand, in whatever incarnation it takes form, rather then actually providing a quality service and good reviews from clients. - Client work in all departments is rushed and second-rate, with the very specific and oft-mentioned goal of reducing the hours spent per $10k client fee as much as possible. Thus, personal fulfillment in creating something worthwhile is rare if ever experienced. For people who want to take pride in their work, or perfectionists at their craft, months of second-rate production can become depressing. - Expect constant project shifts, cancellations and reworking designs for several months. Months are spent on internal projects that are only made to promote the CEO and his image, rather than the company and it's services. Advertising is non-existent, reducing client work and income generated by the business to a trickle. Some departments are tasked with non-work related projects from management ranging from moving the CEO's furniture or designing golfing team shirts. Other departments may have nothing to do for days. - Management paranoia is oddly rampant, given how little known the company is, country-wide. New cameras, new restrictions and new mandates are not uncommon despite the lack of external threats or employee malfeasance. Expect to be severely spoken to about trifling things, like talking to the IT department or not wearing a company shirt. - No employee reviews, no bonuses, no raises; ever. Instead, from January 2013 - August 2015, all employees were docked between 5-10% of their pay due to 'financial strain'. Employees are paid the very minimum needed to populate necessary positions and bullied into accepting a complete lack of upward mobility. The CEO is both domineering when he puts his hands into his 'project of the month' and the remarkably absent in his interest in the employees themselves. Compliments, though not uncommon, are never backed with fiscal incentives or rewards. If your department happens to be involved with the new 'idea' or direction from the CEO, expect to be scrutinized by the minute, other departments can go months without input or direction. - A skeleton crew of haggard, despondent employees are your only source of camaraderie during those long sunless days in Inventionland. The despair and abyssal morale is virulent and can easily bring down the cheeriest of new faces. The palatable sense of emptiness and desperation is a very real factor in the day to day activities and can overwhelm the sensitive. - Ukulele and whistling stock music is played over loudspeakers across the office for children tours. The sanity of employees not taken into consideration. - Child tours are a regular trial of endurance as most offices are open to the walkways where classes of anywhere from 10 - 30 children are herded through building. This happens more regularly as the office becomes more of a 'kids museum' than a company. Employees are expected to walk around aimlessly to imply a larger workforce and are asked to 'play a role' in the grand illusion that Inventionland is an 'idea creator' rather than a hollow land of self-promotion. Don't be surprised if you're told to stand in a place and act like you're working, be it for a tour or a publicity photo. Additionally, due to the need to maintain appearances, Inventionland shirts (provided) are required wear. - The 'water' moat that surrounds the 'castle set' is dyed with food coloring and not chlorinated. This results in occasional bouts of a rancid 'Styrofoam fishing container' smell in the summer months. Rain and patching tar find their way through the roof and the cement outerwalls lining the southern end have clear gaps in which mid-February hoarfrost finds its way through. Summer rain produces periodic power outages from less than a minute to a couple hours. The CEO has been known to yell at employees standing around in emergency lighting because they're 'not working'.