Have you ever watched The Devil Wears Prada? Well, Implico is like that, except there are not glamorous parties, fabulous clothes, and exceptional networking opportunities. Unfortunately, I worked there for over a year and was one of their longest employees.
The CEO and upper management have a tendency to be angry, calculating, condescending, critical, cruel, demanding, dishonest, disorganized, drunk, egocentric, erratic, irrational, judgemental, manipulative, passive aggressive, rude, unhelpful, unprofessional, unthankful, and uptight. The CEO constantly makes absolutely abhorrent comments about other employees. For instance, she joked that one of our employees is autistic and called another a beta male. I also wrote the following quote down the moment that the CEO said it: “I’ve hired black people before and they don’t make it.”
Ultimately, the CEO and upper management lack empathy, treat employees like dirt, and are absolutely delusional. They never like any employee other than themselves for long and think that every other employee is stupid. They also talk about their illegal business practices (i.e. failing to provide FTE with benefits after 90 days or hiring employees in sanctioned countries). They desperately need to take a hard look in the mirror, question why everyone is incapable of meeting their standards, and finally realize why everyone quits. I genuinely deserve an Academy Award for working with these people for over a year.
In January of this year, they suggested that I train to become the PM by summer. They offered me very little guidance, feedback, or training for several months. In June, the CEO casually told me that they were going to hire someone “older” to be the PM due to four mistakes that I had made. However, at least two of the “mistakes” were their fault (One of the mistakes was upper management’s fault, but they didn’t take responsibility for their actions so the mistake was blamed on me. In hindsight, I wish that I had advocated for myself, but I didn’t realize that I would not get the promotion and I was concerned about retaliation). They eventually hired their close friend to be the PM. They trained her poorly and she is not as knowledgeable as I am, but upper management is covering it up. The PM is also not performing the job independently or working excessive overtime as I was expected to.
As you may have already realized, there is a toxic culture surrounding mistakes. Whenever they notice that someone has made a mistake, they immediately search for who is to blame and make them (even if they’re an intern) feel terrible. I honestly think that they feel joy when they notice a mistake and have the opportunity to berate someone over it. However, when they make mistakes, they ignore it and or blame their mistake on someone else.
A few weeks ago, I found a Google Doc with my name on the title in the company Google Drive. It was a short list of mistakes that I made and I imagine how they justified not giving me the PM promotion. I tried to ignore it, but I began to obsessively open it over the following week. Unfortunately, this caused the Google Doc to appear higher on their Google Drive. They started writing petty complaints about me in it constantly. One time, they were even typing in it while I was sitting across from them. I immediately burst out of the office hysterically crying.
If you currently work here or you need the money, please know that they will never see the error in their ways. Every step forward with them is two steps back. Also, every positive review on this website is either written by them or written by a current employee that they pressured into leaving a positive review. The best advice that I can give you is play the game, keep your head down, and don’t let them tear you down. If you do try to advocate for yourself, it will not be productive and they will hold it against you.
The CEO and upper management should feel absolutely ashamed of themselves for bullying employees (typically young women at their first jobs). Ultimately, it would take days for me to summarize the abuse that I and other employees experienced. However, I will say that by the end, my responsibilities had slowly increased to what two people should be doing. When I tried to advocate for myself because the CEO was giving me an additional responsibility (that the PM should be doing), she told me to perform my other responsibilities in a sloppy manner in order to take on this additional task. I gave two weeks notice the following day, but she fired me for “Job Abandonment” because I didn’t arrive at the office by 8:00 AM that day (I always work from home in the morning and arrive at 9:00 AM). She also told me that I lack critical thinking skills and suggested that I find a job in HR in the future (she means this as a back handed compliment). At the end of the day, this was a terrible first job, but I learned how to recognize red flags in the workplace, how to work with difficult people, and I gained a lot of experience. The only reason I lasted over a year is that I actually enjoyed my job responsibilities and I have an incredible work ethic. It is truly unfortunate that they never recognized my worth (or paid me appropriately), but I wasn’t willing to sell my soul to the devil and neither should you.