Toxic Environment - Anonymous employee LandDesign Employee Review

2.0
Jun 15, 2021
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great company "image" and swagger. Opportunities to work on some great projects if you play your cards right. Cool physical office environments with good amenities and aesthetics. Good office locations. Lots of social activities, snacks, free luncheons, and booze if you have time to partake. Decent benefits and pay. Designated days to bring your dog to work. Reasonable PTO. Willingness to negotiate hiring terms.

Cons

Overall company-wide observation and experience: They lure impressionable, often younger talent with good perks, false promises for job responsibilities and opportunities, and a fun team/family-oriented facade. Then employees are quickly expected to compete with co-workers and kiss up for the best projects and opportunities. If you refuse to play, you're relegated to "grunt status" and forced to work unreasonably long hours to carry the load while favored team members live it up with management (sometimes carrying on right in front of you). None of this seems to be dependent on talent or abilities. Management rarely provides inclusion, guidance, direction and organization. Instead, they often facilitate triangulation, gossip, scapegoating, spying, gaslighting, and immaturity. Lots of big egos and cliques, sprinkled with some good, hard-working talent that often gets overlooked and burnt out quickly. There's even this weird vibe encouraged by certain leadership and HR where everyone is expected to fawn all over the CEO. Departments/studios/offices can be petty and competitive, withholding information or being unresponsive to each other just to make life difficult. All of this creates a stressful, awkward, and sometimes hostile work environment. There are some highly-favored employees and long-timers who seem very happy, and also quite a few miserable souls who commiserate outside the office to plan their escape. Not a lot of in between. Sexist/racist undertones are also tolerated from the top down.

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5.0
Apr 13, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
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Pros

Great talent, leadership and potential to grow in the DFW market.

Cons

With the potential for growth in the DFW market, and so many areas to grow, staying focused on or two markets is tough.

3.0
Jul 16, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Pay and benefits are decent. Hours are not outrageous, most weeks are just under 45 hours. Decent starter job, but most people with 3-5 years experience will leave for better opportunities.

Cons

No sick time and the PTO isn't great. Lack of diversity in leadership, holidays (no MLK day or Juneteenth off), or thinking (there is a "LandDesign" way of doing things, going outside that or questioning the established way of doing work is frowned upon). Getting pigeon-holed into one type of project or task is very common in my experience. Talk of "long hallways" but no actual cohesion between offices. A lot of playing into the games, fighting for popularity in order to get good projects and move up in the firm. Depending on the office/studio, projects can be pretty lackluster.

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