Pros
- An excellent, talented team of diverse people who start their roles genuinely caring.
- Access to a great office space.
Cons
- Fridays off. The CEO clearly wants more time to party, so relies on the "promise" of a 4-day working week. However, employees are expecting to work 10+ hours per day to accommodate the workload, causing extreme burnout (meanwhile, the CEO comes in late and leaves early, consistenly)
- Zero client onboarding. Clients come on board following pitches and discussions solely with the CEO. The team is then expected to start work with no prior knowledge of who the client is, what project goals are, what the scope of work is, hours sold, etc. This leads to an extended and confusing onboarding process, where the client becomes immediately frustrated. Expectations are mismanaged from the start, as deliverables are promised from day 1, when this is entirely unrealistic and uncommon.
- Lack of resources. While the employees are incredibly talented, each one is completely overworked, trying to reach the unrealistic deadlines set by management. The team is very small, with too many clients to manage. There are also compulsory meetings multiple times a day with the CEO, taking up valuable working time.
- "Freelance" contracts. Each team member is technically freelancing for the client. However, each person is required to be in the office every day, with no flexible hours or ways of working. This allows the CEO to avoid paying taxes or a pension, while retaining the permanent structure of a team.
- Managing management. The CEO requires a lot of subtle managing. His total lack of knowledge on any service offered by the agency leads to overpromises to new clients. Teams must manage how he speaks and what he says to clients (when this is possible) to avoid a catastrophic onboarding process. His erratic behaviour and complete lack of awareness or empathy also requires frequent managing. On this note, one unlucky team member will be picked to manage the CEO's professional (and sometimes personal) time. This includes writing out his social media posts, managing his calendar, and organising meetings on his behalf, often without context.
- Work-life balance. There is none. You'll be overworked and underpaid, and will spend the extended weekend both catching up on work and stressing about the coming week.
- No SLT. The lack of a senior leadership team means the CEO is the sole captain of the (sinking) ship. This means there is no career progression in place and no one to spot skills gaps/teach teams to develop skills and knowledge.
- High churn rate. Both clients and employees churn at an alarming rate. In less than 6 months, the entire team changed, and fewer than 5 clients were retained.
- Financial problems. The agency is facing financial issues, exacerbated by the CEOs extravagent spending. (Tip: paying for an office for freelancers to work in is not a smart use of funds. Remote working works.) Fancy, compulsory lunches and dinners where teams feel awkward and stressed is unneccessary - which is made worse when they witness the company card being declined.
- Inappropriate behaviours. The CEO will try and befriend new hires to get them on side, with lovebombing behaviour. This includes taking them out for 1:1 lunches, coffees, drinks, and even gigs. However, the mask soon slips and his unhinged behaviour and awful management style is revealed, and the new hires are left stressed and worried.
- Zero benefits. There are no benefits to working at Literal Humans. Not even a pension.
I could go on, as this just scratches the surface. Do not work at Literal Humans.