Pros
Full remote work environment and an exciting book of work in civic tech. People that I worked with at the time were passionate and smart. None of them work there anymore. The recruitment pitch was successful in building the idea that the company was on the cusp of greatness, that they valued their employees, had an open feedback environment, and that people were in it together. It turned out to be an incredible lie.
Cons
This is the most toxic work environment that I was ever been a part of and easily ranked as one of the worst when I shared with friends and family. Intense micromanaging on the simplest piece of work that translated into a fundamental mistrust of employees expertise, professionalism, and on-the-ground assessment of project work. The CEO continuously undermined myself and others, and when presented with feedback was hostile and demeaning. It was not uncommon to see someone berated and humiliated during feedback sessions. Obviously created a fearful environment. MO Studio has had a brilliant team of proposal writers and are very good at convincing organizations, people, and the government that they are competent. Unfortunately, the routinely fail in delivering on contracts won. They should consider just being a proposal writing company, and scratch trying to deliver on work completely. Retention shows how awful this place is; few last longer than a year. Within a couple years the staff has turned over almost 100%. Deep, fundamental issues too long to get into: gaslighting, bullying, poor professional boundaries, leadership inability to take accountability and acknowledge fault, unclear roles and responsibilities, expectation to do everything perfectly and wordlessly accept nonsensical demands to redo work at the 11th hour, hypocrisy in mission and values at every turn, trashing partners in internal calls and failure to take responsibility, hiding critical information from clients that didn't cast MO in a good light, no management accountability and happy to throw employees under the bus, gaslighting employees. It goes on and on. Work days averaged 10-12 hours a day, expectation to work weekends often, in case that's not your thing and your some how still considering working here.
