Lost Potential due to Managerial Mess - Multimedia Designer Simmer Studios Employee Review

1.0
Feb 4, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

• Open-minded projects and clients foster creative freedom • Like-minded colleagues result in monotony • Work-from-home setup • Welcoming and friendly start • Gives occasional team hangouts and treats

Cons

• Inconsistencies in Professionalism: The company exhibits lapses in professionalism during the hiring process, onboarding, work setup, and offboarding procedures. • Compensation Practices: The company tends to undervalue its designers, consistently offering low remuneration, with intern compensation starting at Php 5000 per month and lacking any associated benefits. • Limited Employee Benefits: Full-time employees face a minimal starting salary of Php 13,000 per month, devoid of health benefits, insurance, or other standard compensations. This is notably inadequate considering the substantial workload and the company's growth potential. • Misaligned Priorities: The company appears to prioritize improving public relations, social media presence, and personal interests of the owners over strengthening the workforce through more competitive compensation, despite the fact that the designs are a cornerstone of their reputation. • Favoritism and Unprofessional Conduct: Instances of favoritism, negative discussions in upper management, and the use of an unofficial group chat for unprofessional conversations contribute to a challenging work environment. • Lack of Formal Contracts: The absence of professional contracts leaves employees and interns without clear terms regarding leaves, entitlements, benefits, and other crucial employment aspects. • Salary Delays and Management Issues: Salaries are often delayed due to lapses in processing, showcasing a lack of efficient financial management. • The CEO's handling of conflicts is marked by unprofessionalism, lack of accountability, overbearing behavior, and trustworthiness. • Limited Growth Opportunities: Employees and interns report a dearth of growth opportunities, resulting in a high turnover rate as individuals seek more promising career prospects elsewhere. • Image Protection Measures: The company employs questionable practices, including the use of bots and dummy accounts, to counteract online backlash, raising concerns about transparency and ethical conduct in addressing workplace issues.

Explore other reviews about Simmer Studios

5.0
Jun 12, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

✶ Flexible Working Hours - It's easier and more flexible for employees to manage their personal or work schedule since the working schedule is at ANY TIME as long as you're able to render 8 HOURS. ✶ Work Set-up - The studio is based in Marikina; however, the work setup is WFH (work from home) and On-Call RTO (return to office - depending on the Creative Director), so it's honestly beneficial to those who wish to work here and are living in far areas. ✶ Creativity Growth - You deal with different clients = different design and brand approaches - I think this is the main highlight of Pros for Simmers. They really enable graphic designers and/or creatives to explore and step out of their comfort zone. ✶ Creative and Accommodative Team - Despite I rarely had interaction with the team (since it's a WFH setup), they are very caring and accommodating because if you do not know a particular art style, they are willing to send you step-by-step instructions for you to try. ✶ Benefits - Been seeing reviews here that Simmers lack benefits or career growth, but that's maybe years ago, because I heard from their conference last year that I attended that they provide benefits now to their employees. ✶ Kind and Supportive Creative Director - Ms. R.K is a very considerate and talented person. She is willing to open doors for creatives who want to gain hands-on experience in design, branding, and dealing with clients.

Cons

✶ Location - It's really far, that's the con. But I do believe Simmers is willing to provide allowances to their employees on transportation, especially on the on-call, onsite ✶ Building Relationships with the Team - It's not really a con, rather a challenge to become relational and to really get to know every employee, because it's WFH, but they do have occasional meet-ups, team buildings that could be a gateway for you to grow with the team. But they are really friendly when you talk or seek consultation with them.

5.0
Apr 10, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I’ve been working as a part-time and freelance designer at simmer and have had the opportunity to collaborate with the simmer team on some really great projects and brands. I’ve also had a positive working relationship with ms. RK so I was honestly surprised to see negative reviews here, especially because no one has left the company in the past two years that I am here. From my perspective, and definitely with simmer's regulars employees, the work environment has been supportive and stable. One thing I really appreciate is the level of trust given to designers, especially in my setup, I guess. There’s flexibility in terms of working hours, which makes it easier to balance other commitments while still contributing meaningfully to projects.

Cons

I haven’t personally experienced any major downsides so far. The flexibility in scheduling has worked really well for me. But also some brands do have an NDA so you can't post about it online, but I believe it's normal.

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