Pros
Artists consist of some of the most talented creatives you'll find in the industry, who are unfortunately stifled and held back from their full potential because of management.
Cons
I left earlier this year on my own accord, but seeing how management continues to treat its employees and continues to lie about how the company is in a good place, I have to speak up. Firstly, don't ever trust anything management says to you. It's how they fooled myself and others to join the company and stay as long as I did. Second, management will never listen to your feedback about the company unless you only have good things to say. If you bring up any issues, you are told "it's not your place", "don't speak for others" and "don't worry about it, you're thinking too much into it." At their worst, management will gaslight you and make you feel like you're lying about your concerns or that no one else shares those same concerns. The company is mismanaged and production is bottle-necked at every turn, and the fault is on the CEO. He never has a plan and consistently changes his mind on everything. One day he likes something, another he hates it. If something is going out to publish that day, suddenly he doesn't like the dialog. He makes production needlessly problematic. He insists on reviewing and physically touching every single aspect of the pipeline. This is due to his inability to trust his employees. Even the managers he's employed are not immune to this. Everything has to be approved by him, and I mean EVERYTHING. Every aspect, every step. Everything. Even when the company was at 30 employees, we couldn't manage to release more than 2 titles, and it's because he consistently shelved projects, redid projects, or just canceled them altogether. And if you're an artist, he will take your work and make adjustments without ever telling you. This leads to characters in the final publishing looking incorrect or wonky. One of the biggest reasons I left was because I felt like I no longer contributed anything. When the work you've done goes live, and it no longer looks like your own, you feel unaccomplished and unwanted. The company prides itself in being an ally to the LGBTQ community, but that couldn't be further from the truth. One of the reasons I joined the company was because I strongly believe this demographic needs more positive media that represents them. Unfortunately, you quickly learn that management couldn't care less about the LGBTQ community. They have no engagement with them, nor do they ever make the effort. Even LGBTQ employees at the company were disregarded of their personal experiences, and in many cases were looked down upon or mistreated. It was disgusting. There was even a case where we were marketing our app during voting season and creating distasteful politically driven images. These social media posts even went as far as adding Alt-Right hashtags. You know, the very people who the LGBTQ community would NOT want to associate with. When I brought this up, management didn't understand why this was a big deal, made excuses, and told me "don't worry about it." The company also kept problematic employees on staff even after concerns about safety in the workplace were brought up by multiple employees. The CEO cares so much about public image and how well HE is doing, that he will overlook or disregard anyone else. He avoids conflict between employees and just tells everyone to "be professional" even when there's clearly a wrong party in the conflict. He so much wants to be in charge, and take credit for everything, but will always fail to take responsibility or step up as a leader. Management at Stela was the most immature and unprofessional I've ever experienced in my entire career.