Hypocritical and passive aggressive leadership means a short career path here
Pros
The clients are nice. Though they are often constrained by rigid budgets, they are all passionate in their missions and generally reasonable with expectations and supporting their work was fun.
Cons
Message Agency is a mission-based company, ostensibly a b-corp, so I expected a more robust set of policies to support staff. There is no on-site HR, which means any of your HR requests fall flat for at least a month or two until they're dealt with in the most thoughtless and procedural ways. Sure, they follow HR policies, but a company that posits itself as an org that puts people and planet above profit would benefit with a more human approach to HR. Leadership micro-manages and there are some very uncomfortable practices that reek of nepotism, as the Principal and Operations person are married and seem to make many decisions behind closed doors, without staff input. The principal is involved in every single project that passes through the agency's doors and is a micromanager. It also means you should prepare to be thrown under the bus once or twice throughout your time there. You get used to it, and other staff usually pitch in to help pick up the pieces, but that feeling of throwing yourself into your work and then being called out in front of clients stays with you. The open door policy works if you're a favorite or if you've got something to say about another staff member. Assume any constructive feedback you give to management will eventually come back to you in a performance review or somehow affect the way you're treated. The culture is just...dull. At best, there's an after work gathering every so often (pre-covid times), but it never felt like anyone really wanted to be there. Work from home was discouraged (though passive-aggressively allowed as long as you have a "valid" excuse and it was requested ahead of time) until there was no other choice. It was all about control and lack of trust. Many of the previous negative Glassdoor reviews vanished, replaced by positive ones, with similar cons, which seems suspect. You can bet that if you left Message and you weren’t a “favorite,” the Principal has spoken negatively about you and thrown you under the bus either passively or explicitly to current staff. He does not keep former staff in good standing with him, creating a trail of negativity with former staff and within the Philly tech community.
