• In less than a year, there were two rounds of layoffs, and many talented, longstanding employees actively left on their own accord. After the first round of layoffs, and right before the second round, many high-salary positions were brought on, despite communication that budget issues were the reasoning for layoffs.
• It was noted by others, not myself, that the first round of layoffs consisted mainly of underrepresented groups, and we had formal department meetings regarding that fact.
• They have nearly doubled their employee count in roughly two years.
• You are told, in regards to billable hours, that even if you are thinking about a project in the shower, you should bill for that time. You might be scoped for 5, and it only takes you 3, but that efficiency is not necessarily rewarded, as it was communicated that certain lay-off designations were due to low numbers of billable hours. The scope of these hours are often out of your control, though certain teams are receptive to pushback. If you go over the hours you are scoped for, you are incurring a cost to the agency, and not their paying client. Many members of leadership would openly joke about never submitting their time sheets.
In my opinion, work "culture" is not:
• Drinking
• Fanciful platitudes
• Making t-shirts every month
• Back-channel gossip
• The old Olive Garden slogan, "When you're here, you're family."
In my opinion, DEI efforts are not:
• Without formal structure, resource allocation, and application
Organizationally chaotic:
• It became widely apparent that leadership members of different departments were at odds with each other over the strategic organization of the agency. In fact, it became widely discussed that these particular leaders were actively trying to dismantle or undermine an entire department. Organizational change 101 will strongly encourage alignment amongst leadership.
• When telling director-level employees that WCAG compliance needed to be prioritized, or that a product they were highlighting and linking to was not actually featured on a client's product page, they seemed to scoff and suggest it was fine.
• Few established processes exist. "A rationally designed structure may not necessarily be beautiful but no building can be beautiful that does not have a rationally designed structure."
In summary, the organization:
• seemed to struggle with change management
• seemed financially volatile and fragile
• seemed to facilitate a caste system based off intangible social criteria
