Cons
Unfortunately, there are more cons than pros when working for this organization. Hope was lost and over time, my values did not align with how this company does business.
There has been amazing talent at the Denver Post on the digital advertising side. 80% of that talent has left or been pushed out due to the problems associated with the organization. Take this seriously. Those include the following:
• MAJOR lack of positive company moral and benefits due to ‘no budget’ and/or lack of upper management caring. There are not company happy hours or team bonding events (one annual event at downtown office), the office is dreary and practically empty (~30 desks are full out of ~65), and the location is in an industrial area outside of the city with nothing exciting around (food, entertainment, coffee). No matter the sacrifices to the company, if the $$ goals are hit, then all is good. No 401K match and you pay union fees.
• They punish the high achievers with new commission structures that minimize their monthly paycheck, remote days/work from home were taken away, and work hours were tightened up (strictly 8-5 only). You track your time weekly.
• Hitting revenue goals is imperative to keeping the doors open for any company, but the business decisions that this organization makes are not beneficial to driving success for the clients.
• Instead of looking at the overall strategy and investing time in a quality campaign, many things are rushed, short cuts are taken, and a sloppy campaign go live. This causes high churn rates due to client’s disappointment and waste of money/time.
• Unrealistic expectations - completely overloading all departments in the organization with too much work combined with little support behind it. Shortening reporting deadlines that cause rushing and poor quality reports.
• Dishonest and poor business decisions. Very qualified employees off complex accounts with huge opportunity and hand it off to new reps with little digital knowledge. In addition, they aren’t transparent with the clien in hopes to not upset or scare off the client with (yet another) turnover. The client finds out and in the end is upset and trust is lost.
• Lack of training for new hires in every department. New hires are given their new client list, which usually is left a mess from the previous sales rep and they are expected to clean it up, provide great service, and sell more. There is rarely historical data available and no quality digital product training.
• Lack of product knowledge on the team - the last few hires did not have any digital experience and the organization is down YOY in DIGITAL. Or there are reps that have been there for over a decade that haven’t received the appropriate training to transition from legacy print advertising to digital solutions. These are sharp individuals hired, but weak training program. No dice.
• Extremely high turnover – in 2017 the support team was 12-15 people, currently it is 3. They cut the editorial team by 30% last year. Sales team has gone from 80 to about 30.
• Lack of upper management interaction. There was a lot of change in the last few months and it trickled down through middle management and not once did the upper management make face to face time to discuss it or check in with the individual teams. This would have been greatly appreciated and showed that they cared about their team.
• Lack of respect from management. Huge decisions are made without consulting the individuals or teams. Very micromanaged, continuously questioning your work (often days before the deadline, therefore no reason to ‘check up’ on the task). Sometimes it’s very patronizing to the team, repeating themselves and questioning everything. They need to reign it in a bit and trust their team to do their job.
• There are employees that have been there for years that should be gone, the politics are real. An prime enterprise example is unapproachable, has an awful attitude most of the time, and is very unprofessional. Not sure why they are still employed with the company due to the major complaints AND high turnover on their team. Beware.
• Overall, this company is focused on one thing and that is money. People should be priority as well when building a successful business. It’s extremely sad and a shame that this company does not care at all. This is evident in recent changes, how they treat the team, and truly driving everyone out. It’s as if that is their goal.
• If you care about culture, quality and strategic campaigns, open door management, great location, a solid training program, ongoing knowledge sharing, and overall positivity…then do not apply here. There are so many more companies in Denver that can give you what you need and want. You should never have to dread work or start your first day or week of work around non-stop negativity from your new peers.