Toxic owners, the worst type of faux-woke agency - Anonymous employee Heart Creative Employee Review

1.0
21 Oct 2021
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

You will quickly learn how to navigate being employed by a pair of owners and select, long term members of a leadership team that are so deeply problematic, unqualified to lead people, own a business (hey inherited wealth) and blind to their own inherent bias that you’ll leave with a more trauma-informed worldview. Need stronger boundaries? Feel you can only achieve that by being plunged into a toxic environment? You’ll be overworked, underpaid , gaslit, have necessary resources to be successful in your role withheld from you all while the owners working to constantly shine the company’s “woke” veneer (b-Corp, gender neutral bathrooms, “wellness” initiatives, quipy Instagram posts) they rely on to distract you. The only Radical Goodness to come out of this place are the incredible, talented, qualified, creative, truly amazing current and former employees that support each other, and rightly criticize this agency.

Cons

The owners/leadership had the opportunity to address the feedback shared in these reviews when it was shared privately and directly, and did nothing about it (unless you count performative emails, listening sessions, promises to do better) I have no confidence that now that they’re being called out in a public way that any meaningful change will occur.

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Heart Creative Response
4y
We appreciate the time taken to submit feedback. While negative reviews are difficult to receive, we gladly accept this and are committed to taking a hard look at our business and the opportunities to improve.

Explore other reviews about Heart Creative

5.0
4 Apr 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Heart Creative managers and owners highly encourage creativity. I loved my immediate team, everyone was always so kind. Owners were as transparent as possible with company goals and trajectory. Their vision for the future was always inspiring. We worked on fun projects and an interesting set of diverse clients.

Cons

I worked at Heart before the pandemic, I had a good experience.

1.0
21 Oct 2021
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- The employees at Heart are hands down the best part about this place. I met some of the kindest, most compassionate people while working here. - There is an opportunity to learn a lot about marketing, and very quickly based on the insane workloads and assumption that you will hustle 24/7 to get the work done. - The leftovers from the test kitchen. - The culinary team here is truly top-notch; they are the foundation for why Heart is even able to exist amongst a million other digital marketing agencies.

Cons

- At best (giving them the benefit of the doubt), leadership is inexperienced, naïve, and disconnected. At worst, they are shady, manipulative, and money-hungry. - The performative projection of "wokeness" is especially egregious given how poorly they pay people. Their whole business model is based on paying people the lowest wages that they can get away with, while selling services as cheaply as possible to close the deal. It devalues and dehumanizes the people and the work. - The constant cycle of overpromising and under delivering is exhausting to both employees and clients; the cycle continues until either the employee or the client leaves... which, both happen often. - I do believe the company was started with sound intentions. However, with the right amount of inexperience, tone deafness, exploitation, and some shadiness sprinkled in, it is indeed a recipe for disaster.

15
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Heart Creative Response
4y
We appreciate your feedback and are sorry to hear the negative feelings shared. Our leadership team is taking a hard look at the company and is committed to making positive changes. We hope to create a working environment that our employees and clients are proud of. This is a work in progress and will continue to evaluate based on critiques shared.
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