Talented Staff; Poor Management - Anonymous employee Refinery29 Employee Review

1.0
14 Jan 2017
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The junior staff and parts of the senior staff are creative, inspiring and believe in the R29 mission and collaboratively working with others. They are passionate about pushing you to be your best everyday and believe in you and your work. It's one of the best places to collaboratively work with passionate people in connection to the content delivered on the site. You will come out a better person and creative if you keep your head down and do the work.

Cons

Executives refuse to properly train and hire directors with experience to fit the titles, favoritism is the name of the game at R29. If you have a large social following and are deemed a "favorite" you can choose your title, project and team. The idea of a director having experience or being trained to lead a team is insignificant to higher management, the quality of the content, supervision and training of the junior staff suffer as a result. Titles are given out like candy (with salaries and bonuses) that are far exceed the experience of people in senior and director roles. As a result the junior staff works exceptionally hard for pennies and are told to be thankful for even receiving a bonus. R29 is inspiring and its easy to get caught up in the startup vibe, unfortunately its lack in management and support for hard working experienced staff fail to live up to its mission. Don't expect to be mentored by directors or ask questions, this is a place you go in do the work and get the experience.

Explore other reviews about Refinery29

5.0
27 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great culture, extremely nice employees, diverse workplace

Cons

Not very cutting edge with their approach to tech

4.0
23 Mar 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Refinery29 was training day, every day. The pace and creative expectations forced you to sharpen fast. I cut my teeth here over four years and came out a fundamentally better strategist. The work was culturally plugged in, the people were sharp, and you were trusted with real responsibility early. If you wanted to learn how brand, content, and audience intersect at speed, there was no better place.

Cons

The intensity that makes it a great training ground also means the environment runs hot. Not everyone thrives in that — and depending on your team, support structures varied. The company went through a lot of change during my time, which created some instability.

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