The vast majority of employees, myself included, believe we are overworked and underpaid. Apparently we're right around the industry average (according to the CEO), but most employees find that hard to believe - myself included.
When I interviewed for a Junior Account Associate. I was told that once I was able to handle several basic job responsibilities (typically 3-6 months in) I would be promoted to Account Associate. AAs make between $14 and $16 hours an hour, **I was told**, depending on experience level. Although I received nothing but positive feedback and I definitely exceeded expectations of the job details by my 3-month mark, I didn't receive a promotion until I asked repeatedly.... and even then my wage increased to only $12.50/hr. I was blatantly lied to during my interview, something I'm still not over. I should have gotten it in writing... (lesson learned) Even after a team-wide raise due to widespread unrest and high employee turnover, I am still significantly below the $14 mark. Compensation at this company is not good, but the fact that I was lied to was even worse.
On the Account Management Team, our overall workload has drastically increased since I began - our sales partners bring in an absurd amount of clients - but the number of account managers has decreased by about 20% since 10 months ago. Even working overtime, it is nearly impossible to deliver quality results to each of my 40ish clients. Our processes are convoluted and unnecessary, communication between departments is lacking, transparency with employees is dreadful, and overall there seems to be a major disconnect between upper management and what we all do every day. Our 'research and development' department doesn't ever research ways to make our lives easier and it seems like most of my day is spent doing damage control with clients instead of actually helping anyone's marketing efforts. If I knew how things worked around here and I owned a business, I wouldn't hire us.
I actually had a meeting a few months ago with my team Manager, the CEO, and the COO to discuss the employee turnover issue. Since then things have only gotten worse, to the point where I actually decided to leave myself. I am a current employee (as this review says) but in 2 weeks I will no longer be with Search Influence. This may just be my own biases talking, but since I started here employee morale seems to have taken a nosedive and the majority of employees are actively seeking other jobs. In that meeting I referenced earlier, the CEO said something that concerned me. He has a 'survival of the fittest' mentality when discussing employee retention - the people that can handle the work will stay, and the people that can't will leave.
Will, I know you'll read this review, so if there's one thing you should take away... that mentality, in my opinion, is a terrible approach. With that mentality some employees may stick around and do what they need to do, but they won't necessarily be happy in the process. Given the sink-or-swim ideology that the CEO believes in, this company feels more like an anchor than a life vest. I'm cutting the chain before I sink any further.
The way things are going now is not sustainable. As the quality of our product declines our partner relationships will also, and that will lead to even more work putting out fires on a day to day basis. Then more employees will leave. It's a vicious cycle and I have no idea how the company will ever turn it around. Leadership seems to lack any big-picture solutions to these major problems.
Please, do yourself a favor and stay away from this company. Do I regret working here? No, but I certainly wouldn't have accepted this job offer if I knew how things really worked.
