I can only speak from a graphic designer’s perspective - Anonymous employee The Berman Group Employee Review

- Annual reviews are fictitious (only told of your performance within first few months of being hired, and then you are left in a tiny room with the rest of the design team without any idea how much the boss actually likes or dislikes you) - Impossibly fast turn-around (high stress) - Extremely toxic work environment (disrespect between designers & account management daily) - Very poor communication skills abound - Personal days do not exist - Sick days are frowned upon - Raises are rare/frowned upon (they are not given unless you ask, and that doesn't necessarily guarantee one either) - Expected to work like a cog in a machine, with no room for professional input - Favoritism by the boss runs rampant and is painfully obvious - Passive aggressive tactics by management - Taking a lunch break sets office into chaos sometimes, so better play it safe and eat at your desk every day Before you even consider working here as a full-time graphic designer, take careful consideration of every little bit of truth you are about to internalize from this epic review. And if you choose to ignore all of this and think to yourself, “But I am a good designer, surely things will be different for me,” you’ve been warned. 1. THERE IS NO ART DIRECTOR. Do not be fooled. There are people at TBG given the title of Art Director or Creative Director, but none of these people have any actual education or experience in design, or art at all. Their main purpose is to forward emails from clients to designers with barely (if any) proof-reading and absolutely no (or completely inaccurate) creative direction. They often do not know what a vector is, why web images are not good for print, what a sans serif font is, what a bleed is, why you can’t edit flattened PDFs, and why you can’t edit an Indesign file from another company that hasn’t been packaged. These need to be taught to them by the graphic designers themselves, and often times, the facts do not stick, so you’re left with extremely little patience and on the verge of quitting on a daily basis. You may be thinking, “What?! That’s crazy! That title should not be given to people like that, that is so insulting!” Yes, it is very insulting, and very frustrating. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how degrading this company can be for a graphic designer. 2. THE PRESIDENT HAS NO DESIGN EXPERTISE. Maybe this does not sound like a big deal at first, but let me explain why this is perhaps one of the biggest problems TBG has, especially with its lack of real Art/Creative Directors. Every single project, big or small, must be shown, micromanaged, and approved by Sarah Berman herself before being sent for review by the client. And this is where everything quickly spirals out of control. Depending on Sarah’s mood of the day, things can go very smoothly, or she hates everything put in front of her. She goes through bouts of only wanting to use one font for everything, no matter the client, and often times tells designers (via the account management) to do the opposite of what the client asked for. Therefore, you are often faced with (and I kid you not) DOZENS of rounds of edits over the course of weeks for a simple email blast that was initially deemed “urgent.” And more often than not, the client doesn’t like Sarah’s perspective and asks us to go back to what the initial design was. Go figure. 3. YOU ARE EXPECTED TO READ MINDS. Yes. I know this sounds dumb, but it is true. As mentioned briefly above, you are supposed to know Sarah’s favorite font of the season, favorite color of the season, and favorite shape of the season. One day Futura is “modern” and Gotham is “dated.” Come spring, the opposite is true. You, as an educated and trained graphic designer with an actual degree, must just deal and accept these as facts, otherwise, you are *gasp* a BAD designer. And you will be made very aware of this because you will stop receiving actual creative projects and will only be given text changes to make for months on end in templates, until you prove your worth and start using Gotham on everything, dammit. 4. YOU ARE 100% REPLACEABLE, AT ALL TIMES. You see, since designers here aren’t actually allowed to do what they do best, you are replaceable. And the term “replaceable” is used by the President herself. This isn’t just true for the designers. It’s actually true for every employee at the company. Did you get the memo yet? Yeah, you’re replaceable, so just shut up and do as you’re told, and do it fast! They needed it yesterday! And don’t expect any sort of reward for good work. A “good job” from the boss, IN PERSON, is like a once-per-year phenomena. Any other “good job” may rarely come from account management, and that’s probably because they are grateful you haven’t quit yet. 5. THE TURNAROUND TIME IS INCONCEIVABLY FAST & EVERYTHING IS URGENT. Here is an example: We have a brand new client that we know nothing about, we do not have a site map, or website copy, or even an idea of what they do specifically, no original images, or an idea of what kind of images to use. There is no branding guide, no color pallet, no info on audience or demographic. The only thing you have is a screen shot of a crappy logo from the early 90s made in Microsoft Word, with maybe the words “PARTNERS LLC” underneath it. Now, make a homepage design for them that looks fantastic in TWO HOURS (end of day). GO! I know what you’re thinking, this can’t be true. It is. And it happens way more often than you would believe. Sometimes weekly, definitely monthly. And if you fail, you are swept under the rug without even being told why, and the project is given to a fellow designer. Second chances are not given here. Do it fast. Do it well. Or you’re done. Unfortunately, the second designer faced with the burden are then also left thinking, “How the heck is this even possible??? This is hell. I am in hell.” 6. QUITTING IS A REOCCURRING FANTASY. So why haven’t I? Well, sadly, for that part of me with still some passion left for the field, I think, maybe, just maybe, things can change. Maybe, we can have a real Art Director, and I can start creating things I can be proud of. Maybe a portfolio-worthy design will shine through sometime, right? The art department has tried to schedule a time to voice our concerns with the boss, but we were told to deal with it with the account management instead. So we did. But we found out, as horrible as some days are, it’s not entirely their faults either. It really all oozes down from the top. And there’s nothing you can say or do without being told you are worthless. So, until the day comes that I just can’t take it any more…