Freeze Reviews

where do I start? Pay: The obvious ones is that it's very low pay. They always bank on hiring fresh college grad which is the easy way to low-ball your salary. Speaking of pay, the difference of what a salesperson make compared to a designer is miles part. Granted, it's comparing apples and oranges, but when you compare the effort that's put into the occupation, it seems very unfair that they get paid 50% more for doing a whole lot less. Majority of the time I was there, the sales people would just chit chat, go to the bathroom and be on their smartphones all day playing games or making personal calls. The artists' on the other hand, create art on tight deadlines, gets all the blame if anything goes wrong and get this...doesn't make any commission off the art they make. All of the art sales are tacted onto the salesperson's paycheck instead. I overheard a salesperson seeing an artwork being printed out and said "oh you made this art? Man, I gotta thank you for that, I bought a new house with that piece alone, thanks bro!" Trentment of employees: in addition to the inequal nepotism, our well being wasn't much of a concern for them. During Hurricane Sandy, the CEO wanted us to come into work. It wasn't until the MTA shut down that he allowed 1 day off, ONE. If you weren't able to come in the next day, they take it out of your sick/vacation days. Same scenario a few years later when the floor had a bed bug problem. Because we were on a tight deadline, we were forced to stay to finish instead of leaving the area. Benefits: one of the bottom of the barrel health insurances where you end up paying a lot out of pocket. no dental, no vision. HR will fight you tooth and nails over not wanting to give you essential office supply like hightlighters, post-its and tape. I can go one. But bottom line is that this company will only treat you like cattle.

Remember what I said about IF you have a good art director in charge of your department? That's the only way you'll want to work here for more than a year. That or if you actually get promoted or can't find work elsewhere. A couple of the departments had trouble holding onto artists because of how terrible some of the art directors are, either at their job or as a person. Even with a good art director, 80% of this job is copying and pasting with a few effects and text treatment added in. That gets monotonous, so a lot of people come and go frequently. Last I heard, even my spot is still left open a year later. People just don't want to do repetitive work when you're barely making even with a NYC cost of living. Which is the other thing. The starting pay is not great if you're living on your own in NYC. Great if you're living with parents or overstuffing a flat with several friends, but I personally would have to call home for bailouts periodically. One of two paychecks per month would be completely drained after rent was due. Higher ups don't care. They are really restrictive with raises and growth, and don't like people staying late voluntarily to get the work finished on time. Most people show up as much as half an hour late and try to make up for that by staying the extra half hour, but around the time I left, there was talk of how much the bosses up top didn't like it when people from the design department stayed late, regardless if they were tardy or not or if it was to meet a deadline. Even when I stayed late because a sales rep got a request last minute from a client that wanted a specific set of design options made from scratch just an hour before clock out and asking for major changes five minutes before the end of office hours. I think it's their way to avoid having to pay overtime, which I was told upfront is something they don't offer. But working late can be inevitable in many situations with this office, depending on what job you get. They also pulled one of the perks designers get, which was to be able to take home old samples and clothing bodies when they were getting cleaned out of the showroom. These are items that we designed, ones that didn't necessarily get picked up for mass production, and they were going to make us pay the company for our work that they were otherwise just going to throw away. Not donate or recycle. Throw away. Nepotism is a serious problem, too. Sales representatives are the ones pulling in the most money here, picking up commissions and huge bonuses, and a good number of the sales people are related to the CEOs. And remember, artists here don't get commissions, just pats on the back and a note in their file for consideration at the end of the year evaluation when something of theirs sells, or becomes a best selling item. Shortly before I left, someone in sales accidentally emailed the whole office his resume; someone who was known to be the last person to clock in and one of the first to clock out, and reputed as not being particularly great at his job in between. His base salary was six figures. 'Caused a huge wave of resentment in an office that already bad relationship with the higher ups. Last thing is the client buyers. Some are great, but most are terrible and want to just buy the same thing, which contributes to repetition and monotony in this job for designers. Or worse, they can't ever make up their mind on what it is they want from the designers so you'll be making revisions that cut into time for other client projects for months. The one buyer that asked for a specific design to be done an hour before clock out was a frequent headache. Some licenses also try to push for certain designs to be made, but sales people don't want to pitch them to buyers because of how particular those sales people are. (Which is annoying. It's your job to convince them to buy in the first place.) It really can make the job draining.