PAN Communications Reviews

First, the work environment. It felt like I was constantly being gaslit. Team leads were unfriendly and unhelpful. They’d tell you to ask questions, and then get annoyed when you actually asked clarifying questions. So fine, you stop asking. Then you do something “wrong” and suddenly there’s a flood of feedback. It was a nonstop stream of nitpicking. Not everything is a fire drill, and yet everything was treated like one. This is marketing and PR, not nuclear codes. The culture also felt creatively stifling. Ideas would get shut down quickly, and it didn’t feel like a place that actually valued new thinking. Like I said, Phil exudes kindness but I wish that PAN could have been extended that same kindness to me when I was working there. Second, the workflows were ridiculous. Why is everything done over email? This was an inefficient way of managing deliverables. Do we not have basic project management tools like every other company? That can then show the status of each task and notes can be left to the next person during handoff. Tasks were constantly sent back and forth via email, cluttering inboxes and making it unnecessarily hard to track final versions. Of course I "did not get your last email". It was buried within old versions of the last item asked of me. It’s inefficient and absolutely nonsensical. Third, the team structure. Maybe this style just isn’t for me, but it was clear team leads wanted things done in one very specific way. Even if your work was correct, if it wasn’t done exactly how they would do it, you’d get feedback. The structure puts a heavy load of execution on junior staff with very little autonomy or ownership. You’re responsible for getting small tasks done, but not trusted to strategize with team lead. So then you're doing grunt work with zero ability to give input and anything straying from it would get you in trouble. Honestly, if I were a client, I would not trust this company to do my PR and run my digital marketing. The lack of creativity and lack of openness to new ideas is reflected in every single aspect of the company. The rigid and weirdly catty hierarchy, the inability to take new ideas, and obviously slow to change processes.

* since I joined more than 8 years ago the culture has significantly dropped off; it used to be a close-knit community and now it feels like a meat market where no one knows each other, people are just hired or promoted to fill voids left by the large amount of amazing talent that has been laid off or left as a result of their relationships to those laid off * So many amazing people were laid off and I feel like we would have been better off if management had a good business sense and kept those that brought real value to the company. Too much talk of salary to revenue ratio as the reason for layoffs yet family members and non-revenue generating people are still in place at the expense of those that actually contributed * Top heavy with no real contributions from those making the big salaries * Take whatever business we can; their only concern is revenue and if the firm is growing at a rate deemed acceptable by the CEO (whose perspective is from years ago when the market was 180 degrees different) and management who just want to sell the firm and retire