There are many things to be improved upon, but I think the most worrisome one, the one that should make people concerned for the future of this company is the lack of unified vision from the three partners and the lack of clear succession planning. In a micro sense, the partners often aren't aligned in their approach to a client's needs and it puts us, as employees, in an awkward spot in the middle, frequently and quite literally running back and forth between their offices. From a macro POV, you have at least one partner who is currently encouraging the account team to take on more strategic, creative and holistic roles within how they interact with their clients. At the same time, you have another partner who loudly and aggressively shuts down any concept or suggestion those same team members make, since it didn't come from one of his preferred few "creatives." I've witnessed all the partners bicker and complain about other PHG employees (not to mention, each other) in front of me. The tone, and the practice itself is wildly inappropriate. At best, it sets a bad example for up-and-coming employees (which I have witnessed first-hand, through changes in behavior), and at worst, it creates a toxic workplace culture. It may feel fun to talk s#!t with your boss about your colleagues, but trust that nothing you say to them is being kept in confidence, either. The "we're not going anywhere" messaging from leadership at every company meeting is not really helpful or realistic, and reads as an inability to share power. There is essentially no middle management here. Most employees here will have to run down at least one partner to sign off on every single deck, small assignment or time-off request. This is a culture of micromanaging to an extreme I haven't experienced anywhere else. After years in this industry, it's incredibly disheartening to spend my days chasing people (who are admittedly overstretched), or otherwise poking them to do their job. When I look back at the deadlines I "missed" in the past year, they were all completed on time, but lacking partner sign-off to submit to a client, due to individuals not being on top of their emails or other notifications. When I started at PHG, they were proud to announce they had little "process," so we could meet client demands as quickly as possible. While this approach has never aligned with things like industry "best practices," as the company grows, it's just flat out unsustainable. I've heard the term scrappy used to describe this type of culture, but in my experience it has more to do with being lazy. Everyone runs around like crazy to put out urgent fire after fire for their clients, and we never address or invest in the big issues, like career development, training, IT infrastructure or related technology issues, until we get burned in some way. This results in people literally and figuratively not having the tools they need to do their job, or grow as employees. While things may differ across departments a bit, there is generally no clear career path in place, or way to move up. There are no public metrics we are measured by -- just a vague survey to fill out once a year. It feels as though in order to advance I have to wait for one person to wake up and decide today is the day I am deserving. It's frustrating, knowing that same person is not present for >90% of my daily interactions and achievements. Knowing that none of my other colleagues, the people I do work alongside everyday, are consulted before a performance review. The workloads also seem unbalanced, with the expectations for people with the same title being wildly different. The benefits, the time off, etc., have improved a bit since I've been here, but are certainly not industry-leading. PHG only pays 50% of the (expensive) medical plan premiums, so keep that in mind -- if PHG matches the salary you had elsewhere but you join their health plan, you can expect to still be taking a pay cut, since most employers pay 70%+. For perspective, for the top tier family insurance plan in 2023, the cost to an employee is around $1,500 a month, or $18,000 a year. This drives many employees to be on their spouse's or parent's plans, and the partners spent a lot of time complaining in 2022 about how large insurance is...to them.
