Future US Reviews

Pros

Very casual work envrionment, dress code pretty much didn't exist. Lots of interaction between differetn magazines.

Cons

Not too much room for growth, as it is still a pretty small company. Also there were a lot of budget cuts, and job cuts.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to the creative side of your company, they are the ones that are going to appeal to the consumer, and they should be allowed to take pride in their work.

Pros

The best reasons to work at Future US are a passion for computer gaming and or cutting edge high-technology and the hard-working coworkers.

Cons

The downsides would include the economic realities facing the magazine publishing business ie. layoffs, job uncertainty and budgets getting slashed.

Advice to Senior Management

Some advice to management is make sure the staff genuinely feel appreciated for all their hard work during this economic downturn

Pros

Great people, very interested and passionate about the content. In general, people try to go above and beyond by choice or by force.

Cons

Management has its head in the sand, in terms of were the industry is headed and were they need to focus. It's a bit of the 'Keep Calm & Carry On.'

Advice to Senior Management

Invest in becoming a media company that creates good, original content that gels well with the companies brand.

Pros

- Good insurance options
- Casual environment
- Free coffee
- Some good co-workers

Cons

- Very low pay
- Abusive middle management (passive-aggressive, playing favorites, no concern for reports because they're too worried about their own jobs)
- Inconsistent decisions from upper management
- Diminishing benefits, hiring freezes, salary freezes, unpaid furloughs
- Lack of communication from executives
- Changing company culture has made it a less pleasant place to work
- Human Resources department plays favorites and rules the company culture now

Advice to Senior Management

Employees past and present are disappointed in the changes to the company in the past two years. The only reason the company survived this recession is because of the hard-working employees there, yet they're not appreciated in any consistent way.

Despite there being talk of recognizing employees more, there is less recognition from management than there was two years ago. Company meetings no longer happen, employee recognition went away when the meetings stopped, and the company makes no effort to acknowledge employees consistently in any other way.

Instead, employees feel like workers in a broken machine who don't have support from their managers or the executive team. It's clear to every employee that the company chases after innovation rather than actually innovating. Business decisions in the past 5 years have not made the company more successful, only kept it limping along. The change in upper management did nothing to fix this.

In this harsh economy, every employee is happy to have a job. That doesn't mean the company has a right to take advantage of that. When the tide turns, they will bleed employees.

Pros

The benefits offered by the company are among the best offered anywhere. The company really tries to foster a work environment that is fun, friendly, supportive and un-bureaucratic. Sr. Management always tries to make themselves available to all levels of employees.

Cons

The salaries are not great and there has been some instability and layoffs resulting in product launches not being successful: but this has true for every media company. Also, since it is a small company, there is little opportunity for upward mobility though you are allowed to work on different projects that you propose to management.

Advice to Senior Management

More money should be invested in the training of employees. Also outlining possible career paths is motivating and can lead to retaining the most talented people.

Pros

- Lots of one on one time with management
- Given freedom within projects
- Honed analytical and communication abilities

Cons

- Little long term upside
- Inability to pursue additional projects of personal interest
- Not much communication with other departments

Advice to Senior Management

- Better training is needed
- Have a more formal internship program
- More projects to keep interns continually busy

Pros

The benefits were the best I'd ever had: full health coverage (they paid 100%), 3 weeks paid vacation plus the week between Christmas and New Year's. Very casual workplace, in terms of dress code, hours, etc. As long as you got the job done and done well, that's all that mattered.

Cons

Upper management at the time was careless, rushed decisions, took stabs in the dark. Way too much guessing, and not enough fact-based research or support. Always felt like it could come crashing down anyday, which it did in April 2007.

Advice to Senior Management

I'm not sure how it's going with current leadership, but given that there has been a complete change of upper management since I left, maybe they're trying to right the ship.

Pros

Excellent work culture, progressive company

Cons

No one has much faith in the judgment of senior management. The company has declared bankruptcy at least once and has subsequently undergone some major bloodletting, in particular eliminating a host of magazines and employees in the process. There had always been big concerns among the rank-and-file that the company was trying to "grow, grow, grow" at all costs -- and those fears were ultimately founded. Cool people, great benefits -- just don't plan on being secure for the long haul.

Advice to Senior Management

Being overzealous about expansion has its costs.

Pros

Since the management structure is so thin -- as are all levels of the company -- you'll have plenty of chances to put your own ideas into practice (if you can find time to do so), since there are few managers from which you'll need approval. There are many, many talented people to work with -- but since everyone is working at 150% capacity, you'll not have much time to get much benefit from their smarts. The benefits package is flat-out astonishing; the fact that Future US is owned by a European company shows -- in Europe, health care is a right, not a privilege

Cons

The workload is crushing. Not that hard work is a bad thing, but the amount of output that management demands from each employee at Future US dulls creativity and quality. In point of fact, "quality" is not something that management cares about all that much. The general attitude that the Future US management has towards its readership is that readers are basically sheep that want -- or even need -- to be snowed by flashy, shallow coverage of trends and "shiny things." As a result, most Future US properties have become formulaic -- which is actually okay for the workers, since they're working so hard that they don't have the time or the mental energy to think of anything original.

Advice to Senior Management

Realize that innovation is absolutely key to a company's success, and that employees can't innovate if every moment of their working/waking hours are spent running at full speed just trying to keep up with the workload. Also, remember that in the long run, quality does matter.

Pros

Company generally is very good about avoiding overtime. The place is fairly empty at 5:30pm, and almost no one is around at 6pm. Engineers for public facing sites may work late before launches, but that is to be expected. There are a lot of different publishing groups, and moving to other groups (publishing or non publishing) can happen.

Cons

You have to pay attention to how well your group is performing, poor sales can hurt. However, this is true for sales dependent groups at any company.

Advice to Senior Management

Better educate emmployees in the non publishing groups about the magazine publishing business.