Turner Broadcasting Reviews in Atlanta, GA Area

Pros

Turner offers a very good benefits/salary package for some of its employees. The company was good about offering generation vacation time.

Cons

Turner (affectionately known by me and former alums as "Turnover") is a toxic work environment.

I left EA back in 2008 after deciding that the company does nothing more than make people miserable. Since leaving, I've re-entered my profession psychologically and enjoy programming again. I've worked at several good companies since my departure, but as a senior software developer, I've also worked with quite a few former Turnover employees and all of us share the same basic story.

Turnover encourages bullying, degradation and belittlement of highly competent and energetic engineers on the part of incompetent team leads and even more incompetent middle managers. I've held off writing a review of the company, thinking that perhaps I would judge too harshly, but my current employer recently hired a former Turnover employee who, as it happens, took my place on a team there. I'm glad to have this new professional on my team, but much of what he related about his experience there mirrors mine perfectly. I write this review as a warning to other software developers who really love their craft and want to excel professionally and personally. In the time I was there and since, I can count about 30 people who quit. The company is simply not able to retain people in the EA department because of the toxic conditions promoted by the company as a whole.

The Enterprise Applications department is rife with the loss of good talent, especially in recent months, as the job market has improved. (My current client has picked up two Turneover alumni, making half our software development team now former members of Turnover.) As a former employee, in my current position as a senior software developer, I've interviewed Turnover employees looking to leave the company and their story is always the same: toxic workplace, incompetent and wasteful management, cliquishness and a total disdain for anyone who tries to improve the business and software development processes of the organization. Younger software developers especially feel a great sense of frustration that their careers and skill sets are being destroyed working on projects where costs overruns, missed deadlines and a steadfast opposition to good methodology are commonplace.

Much of this is caused by the fact that the company simply makes too much money, so it wastes valuable resources on the hiring of incompetent middle managers who treat their teams very poorly while at the same time promoting highly incompetent individuals on the basis of their gender/sexual orientation/skin color. In other cases, senior management simply shows blatant favoritism towards individuals who are pets, yes-men and syncophants. Turnover's accolades in the public sphere are about "diversity" and the promotion and women and minorities. What's left out is that competent people are often passed over for lead and managerial positions because they do not fit Time-Warner's definition of diversity. Instead, incompetent and socially retarded individuals are selected on the basis of accidental qualities. This spans all the way to the senior vice president in charge of EA.

Turnover is the only organization I've been at where *entire* teams of people quit in disgust and frustration. I saw one colleague have a nervous breakdown; another had a similar experience and quit without giving a two week notice. I saw two examples while there, of entire teams leaving, sometimes without notice. Since then, I've heard from friends and former colleagues of other cases, including a recent incident where three business analysts left because a female minority was hired at a higher rate.

Some more concrete examples of what I experienced while there for 3 years: "Senior" developers were allowed to use bullying and coercion in their encounters with team members. The EA department had a special workshop on accountability training, but in practice, it meant business as usual, where bright, enthusiastic professionals were taken into offices and brow-beat and berated by the incompetent old guard.

Preferential treatment was shown to team members who a) did not show up to work on certain days, b) did not complete assigned coding tasks, c) regularly blamed others for their own shoddy workmanship. It was especially demoralizing when certain employees were allowed to take as many vacation days as they wanted while the rest of us had to work on deadlines (in the rare cases where we actually had project work and weren't simply being cowed into bilking other Turnover divisions.)

Pros

Good benefits. Good perks. Great school for entry level applicants. A great place to start building your network and acquire knowledge about the business.

Cons

Terrible management. They're so blind they can't even see who is talented and willing to better the network. I work at creative and seldom hear feedback from management. Upper management can't even distinguish what looks good or bad on air. People that are not qualified to make creative decisions end up dictating what should be done. It's very frustrating if you're carreer oriented and hoping to advance. Raises are minimal and DOES NOT reflect your performance. And promotions are often based on seniority or for those who play the corporate game, and not so much for the ones that have talent and insight about the business. Please be mindful that my experience may not reflect other departments.

Advice to Senior Management

Please read my 'cons' section. You should really investigate what employees say on other company surveys we're asked to complete. Please hear what we have to say. All we want is to contribute as much as we can and be recognized for our efforts. Good, smart and creative people are the best asset for any company.

Pros

I can't complain about GREAT BENEFITS!!!!!!!

Cons

Management DOES NOT recognize those individuals who REALLY work hard and care about the individuals they work with.

Advice to Senior Management

STOP promoting individuals who don't know what they are doing................PERIOD!!!!!!!! Start evaluating your supervisory staff, most of them don't have a clue as to what to do in an emergency situation nor do they know how to be a backfill resource when staff is short. Make them be more responsible by giving them real responsibilities (i.e. become working supervisors not lazy ones).

-This only pertains to the BOC or Broadcast Operations Center!!!!

Pros

Liberal work environment, a chance to meet TV celebrities, discount club for local Atlanta business, good cafeteria on site, monthly give away and promotions for employees, On site Gym. No worries parking and super quick access to the highway.
Great work mates.

Cons

Reviews are based more on your physiological profile than on your actual performance. Regardless of how well you perform your job if you fail their pigeon hole idea of what is the "perfect person" you are considered a failure to upper management.
No real oversights of how funds are spent. Users spend money with out regard to to TCO's or compatibility creating more work for techs.
Little research is done on compatibility of different software components by the software team.
Information is disseminated slowing and innovation seems to be frowned upon.

Advice to Senior Management

Understand just because a person has followed the SOP of a previous employer does not mean they will not be able to adapt to your SOP.
More info in dislikes

Pros

Annual raise and bonus.
Paid time off. The company combines sick days / floating holidays with vacation days.
Company discounts.
Medical/Dental/Vision benefits.

Cons

No advancement.
Low morale.
Management play favorites and use retaliation against direct reports.
The recent round of layoffs left employees with a feeling of uncertainty that upper management have done little to improve.

Advice to Senior Management

Look at all areas before making cuts. Lower management often contribute to a waste of resources.
Allow movement in various departments as well as inter-department transfers.

Pros

The paid-time off. The benefits packages. The work/life balance. The perks that the company offers. The company consistently gets high praises from working parent organizations. The company makes strides to make sure that they are a diverse community.

Cons

Turner can sometimes be considered too compartmentalized and it's difficult to jump from one department to another when looking for a job within the company.

Advice to Senior Management

While Senior Management understands the importance of making the employer happy, that message sometimes doesn't trickle down to the middle managers.

Pros

Excellent work life balance, friendly people and comfortable work environment, very good about promoting from within the company, very convenient - onsite credit union, daycare, gym facilities, great security. They truly "invest" in their employees and the morale of the company.

Cons

This place had very few downsides, in my opinion. Not too many other places I've worked can compare. There will always be a little bit of office politics and mean people everywhere you go, but this place is wonderful. It can be a little difficult t get in the door. Other than that, I loved it!

Advice to Senior Management

You guys are doing a phenomenal job!

Pros

The media and entertainment business is a mentally stimulating environment and Turner strives to be on the cutting edge. I have great opportunities to learn and contribute to this mega-media giant. Great benefits - i.e. medical, dental, health insurance, 401k, vacation time, Summer Fridays, discounted products & services from our advertisers, professional development classes and generous time off for holidays.

Cons

The company needs to speed up the process of removing negative employees. These people impact the morale of employees who enjoy their work.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to stive towards streamlining processes and weed out the non-performing employees.

Pros

As an intern, they try to give you as many opportunities to learn about the division you work for. Lots of focus on networking. Incredibly friendly staff and lots of perks to keep employees happy.

Cons

Internship experience depends mostly on the employee you work under. Worked`

Advice to Senior Management

Learned little about industry from my internship. I would suggest focusing less on intern seminars and workshops, and paying more attention to how the intern supervisor within each division is handling their interns.

Pros

Benefits, Flexible working hours, overtime

Cons

Do not have one to comment on presently,

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to be fair with all assoicate you manage.