Turner Broadcasting Reviews

Pros

The environment is awesome, you are surrounded my many different talented people working on projects that are well known and recognized. Turner provided ample opportunities for career advancement, but you have to be pro-active. The campus is awesome and the culture is casual. The location is prime as well, right in midtown Atlanta. The perks are hard to beat, since they own the Hawks & Thrashers and used to own the Braves, employees are practically spoiled which is why I think maybe they don't pay as much, but the perks and benefits make up for it. There is always some kind of event or giveaway or something going on. It's great for the most part.

Cons

There are probably far too many people who need to be fired because they have gotten complacent. Turner is often too slow to get rid of problem (lazy or incompetent) employees. There are also too many managers who are too buddy-buddy with some employees which makes it difficult for other employees who just want to keep things objective and professional.

Advice to Senior Management

Be better about getting rid of poor performing employees. Don't be afraid to get rid of them.

Pros

decent pay and flexible schedule

Cons

all over the place and have no standards for coding. They are flying by the seat of their pants and it is like a rubberband waiting to snap.

Advice to Senior Management

Care about more than a deadline... treat your staff like they will be there a while, not like they are dispensable.

Pros

Good place to work if you have a family. Terrific benefits and entertainment extras.

Depending on the company, its a very creative and innovative place to work. i.e. Cartoon Network good, CNN not so good.

Cons

Lack of leadership development. The company is VERY generous in offering training and classes and personal development but has no requirements or guidelines for managers so you get a wide variety in management skills across the board. Great if you have a good manager, but bad if you don't.

Advice to Senior Management

Create a baseline requirement for what constitutes good leadership and management while still allow for unique styles, etc.

Pros

Salaries is good - better enjoy it

Cons

Management is done through fear and intimidation. You are constantly reminded, "YOU WORK FOR ME" - and not part of a collaborative team. There are far too many VPs, Directors, Managers. Most hide in their offices, only emerging in crisis situations - and then look like clowns bumping into one another.

The company attempts to tout it's many benefits and perks - however, those are not doled out consistently. Training is non-existent.

People are treated as commodities. Individuals are not valued for their contribution.

Low morale is believed to be handled by handing out surveys on which no action is ever taken. There are numerous teams and committees to review the results of the surveys - and lots of powerpoint presentations summarizing the data.

Advice to Senior Management

Offer some form of professional growth. Do something besides hand out surveys and form committees to review the surveys. Understand that if you want people to contribute, you must make them feel valued - currently you treat everyone as a commodity.

Pros

Avg. income, great benefits and perks

Cons

Turner could be better, have to wait for someone to pass on to get promoted. People never leave.

Advice to Senior Management

no advice.

Pros

It was a great place to learn about your industry. Turner encouraged professional development classes within its organization. Upper management was very accessible to support staff and those people above them. The organization also allowed moms to work from home one to two days a week. The perks that were offered were incredible.

Cons

It's quite difficult to move up because most people don't leave. Often times, you sat in a certain position longer than the industry average because turnover for the most part was low.

Advice to Senior Management

My experience at Turner was good.

Pros

Great people, great pay, great benefits

Cons

Creative drives the ship regardless of cost or common sense.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen more to the people that run the machines, and meet somewhere in the middle. the "client" relationship is a tired OLD model. We all work for the same company.

Pros

The projects are really interesting and the benefits are fantastic. The company is very supportive of its employees. One of my bosses really understood work / life balance, and as a whole the company does too.

Cons

Turner is slow at adopting new technologies they could be more innovative. Some departments are inflexible about certain policies such as telecommuting.

Advice to Senior Management

Foster more innovation. Allow more flexible schedules. Encourage folks to be more entrepreneurial. Be more green.

Pros

- Flexibility with work schedule
- Empowered to determine own solution
- Able to work on many different parts of the business (IT)
- 401k matching is excellent
- Vacation/PTO is better than average

Cons

- Limited management at upper levels (upper mgrs/directors unavailable and not willing to take a stand in difficult situations and allow teams to figure things out on their own)
- More importance stressed on diversity instead of getting the best solution/person/etc.
- Health care coverage declining each year

Advice to Senior Management

Don't be afraid to promote overachievers, even if they don't fit the mold. Likewise, don't be afraid to let the underachievers go.

Pros

Very horizontal structure. In other words, you can quickly advance as the company has a heritage of building businesses around good ideas. These ideas can come from any where in the company.

Cons

Somewhat limited by corporate structure of Time Warner. The environment is one that takes fewer risks than in its "heyday" when they were launching new businesses right and left.

Advice to Senior Management

Tap into existing employees ... lot's of institutional knowledge that goes unheard.