Weather Channel Reviews

Pros

Cares about the employees and puts people first. Great and strong brand across many different platforms. Combination digital/technology company and television company which makes it a really interesting and innovative place to work. New management has brought in new thinking and a fresh perspective and has put the company on a path for success. Great location for those who don't have any interest to go downtown.

Cons

Resources are limited and more investments into some of the basic things that make a company work need to be made. Decisions need to be made faster and company needs to be more aggressive in making them and sticking to them.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to care about and listen to employees. Invest in and protect the brand.

Pros

- Has brand value
- Work is not that complicated
-Some senior developers are really knowledgeable but since environment is simple their potential is underused.
-Is in Atlanta , GA

Cons

- Didn't learn any new technology when I was with TWC. Technologies used at TWC is obsolete. it' s simple MVC implementation and some pl and js.
- None of the skills I acquired at the weather channel were truly marketable.
- Salaries are less compared to the industry
- Product team dictates the resource allocation on IT projects
- Resource allocation is often done without understanding the technical details of the project or skill set of a developer.
-You are expected to meet time-lines by working overtime (even on weekends)
- It is not a good place to wok if you want to grow as a Technologist.

Advice to Senior Management

- Management has conducted to many reshuffles in last two years. Which has lead to instability.
- To many VPs, EVPS,.

Pros

- The brand - the brand is incredibly well known and respected not only by consumers but by other companies
- The opportunity to learn a lot (this is also a con because the place is so scattered in regards to focus) but the lack of focus does give you the opportunity to learn a lot
- The people that have been there a long time are incredibly smart and understand a lot about the brand, the products, etc.

Cons

- Senior Management - there is a trend of hiring VPs/SVPs from outside of the company (very little promotion from Director to VP); the people being brought in are "friends" of other senior managers and unfortunately the attitude seems to be one of "we are here to save the day" and some are incredibly arrogant with little regard for the talent in-house
- Recognition - as a Director, I worked an average of 60 hours a week and did a good job with little to no recognition
- Internal Promotion - as mentioned earlier, as a Director, it was impossible to be promoted to a VP regardless of your work because if you have tenure at TWC, it is viewed negatively because that automatically means that you are not capable of change which is such an ignorant way of running a company. This is the only company that I have ever worked for that if you have been there a long time, you are a walking bullseye for layoffs.
- Laying off the true talent - over the past 6 months the senior managers that are new (and do not understand our company, products, etc.) and making decisions about who should be laid off often with absolutely no understanding of their team, the talent, etc. Lately the trend seems to be to layoff people with tenure and who knew our brand and products amazing well. TWC lost some true talent.
- No structure, No focus, No common goals - TWC tries to do everything with absolutely no focus. If Sales saw XYZ company do something on-air or online then we must drop everything we are doing and immediately figure out how to do it (even though it might not make sense from our perspective as a company). The norm became releasing mediocre products because the goal is not functionality but rather speed.
- Over the past 3 months, from an online perspective, the focus has shifted from advertising product excellence to focusing on multi-million dollar deals. This has resulted in the loss of real talent, a loss of the perception in the marketplace that TWC is always on the cutting edge from an advertising perspective and different goals between Sales and the teams that execute the Sales strategy. The new focus on multi-million dollar deals has not resulted in more deals being committed.

Advice to Senior Management

- Stop bringing in new people that are arrogant, poor managers
- Stop viewing tenure as a negative thing
- Find focus
- Learn to say "NO" - Sales should not get everything they want because one advertiser asked for it
- Promote within - I know some people that have been there for 6+ years with absolutely no promotion
- Understand that once the bonus checks are cut, a lot of people are leaving if you do not do anything about it

Pros

The people and to let others outside the company know you worked there.

Cons

Lack of promotion, small pay, little benefits, too much stress and hours worked, no recognition, no room for advancement....

Advice to Senior Management

Promote the people from within. They work very hard and it seems they only wanted to bring in the SVP, EVP, etc at the higher pay scales. Promote the folks who do the work before none of them are left.

Pros

- great people
- casual work environment
- convenient location

Cons

- horrible communication between departments and upper management
- old-fashioned
- below market salaries
- no room for advancement
- lack of trust in employees to get the job done
- tons of work with little resources
- slow moving processes

Advice to Senior Management

TWC needs to get back in the game of understanding the true value of their employees. If they don't, they will have no one left.

Pros

The pace is not too stressful, very friendly people create an easy going atmosphere in which to work. Location is convenient. Flexibility in working from home schedules is nice but at times presents difficulties when working on tight deadline projects and team mates are not in the office. Brand recognition is strong so it is nice when people know where you work and basically understand what you do for a living.

Cons

Career development path is dismal, and do not come into this job expecting promotions or salary increases. Management does not have a clear vision of what they are doing, priorities change as quickly as the direction of the wind which has a negative impact on productivity, morale and job satisfaction. The politics and power plays seem to be getting stronger and more noticeable which also do not help to create a stable environment where employees feel encouraged to do their best.

Advice to Senior Management

Take lessons from other companies where employees enjoy their work and value their employer.

Things to work on:
* Compensation is below market
* Career development and growth opportunities are rare
* Stability in priorities and focus in shaky at best

By creating a nurturing work environment for the employees you will gain a superior product for users and advertisers and if you don't start figuring this out soon, you will continue to lose even more good people.

Pros

TWC maintains a very casual work environment. Stress in most positions is fairly low and management in general is respectful of the work force. Brand recognition is incredible - so where you work will always get a conversation started. Company is financially stable.

Cons

Company maintains absurdly high profit margins by refusing to make even the most basic investments in itself. Overall employee compensation is below market, and the business is constantly trying to accomplish too much with too few resources (with often very poor results). Organizational hierarchy is shallow which limits real advancement potential.

Advice to Senior Management

While it may not be palatable to the owners, eventually this company is going to have to come to grips with accepting lower operating margins in order to become truly able to compete effectively and grow.

Pros

great people, national exposure, brand recognition, intelligent mets

Cons

very different since NBC took it over,

Advice to Senior Management

listen to the people

Pros

Decent benefits package; cool industry - broadcast media; part of a deep pocket organization

Cons

Senior management doesn't know what direction they want to go; finance leadership was stuck in the 1990's

Advice to Senior Management

You can only cut staff so far before you won't have a viable company left

Pros

Flexible Hours, Great co-workers, Telecommute days, payroll deduction for extra vacation days, paid maternity/paternity leave, theme park and some hotel discounts through NBC Universal and Bain

Cons

-Lack of communication
-Social promotion
-Low salary compared to others in the industry
-Sometimes work hrs exceed 40hrs and no one would ask you if you wanted to work they just assumed 50hrs were OK

Advice to Senior Management

- Let employees critique management annually
- Improve communication amongst the different groups
- Offer a more diverse group of training classes