14 West Management FAQ

Pros

Lots of opportunity but only if you navigate the political environment well. Freedom in your role. Typically your manager will be a direct contributor in a number of areas so you will rarely see micromanagement. Co-workers are great.

Cons

Top level management is largely inept and will often throw everything that you've worked on for months out of the window because they are unable to make a plan and stick to it, failing to admit their plan was wrong. They cite market forces and other things outside of their control rather than accepting responsibility and changing their own behavior to avoid it in the future. Poor pay. Advancement is mostly political. The right people are often overlooked. Taking initiative, while often celebrated in these reviews, is overlooked. You can't present an idea because the management team will ultimately be deaf to it.

Advice to Management

I'm sure HR will respond with some plagiarized version of the responses you see below about how difficult 2020 was and how their employees are open to change and embrace the volatility. The truth is that this place is struggling. Multiple layoffs in a calendar year are a reflection of senior leadership, specifically those who are staffing the organization. The company would rather lay off direct contributors who, by all accounts in their reviews, are doing their jobs well, than make tough decisions at the C-Level. The same people who were with the company 30 years ago are running the organization today and those people often are not the ideal executives for a mature company vs a small, scrappy publishing company. The result is you what you see here... "Be open to change!" but what you really mean is "Leadership has no idea what to do so we're going to try a bunch of stuff and change our minds and sometimes good people will be fired." The right people have been brought in but when they begin to enact changes to mature the company, the people who have been there 20 years get nervous, complain, and then the new folks get fired. Nothing truly changes. It's just constant adaptation with no further movement. My advice to management, get the right people in place to mature this company. You are fighting adversity and failing to successfully adapt in today's marketplace because the same old trick won't work today. The hard truth is that your senior folks grew up here and only know that old trick. You need new people in those leadership roles. It's time to make hard choices and the people who can make those choices have been shown the door.

Pros

The people here thoroughly enjoy working together, which makes it a great environment to be in. No matter what position you have, big or small, 14 West ensures your appreciated and important. There are so many opportunities if you work hard and take risks since the company continues to grow.

Cons

Can be confusing to understand the dynamic of the company as it's very unique.