Animalz Reviews

Cons

Lots of work Lots of work

Cons

Companies like Animalz don't deserve to exist. They've had a string of leaders that either don't believe burnout is real or pretend to care, all the while making it the employees' fault that they're burned out -- that there's something wrong with them and how they're working instead of the obscene systems they have to work within. You have an article quota to hit and depending on your clients and the types of articles, it can be impossible to hit that quota and you'll end up on a performance improvement plan unfairly. They have unlimited PTO, but you still have to maintain an average workload. So if there's any reason other than taking PTO that you're not hitting your article minimum, you effectively can't take PTO. The majority of writers have been burnt out to extreme levels. Some have had health issues crop up as a result of working at Animalz and have had to take medical leave due to the stress of this job. People still glorify Animalz as this leader in content marketing, but that reputation needs to die. They've switched to a freelance-first model and thrown quality out the window. You won't learn or grow as an employee at this point. You'll be stressed. And you'll probably be looking for a new job immediately. And this is true for all of the companies under Golden Wok because they're run by the same problematic leader that injects toxic work culture into everything he does. So don't think you're in the clear if you're looking to work at one of the other companies. Look elsewhere for your own health and sanity. And run far, far away.

Cons

Literally everything else was abysmal. This agency is so mismanaged it won’t exist in 2024. Let me sum up their ineptitude with a simple example: When they unceremoniously moved the majority of their writers to freelance status and laid off 6 people, they broke their internal tools. How? One of the terminated employees was an admin. They’re now running this agency with a series of spreadsheets, which they are keeping track of with… another spreadsheet. And that’s just the latest hilarious example of their poor planning and inability to accomplish even the most simple business functions.

Cons

Sadly, that creativity will remain stifled and discouraged by Walter & Team (the Sacra/Animalz leaders) who berate and confuse your creative team. They'll also shuffle your creatives around so you need to retrain and reiterate, wasting everyone's time. Animalz wasn't always like this. In fact, for years, leadership vetted, hired, and carefully developed the very best marketing brains in the world. We confidently charged a premium for undeniable quality products that overachieved on strategic, documented goals. Hopeful clients hung out on a waitlist together, eyeing the day we'd do our thing for them. Today, marketing gurus talk about applying and being turned DOWN for a job at Animalz, because a new quality standard had been set. Today, though, you can expect the opposite: confusion, fear, and flimsy, see-through claims that can't be fulfilled. The Sacra/Animalz group is in a scramble to salvage its reputation after firing its best asset and moving to a freelance model where they offer contributors less than half the compensation they once earned as dedicated resources. Now they're turning to generalist "writers" (yikes) and assigning them YOUR work without a thought to that quality you're paying for.

Cons

Leadership at Animalz is bafflingly incompetent. They squandered an excellent reputation and a stable of skilled content marketing professionals for no discernible reason with their poor decision-making and continuous harebrained "re-orgs". Content Marketers (CMs) repeatedly identified specific issues that were getting in the way of article deliveries. These issues---such as poorly written briefs and lack of strategy, lack of a clear delivery process, and difficult or slow-to-respond customers---would have been easy to address but leadership failed to hear it every single time. Instead of providing CMs the resources they needed to do their jobs well and deliver income for the company, leadership instead chose to gaslight and punish them with PIPs in strange and arbitrary ways. Numerous CMs were put on PIPs for underdelivering article credits, despite not having been assigned enough articles for the month by their managers or facing roadblocks with customers they needed help with but didn't get. Their approach was cruel, but even more frustratingly it was completely ineffective. We all wanted to deliver but were undermined in our ability to do so and then punished for that failure. Not a great business strategy. It must be made clear that the failure starts at the top - with umbrella company Golden Wok and its owner Walter Chen. He placed unskilled, inexperienced people in key leadership roles, seemingly just for their value as yes-men rather than their skill or business acumen. It shows. All of the current leadership are woefully underqualified for their roles and have flailed their way to the top, taking the company down underneath them. His most recent decision seems to be suddenly converting the company to a freelance model, just six weeks after another expensive and poorly planned re-org. They didn't seem to anticipate that anyone wouldn't want to come back to freelance for them after being unceremoniously laid off and having their health insurance stripped from them with a single day's notice. If they'd executed the change with an ounce more compassion, it might have worked, but they shot themselves in the foot yet again by being unnecessarily inhumane to their employees. They seem genuinely shocked that their writers and editors aren't happy (or desperate) enough to take the deal. From a business perspective, it's hard to see what the value add is for either new "freelancers" or customers. While Animalz used to offer a strong support team of researchers, editors, copyeditors, and strategists, all those roles have been stripped over time. Their value as a middleman is nonexistent. I would severely caution anyone against seeking employment or doing business with any of the companies under his umbrella. Animalz is hemorrhaging employees and customers and for good reason. For any other businesses reading this: hire former Animalz writers and editors. You've just been gifted an incredible flood of talent.

Cons

Pretty much everything else. Leadership loves to set people up to fail and then blame you for it. They will gaslight you from here to eternity about how it’s your fault even when it’s not. Example: because clients are so slow to approve briefs, they would run out of assignments frequently. You would still get in trouble for not hitting your productivity quota even if there were no assignments available. Leadership also had no idea how much time it truly took to write great content to their high standards and would demand we do more, faster. Then when we’d attempt to do that they’d get involved in the editing process, sometimes making us start over even on the day pieces were due — that does not help the faster part. You can have fast or good, not both! Learn how to balance quality with work pacing and deadlines! After they laid off most of the writers they assumed we’d be happy to take them up on their offer to freelance. (Ha! No. Absolutely not. 100% no.) They’re so short staffed now that quality is going to drop and customers will probably leave in droves. Why pay middle men to hire a freelancer when you can work directly with a freelancer for less? It makes zero sense. Clients came to Animalz so they could get a dedicated writer who’s familiar with their brand, their product, and their voice. Why would they stick around for unpredictable freelance results? Hopefully those left are trying to get out because I can’t imagine the company will last much longer. The company is TANKING. Oh — I never read any Glassdoor reviews while I worked there, even when they told us to ignore the Glassdoor reviews. Tried to keep my head down and be a good little worker bee all while feeling like I was the only one struggling. When I finally saw what other people said here I was shocked that it wasn’t just me. They truly excelled at gaslighting and making you feel like you were alone and couldn’t trust anyone else. It’s pretty sick, honestly.

Cons

* Leadership. Every single issue with this company comes back to the people at the top. They have no idea what they're doing and resent anyone who does. This group couldn't string a sentence together or put a plan in place if their lives depended on it. They reorganize the company every few months without ever thinking it through. The employees they choose to promote are often so far out of their depth, they rely on direct reports to teach them the basics of their jobs. When employees try to develop efficient processes, certain people at the top refuse to implement them in favor of some new half-baked idea leadership just came up with the day before. Meanwhile, the CEO is known for yelling at employees and saying, "THE BUSINESS IS NOT TANKING" despite the fact that the business is clearly doing precisely that under her expert guidance. This week she laid off 35 employees—19 of them were laid off on a group call that was so cold, you'd think it was a sketch about heartless CEOs. In the call, she refused to use the word "lay off" even though that's exactly what it was. She didn't even admit she was canceling everyone's health insurance within 48 hours until someone asked outright. Then she ended the call abruptly and I heard she immediately jetted off to Paris for a nice vacation. The 13 or so employees left now have to scramble to run this shitshow of a company while 35 people are suddenly without any income to feed their kids or health care to keep them alive. The combination of ineptitude and cruelty that seems to drive leadership is honestly baffling. Netflix should do a documentary on this madness.

Cons

Should've seen the red flags when it was announced at an all-hands meeting more than once to "ignore the 1 or 2 bad Glassdoor reviews" that were specific to a "disgruntled employee." When I read these "bad" reviews, something resonated with me, but I brushed it aside. Now, I know. Now, all of us who were laid off May 30 (the bulk of the company) know. Important to note that we were all laid off with no notice over a GROUP Zoom call, healthcare coverage was immediately stripped away, we were offered no severance, and were unceremoniously kicked out of our company Slack, email, etc. mid-call. Not to mention leadership expressed zero emotion during the call. The three people running the show currently are not only incompetent and lacking a base level of industry knowledge, but they also seem to oppose every initiative that would make the lives of writers and editors easier WHILE benefitting customers more. Truly bizarre, but hey, do you! The company underwent a major reorganization in early 2023 that we have compared to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. None of the root issues were addressed despite them collecting feedback directly from those of us in the trenches. Some things were just shifted around and didn't really make anything better, easier, etc. But, most of us trudged along because we love what we do and we care about quality. That's not a sentiment shared with leadership, however. It's all about quantity over quality, hence most of the editing staff and the entire quality department got the axe a while ago. They make you meet a certain workload every month for articles that are lengthy and require a lot of research, and on top of that, you have to do ideation and reporting, but those and similar actions aren't always part of the credit system, so you're just supposed to have unlimited time. Oh, and then there's the condescending GASLIGHTING. Several of us were put on performance improvement plans after having one "bad" month (often due to client delays and lack of available articles, but of course, the blame was entirely on the writers). We had the threat of losing our careers dangled over us with no grace or understanding. But when there was a good month? Oh, that was a fluke.

Cons

Everything - gaslighting and stringing you along that you’ll be promoted/see growth until there is no string left. the “leadership” or lack thereof. tara being the worst of them all with 0 direction other than bringing the company downward.

Cons

Where to even start? The company felt like a thinly disguised content farm masquerading as a top-tier global agency. On a day-to-day basis, writers were so overworked that "burn out" doesn't even begin to cover it. We were all given ridiculously ambitious workloads that included articles, content ideation, reporting, and managing customer comms. The company used to have an entire department dedicated to quality, but that was axed and writers were left to their own devices. As others have mentioned, Grammarly and AI are no substitutes for actual editing and copyediting support. There was no people-first approach to anything, despite what their old marketing would suggest. Those in charge had no background or experience to actually lead — and as things started to go south, that became very apparent. Anyone who dared to bring up valid problems with the company were systematically pushed out. I was there multiple years and watched talented, incredible people get squashed and forced out by higher ups with massive egos and insecurities. Then, on May 30, most of the staff was laid off. The coldness of it all was truly disgusting. No severance, no health insurance extension, no support whatsoever (again, despite the outward-facing messaging they've crafted). In the middle of the call, everyone was kicked off Slack and email.