Brafton Employee Reviews about "work from home"

Cons

Now the company charges clients for "premium" content that is the same as standard content but includes a pull quote and inline image. It helps writers complete volume but that's it. Sales team oversells to clients to earn their contracts. Expectations for writers are out of whack. If you ask for a raise, be prepared to have your work scrutinized. Every mistake you've made will be highlighted while everything good you've done is overlooked. Don't let them keep you from earning what you deserve.

Cons

*Miserable pay, even for an entry-level writing position (which, arguably, it is not): The amount that writers get paid is shamefully low compared to how much the company makes off of our work. The starting salary is now 30,000, actually a vast improvement from the despicable 26,000 it was just two years ago. In a suburb or small city, this might be acceptable (probably not, though), but in Chicago, it's insane. *Long hours: This is a 9-5 job, but those who don't arrive by 8 or stay until 6 will not come close to meeting their monthly volume - which is at minimum 80,000 words of standard content per month, or 4,000 per day for the very lowest-level writer. The volume only goes up from there the longer you write for the company, without appropriate pay raises. (The company is finally starting to ease the volume on writers with premium content, but unfortunately premium is a massive rip-off for the client, as it is merely the addition of pull quotes and in-line images). *Meeting are essentially unpaid: The position does not account for the large number of meetings (sometimes I would spend half my day in meetings, requiring me to work longer to make up for the lost time I should have been writing). This is another huge reason writers end up working on weekends or late into the night after the janitors have shown up (the janitors are very nice, though). *Poor treatment: Writers are regarded as the least important factor in the marketing process and our pay and everyday treatment reflects that. The CEO once even said during a small meeting of writers in the Chicago office that writers are becoming largely obsolete in marketing - that video and graphics get more resources and pay for this reason, and that the company should actually be laying off writers. Fortunately, this scare tactic did not work and a flood of writers are making their way out Brafton's doors. Additionally, while writers receive the lowest pay, they tend to be the one who take the blame when something goes wrong. This becomes a consistent issue when the sales people are encouraged to upsell at all costs (including building up expectations that can't be met). When editorial can't deliver, the writer is the one who gets a slap on the wrist. *Little chance of getting a raise: If you ask for a raise, you will sit in front of two or three levels of management as they question anything from your skills as a writer to your professionalism to your relationship with your section editor. Working harder does not get you a raise - for those who hold this job, don't bother putting in extra effort, because any mistake you have made in the past or any moth you didn't hit your exorbitant volume will cancel it out. *A very unhealthy relationship between editorial and sales/content marketing strategists: As mentioned, the writers are paid very poorly, whereas the sales and content marketing strategists receive the highest pay as well as the recognition when a client is happy. This has created not very negative feelings toward CMS/sales, but it has given the team of CMSs a huge complex (not to their fault). This makes everyday work difficult, since writers must speak with them on a daily basis. This is not true of all the CMSs, and some are quite nice to writers, one even bought a round of drinks during happy hour once - a sort of unspoken thanks for our work and recognition of the rift.

Cons

With cross-departmental communication, there can be some confusion and miscommunication with clients and even internally. However, everyone here is really hard-working and helpful so we always figure out the problems. As in any role, pay and benefits could be better. Boston's just a very expensive city. But for a first role out of college, it's a good package.

Cons

- Lowest salaries for writers in the Chicago area, and possibly the lowest in the business. - Great work from homerom homerom home policy means nothing with few sick days and vacation time. - All funding, recognition and departmental resources go to the sales teams. It is telling that the majority of people who stay at Brafton long-term are those who grew up in the suburbs and commute in to the city. They are simply able to get by with a lower cost of living. The laughable starting salary of $30,000 is less than a substitute teacher makes in a rural community. Get in and get out. Staying here for over a year may lead to a Stockholm Syndrome - you don't need to be paid peanuts for producing twice the amount of content you would at another agency. If you're a current Brafton writer, I'd like to personally urge you to start saving up a few months' worth of rent money and quit as soon as possible. The amount of astroturfed reviews by executives on this very page proves that the upper management of the organization really believes in their own business strategy. The company will not change around you - you have to leave.

Cons

Everything but work from home is a con

Cons

This where Brafton gets polarizing because the cons can very much outweigh the benefits, even if there may be fewer to consider. For one, the company has way too many clients/contracts and nowhere near enough people to fulfill them. This leads to huge problems with client relationships and affects every department - not just Editorial. Good account managers typically take the bullet for the team and find a solution; bad ones throw the writers and editors under the bus without hesitation. There are both types at Brafton, so it's never too surprising when either happens. The creative departments are, by far, the least of upper management's concerns in every way possible. But the secret is really that everyone is overworked, but Editorial and Graphics are horribly underpaid. Many writers and designers work the longest hours at the company, burning the midnight oil in favor of hitting monthly volumes rather than produce high-quality content for clients. But even the strategists, who are well compensated by comparison, invest too much time for lower-than-standard salaries. This leads into another huge issue at Brafton: transparency. It's too much of a good thing here, as everyone knows what each role makes, which only breeds malcontent among coworkers. There are large discrepancies between departments, with more funds being shoveled toward Sales and Account Management than anywhere else. All the while, creatives are given empty promises of higher salaries that never ever come. In the end, there are numerous disgruntled employees who feel quite unappreciated by everyone outside of their respective departments.

Cons

- Inter-department collaboration, while encouraged, is not as commonplace as it should be. It often feels like each department is it's own entity working towards their own goals. Steps should be taken to make the workings of each department transparent to the entire company. That said there is a company wide meeting every quarter where the executive staff speaks about the current position of the company and where we are headed. - Oftentimes changes aren't made until they are immediately necessary. Anticipating problems before they occur and taking preventative measures should take higher priority than it currently does.While Brafton is forward looking (as far as the services they are providing in a quickly changing industry), I believe they should place greater focus on future proofing internal structures. - Given that the company is growing quickly it has taken a while to grow the internal corporate infrastructure it needs to support employees needs. Employee benefits packages are sufficient, but leave a room for improvement (somewhat expensive family health care packages, no 401k matching, no education re-reimbursement, could use a more company holidays - such as the day after Christmas). I believe this stems from the rapid re-investment of profits. Hopefully once the company has reached a certain point more can be allocated towards current employees.

Cons

Pay is not good, especially for how much you have to write and it doesn't scale at all with tenure. Like it's not unlivable, but it's just not good, especially with expenses like rent on the rise. Also, management tries to frame writer salaries as being fair by comparing to journalism rates, even though you're writing promotional copy, not journalism. Lack of diverse career paths, which was the killer for me. Brafton has plenty of growth options given the turnover rate - but only if you want to be a manager. Not everyone wants to be a manager, some people enjoy writing and editing. But past senior writer (which has a salary of ~$33,000), there is no way to advance any further down that path. No way to become some sort of specialist, dealing with tricky clients or subject matter. It's management or bust. I now do great campaign work at a publicly traded company making nearly double what Brafton paid me. I know some of my former colleagues have similar stories (one, for example, went on to work for the NFL). Brafton is bleeding a ton of talent because of their perception that all writing/production is an entry-level job Management is clueless and often horribly underqualified because of the above. They hire from within for most middle management jobs like section leads, which is usually a good thing. But in this case, Brafton basically winds up promoting writers with no actual leadership or management skills, simply because anyone actually applying for the job with the right qualifications would balk at the salary. A great writer won't be a great manager, but that's basically what Brafton hopes for. There is zero unity between the different departments and the company as whole. Salespeople promise the world to clients, so editorial/product struggle to meet expectations and then account management has to deal with pissy clients. And then there is the whole pay issue - account managers make double what writers make or even more through bonuses if their clients are happy and upgrade services. Meanwhile, there is no incentive for writers to improve quality, they get the same $30K regardless, so you have clashes between AMs and editorial due to poorly designed incentives. I don't think Brafton is awful, like many people suggest. It's poorly managed and very low-brow work, but for an entry-level job, it's not terrible. That said, don't make the same mistake I did - work there for a year, get the experience and start looking for a new job immediately. Brafton has a bad rep with employers as a content mill, so being there too long may actually hurt your employment options because many know you're not producing thoughtful, meaningful work.

Cons

- Could pay more - Could have a better on-boarding training program