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Bulletin Intelligence

Acquired by Cision

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Stressful, Monotonous Work; Awful Schedule; & They'll Squeeze Every Last Ounce Out of You - Analyst Bulletin Intelligence Employee Review

2.0
Apr 12, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Cloud-based, so you can work from home. Even if you are already a good writer (and boy, you had better be) you will improve. The majority of employees are extremely smart. It certainly makes sense why upper management requires applicants to take the Wonderlic for both personality and IQ. Several of their top-level executives seemed like nice people, not that I had much interaction with them.

Cons

The workload is excessive and highly stressful. Not only do you have to work 60 hours per week, every second of it is pure, hard, demanding work with a horrible schedule (no meal breaks or any breaks during the hours you are working; you'll have to run to the bathroom or to the kitchen and back; no time for water cooler talk here), and you get reamed out if a typo makes it into the thousands of words you write daily (though each analyst is assigned to proofread another's finished product each day, proofreaders are so busy trying to get their own excessive workload finished by the deadline that they often don't have the time to to perform a truly careful proofreading job. I found several team leads/supervisors to be very passive aggressive, and when you're dealing with this type of job the last things you want added to the mix are curt, passive aggressive bosses that are often demeaning. It makes you wonder why you're killing yourself for the job. The job also has a rough learning curve at first and the team leads are very hard on you, many times blaming you for things you were never told about. Multiple analysts quit within only their first two weeks of employment while I was there, which should tell you something! Admittedly, however, the team leads/supervisors have to accomplish an incredible amount of work while also dealing with angry clients, and I don't know how some of them do it. I think the constant stress just has them on edge, especially because those are usually the workers who somehow managed to stay there for a few years. They must be the ones with massive Adderall prescriptions ;) As for more details regarding the schedule, you'll be working either overnight or on a split shift where you log on at 5AM and then sign back on in the late afternoon, often not finishing until pretty late, and then having to do it all over again with less than 8 hours of sleep. Plus, there is only one day of the week that you don't have to work any hours at all, and, combined with the stress of the job, and the monotonous but difficult nature of the job, it wears on you. It almost seems like a never-ending ride on a stressful version of It's A Small World After All. I believe the company is expanding to too many clients too quickly. The fact of the matter is not many people can do this job well, and they do not have enough employees to truly cover the workload. As a result, they squeeze everything possible out of the ones who can, adding extra responsibility after extra responsibility and, consequently, more and more hours. Their business strategy seems to be to squeeze everything they've got out of their employees, get as many clients as possible, and then, when the employees are wrung out like a dish rag, rinse and repeat. At least to me, they also weren't very transparent about the sheer number of hours they were going to demand each week (which kept expanding and expanding) and how the job involves zero breaks. Otherwise I would have asked for a heck of a lot more money, because per hour, and for shift work that not many people are capable of accomplishing skillfully, it wasn't enough. I didn't realize the extent of what I was getting into.

Explore other reviews about Bulletin Intelligence

5.0
Apr 19, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Loved the start-up feel at the company

Cons

no cons - family like atmosphere

4.0
Nov 18, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Cool to work for a company that writes briefings for the White House and big companies. Nice for news junkies to get paid to read and think about the news and tell big-name clients what they need to know. Good pay ... real bonuses. Lots of smart people. Casual dress. Great Christmas party at the owner's house with nice gifts for everyone. There used to be no way (on my shift, the overnight shift) to get promoted but now you can. If you like politics, there are lots of people of every stripe here. Work Life Balance is mixed: the overnight shift is hard but you can totally disconnect when you leave; no checking work email or that kind of stuff. Nice to work somewhere that is growing and hiring even in a bad economy.

Cons

I can't comment on what it's like during the day. Deadlines on the overnight shift can be stressful, especially when you're new, especially if training has been too short because there are too many new clients. Yes, the overnight shift isn't for everyone but most get used to it. The negative reviews here are probably people who didn't. Some say there are "golden handcuffs" ... they earn too much to leave. I haven't wanted to leave. It can be kind of like a library. There's a lot to do, and fast, and some of the other workers are pretty introverted. But it can be social after work if you try. The pros outweigh the cons. Most people stay with the company a long time.

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