Inexperienced leadership and micromanagement leads to poor overall experience - Anonymous employee StudioBinder Employee Review

1.0
Sep 9, 2018
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Office is close to the beach and Santa Monica promenade.

Cons

You will be underpaid, you will be asked to do a lot of work in less time than you can do an adequate job in. You will be heavily reprimanded, sometimes in unprofessional manner, for mistakes. You will be micromanaged by the minute, watched like a hawk, reprimanded and questioned for how you spend your time in breaks and lunch, as well as how "productive" you are- and this hyper vigilant watching calls into question some of how management spends it's time. You will be reminded of your cost to the company per hour, if for example you spend too much time in a meeting, or a person in a meeting doesn't need to be there, management will make mention of how much money you have wasted/lost them. The sprint long and scrums are tedious and the deadlines are unnecessary. Blog posts won't be published for weeks to months after written, but I saw writers criticize, mocked and even have pay threatened for taking more than a day to write them. Parking isn't paid for and it's expensive in the area. Considering the amount of money spent on the office it's remarkable how little is invested in personnel. You may be asked to perform tasks you weren't hired to do. You will be asked to stay late on a regular basis without additional pay- of course you won't be "required to" but you will be heavily encouraged to, and criticized for leaving on time. Either a poor understanding of basic employment practices and laws. or disdain for them, is present and created issues over schedule breaks, the length of breaks or lunch hour. Speaking in the office while working is mostly discouraged. There is an extremely high turnover rate.

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StudioBinder Response
7y
Payment is on par with skill. Payment terms are always agreed upon up at the start, so it shouldn’t be a surprise. It’s quite common to provide 10-20% raises to employees that demonstrate aptitude and positive attitudes within the first 3-6 months as well. Most of these reviewed were written by folks that were with us less than that. If an employee wants to work towards a higher pay, please bring it up with management so a plan can be created to help them identify and improve the requisite skills to reach their goals. In many cases, we map out a 3-6 month plan to get them where they want to be. We don’t make it a habit to publicly reprimand anyone or “watch you like a hawk.” It’s best to dismiss anyone that would merit such concerns. Some employees in the past made it a habit to take personal phone calls during work, reply to text messages, and post on personal Twitter accounts. This was brought up for good reasons. We have never threatened to not pay someone if they’re late on an assignment. There's is no precedent of this ever happening. It shouldn’t matter when blog posts are released. What should matter is that employees have goals, and they work towards getting the job done. The backlog of work was a result of a previous content editor who struggled to stay current with the release schedule. It’s been addressed for a long time now. We never ask anyone to stay late despite the fact that we are well within our purview to do so, and it would be reasonable to do from time to time. At StudioBinder, days rarely exceed a healthy 8h. The higher turnover at this time was accelerated when a writer was dismissed and a few colleagues got sour about it, hence the singular voice. As always, we take ALL the feedback into consideration. Thank you for the feedback nonetheless, and the notes have been heard and addressed. Updated 4/9/20

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5.0
Apr 21, 2022
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CEO approval
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Pros

Opportunity to work on a variety of subjects in a myriad of forms. Friendly, responsive editorial team. Tons of opportunities to pitch articles/video essays.

Cons

Limited growth opportunity for freelance writers.

1.0
May 21, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Some of the people I worked with day to day were actually solid.

Cons

- The entire place is weighed down by people who were promoted simply because they stayed the longest, not because they actually know how to lead or manage a team. - Decision-making feels reactive and disorganized instead of guided by real leadership or planning. - The people in charge do not seem to understand what a team needs to function or succeed, yet they are responsible for directing everything. - There is constant talk about growth, but leadership roles are often filled by individuals with little to no experience in developing or managing people. - The same ineffective leadership patterns keep repeating, leading to little to no real improvement over time. - There is no meaningful accountability once someone is promoted, as feedback is often ignored or blocked. - Problems continue to stack up because issues are not addressed, only left unresolved. - The gap between what the team could achieve and what actually happens is heavily driven by a weak leadership structure.

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