As a full time employee, I was hired on a ‘probationary salary’ which was less than $20k of what my prior (already under market) salary had been as he ‘assessed my abilities’ over a 90 day period. I have never seen this practice, only probationary periods to qualify for benefits.
I interviewed for a Marketing Strategist role and was hired for an Account Executive role. This was confusing, and indicative of the greater lack of organization.
I was hired very quickly and told that about half the staff had recently been fired for poor performance and misconduct. A lot of faith was communicated that I would help restore the business and even lead to a profit sharing or employee ownership model. There were 4 full time employees remaining when I joined, only 2 of whom were aware he was hiring another Account Executive. The 2 who were aware explained to me that he frequently made new hires and put them on a pedestal, insisting they would save the company, then be very upset when he was inevitably disappointed (that they didn’t save the floundering business within 90 days).
Inappropriate language was used by the owner to describe employees, calling one full time employee a ‘b*tch’.
The owner shared negative sentiments about current employees, past employees, and clients alike. He disparaged my colleagues work to me and told me not to trust their work or communication on a near daily basis.
The owner blurred lines of personal and professional communication, often offloading to employees with inappropriate emotional conversations about his personal life and how past employees and business partners have wronged him.
There was no training or onboarding plan, I was immediately assigned client facing work with little to no context or direction.
The main software used is archaic and non- intuitive. Additionally, the owner relies on paper files to be printed and passed between employees, it is a very confusing, complicated, and unnecessary process.
The office is physically a very uncomfortable place to be. It is dog friendly, and covered in stains and smells from urine and feces. There are ‘water bugs’ (similar in appearance but larger than cockroaches) in the bathrooms, hallways, offices, and entryways. In addition to these elements, the owner has created a general atmosphere of tense animosity among the employees. There is rarely lighthearted conversations, the office stays very quiet. Though claiming to be ok with it during the interview process, the owner is not open to hybrid or work from home schedules for full time employees.
Despite insisting that full time employees are salaried, the owner requires time cards to be submitted that equal 8 hours per day (despite most employees staying well past 8 hours). He stated that this is to ‘track billable hours’, but it is tied to wages. This was not communicated to me and my first paycheck was half of my owed amount, as I had used the software to log billable hours only. The paycheck was amended quickly, but I asked another full time employee who stated the same thing happened to them. I still don’t know why the owner didn’t check on my time card or explain payroll since this had happened recently with another new employee.
Of the 5 full time employees, 2 were fired within one week. The owner did not notify the other 3 of us about the terminations. We found out through communicating with each other offline the morning we realized the office was emptier than usual. This was my 4th week, and when I decided to leave.
