The best way to put it into words is: that moment in a horror film where the next victim is inside their house and hears something outside. Everyone watching the film is screaming the same thing: “Don’t go outside!!! Oh god she’s opening the door... DO NOT GO OUT THERE, you idiot!”. Next scene: the innocent idiot is being dismembered and stuffed in a suitcase.
Modern Dog is the horror film. Every review I read here prior to accepting the job was the audience yelling at me not to work there... but I accepted a job anyway. I am the idiot from the movie who went outside, and working at Modern Dog made me *wish* I had been dismembered and stuffed in a suitcase - it somehow seemed preferable to having to face that gong-show everyday.
So I’m joining the audience and yelling at you, innocent job-seeker reading this, because I don’t want you to be the next victim. THE NEGATIVE REVIEWS ARE ALL TRUE!!! I wish I’d listened to them. Here’s why:
The micromanaging is an 11/10. Absolutely no autonomy in your job, no matter how experienced, skilled or educated you are. You don’t even get to choose your own “staff-pick” (translation: you aren’t even permitted to decide what you LIKE).
Berating of employees in front of the team: yes. Schedule time in your day for this belittling and demotivating event. It makes the environment unbearable and extremely stressful as you never know when you are going to get blindsided with a lecture.
Nothing is organized. Nothing is on time. Ever. The publisher is super disorganized and was not on time to a single meeting the entire time I worked here (even those scheduled in advance or allocated for a set time daily).
So. Many. Lies. I was lied to about how much the person sold in the role before me, and was told it would be easy for me to achieve even better results. According to sales reports this number was waaaay off from the actual previous sales... oops. Someone had mentioned the same thing happening to them in their review, so this is a lie they are obviously peddling just to get people on board.
Sales targets are unevenly weighted. Revenue goals are just evenly divided by the number of salespeople without regard to the fact that the publisher does keep all the full page accounts and long term accounts. You are expected to sell just as much as her with what scraps of business are still left to you. She doesn’t understand how sales targets work.
If you want to work with a group of people who are smart, talented, and capable, but who have had their souls crushed by the toxic environment and awful management, then give it a go! But, just for fun, make yourself a list of the negative things people have repeatedly mentioned in their reviews here... I promise you’ll have a check mark next to each and every one of them within your first week on the job.
