Refinery29 Employee Reviews about "management"

Cons

Where to begin? This company has steadily gone downhill in the two years I’ve been there: - The place has been hemorrhaging money, so now they’re trying to fix the situation by cutting everything from snacks and other office perks to refusing to hand out even a 5% raise. - The salaries are a joke. Influencers are paid a ton, while low-level staffers are paid peanuts. This is a place that launches campaigns encouraging women to negotiate their salaries and ask for a raise, but then tell you they can’t give you one. And the pay disparity between people in the *same role* can go as high as $17K. So much for “equal pay for equal work.” - The lack of communication is part of the culture. You’ll find out about projects, deadlines and other important stuff at the very last minute because no one bothers to communicate between departments. It’s ridiculous. - This place is peak white feminism™. While there’s obviously about 95% women in management and low-level roles, most of them are white and privileged. Which means they’re severe gaps in the way the content, messaging and other things are managed. Launching a thing like Unbothered (which was an idea of the Black women at lower levels, not management) is a step in the right direction. But what about hiring more people of different ethnic, racial, religious backgrounds? Lots of talk about how “radical inclusivity” is part of the company’s values, but it is not put into practice.

Cons

Rapid turnover No institutional knowledge Some people are paid so badly, it's heartbreaking. Especially when they're working 50-60 hours a week and very good at their job. Everyone is fighting for power and a lot of of people are collateral damage. Young and inexperienced managers who are not secure enough in their positions to support their reports. Management can't resist shiny new hires. It can leave you constantly paranoid that you're being cut out and fosters a toxic environment. There's some great stories being done but ultimately it's a content farm with clickbait headlines People who've been promoted too quickly and have no idea what they're doing. Hype machine, godspeed if you question it

Cons

Management needs to be work on their leadership skills and spend time truly understanding what it takes to lead a ship during choppy times.

Cons

They throw superficial things at you to distract you from the fact that the pay is abysmal. They function on the hopes/dreams/and digital rainbows of their young employees who desperately want to be a part of this 'cool' brand. Besides having no work/life balance, upper management is seriously lacking. This is because the founders are delusional and have no respect for their employees. Upper management makes you promises of promotion or bonuses so you work harder and accomplish their goals. But the minute you either accomplish it or it doesn't work out like they expect, they go back on their promises...or even let you go. They dangle the proverbial carrot above your head and watch you jump like a rabbit, only to let you starve in the end. They sell you a dream and say they have your back if you promise to have theirs, but are quick to make hasty 'pivots' without telling you, leaving you in the dark so that you can take the blame. They so desperately want to be 'cool' that they overlook loyal, talented hard workers for people with good style, overt personalities, and social connections. Management rules out of fear but it's apparentManagement rules out of fear but it's apparentManagement rules out of fear but it's apparent to everyone on staff that some of them are just insecure. In a nut shell, morale is extremely low, since everyone is overworked and underpaid. HR is nonexistent. I've seen so many colleagues either quit or were let go who deserve so, so, so much better. One of the executives have a saying: It's not a day at Refinery without someone crying...

Cons

The compensation could be better, and the work/life balance is not always the best. Management seems to be hearing this and working on improving though.

Cons

upper management has legitimately no idea what's going on or where to take the company and there is a huge brain drain taking place. i am legitimately shocked that they are still in business.

Cons

Not the most competitive pay but there is opportunity to move up faster than a more corporate environment. Upper management is tasked with the rapid growth goals and may not recognize the hard work that employees have devoted.

Cons

- Overall, it's a high school popularity contest - The most incompetent managers are hired. My manager was probably hired because she knew 'the lingo' and the founders thought she was legit. - The majority of the managers lead by intimidation - Some of the people that are promoted into management positions are unqualified and inexperienced. I'm sure if these new managers were to leave R29, they'd be knocked back into their jr level roles. - Benefits are 'meh' and not much time off. - Pay is not equal across the board - some people were breaking their backs making peanuts while others are grossly overpaid to just 'hang out and talk the talk'.

Cons

1. Below-market pay for above-market workload. Traffic/production goals are huge and always getting huger. Consistently exceeding goals is no guarantee of a raise or better title. R29 hires 'name' employees and more management.....yet won't spare a small cost of living increase for employyees with a track record of performance. 2. Working nights, weekends and holidays is not the exception -- its regularly expected of every non-Senior employee. Award show, breaking news, celeb death on Sunday night? You'll be up til 2 a.m. putting together a 30-page slideshow, then dragging yourself into work bright and early Monday. Ive worked other places where managers insist on comp time in these situations. Here, no one advocates for you. Ask for comp time and you hear crickets. 3. Your vacation and sick days are meaningless. Yes, you technically have PTO. But your still expected to produce the same # of stories whether you're in-office or not. So you work from your hotel on vacation while your friends are at the beach. You work when you're sick. Your told to work while spending Christmas with your family because 'you'll have wifi, right?' Sometimes, you're just told you 'can't' take time off. It's treated like no big deal, like of course you owe the company all your time. the stress takes its toll. Morale is lower here than anywhere else Ive ever worked. 4. Management does shady things: people are promised raises that arent delivered. Or you're promised an internal promotion, then they hire from outside. Other top-level employees are just plain toxic. I've heard coworkers have their diet, posture, clothes or the way they walk criticized to their face. Or you're lavished with praise for your work yet called 'entitled' when you ask for a raise. Or you're given the silent treatment for accepting a better job offer. There's an instability here that's really nervewracking to be around. The reviewer who describer it as 'like working in Mommie Dearest' nailed it. 5. Cynical company culture. Meetings are filled with pep talks about how R29 employees are what make it great. But R29 makes no effort to solve the overwork--burnout issues mentioned in almost every review here. Instead, incredibly enthusiastic 4/5-star reviews start popping up. The fact that r29 would rather whitewash its rep than change its exploitative culture is more than disappointing, it actually hurts, because most of us used to really believe in this brand. Its hurtful to be taken advantage of by something you used to love. Bottom line: R29 prioritizes traffic over employees sanity. Young employees don't realize how exploitative it is. Older more experienced ones get out as soon as they can (one said it was 'like a government experiment'). R29's methods for producing traffic is not sustainable, and brain drain will continue unless they invest honestly in their people.