Refinery29 Employee Reviews about "upper management"

Cons

The vision of Refinery29 is a 'throw something at the wall until it sticks' mentality, which means they talk a lot about a 'vision' but the practice is whatever is working that day. Expect high school-level back dealing, and employees to 'disappear' without notice or warning or a peep from upper management. Also, a yearly raise is kind of a joke.

Cons

Company is failing to scale and grow up healthily. In fact, its stagnant and hurting tremendously. This is leading to talent drain of capable people on middle management level. Which leaves less capable managers in the middle level therefore further negatively affecting non-managers. Its a vicious cycle. Majority of this stems from poor upper management on executive level. There have been a number of executive changes but more changes are needed. Especially true for cofounders. That said, its hard to hold anything against them because these are caring folks who spent almost of all career as entrepreneur and building a 100 million dollar business. They didn't spend decade jumping through corporate world going from company to company learning how things work at scale and what's effective or not for certain situations. Cofounders are doing what they believe is the best. But their best unfortunately is not good enough because they aren't growing fast enough to keep up with growth of the company and what it is demanded of executive level at 100 million dollar companies. Cofounders need to consider what Google did at certain stage with Eric Schmidt. Hiring an experienced CEO to run the business while cofounders release operational duties to focus more on what they are exceptionally good at. Being brand visionary, champion of women's causes, coming up with creative experiments. After certain time when cofounders have matured further with executive skills and experience, return to take the helm. Just like Google.

Cons

Absolutely zero structure here. Don’t practice what they preach. It’s not worth it

Cons

Workloads are not proportionately distributed, and upper management is not regulating that. There's also an unrealistic expectation of many employees to work late and be available 24/7 making work-life balance non-existent.

Cons

Upper management is ignorant of the fact that employees have no work-life balance. Founders treat you as though you have the same stake in their company as they do, and expect you to be as invested as them. This often means answering emails within minutes during nights, weekends, vacations, and sick time.

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 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

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

Refinery29 can be a bit of a catty sorority, where bosses pick favorites based on how cool you look rather than how good your ideas are. The politics can be difficult to navigate for anyone who doesn't fit the mold, and I've seen really great folks get ostracized for that exact reason. For a company boasting their earning YoY in company wide meetings, it's really disheartening to see that pay and benefits are not growing equally. Salaries are not competitive. Employees are expected to be online 24/7, work late, work on vacation, etc. Work life balance is not existent. Almost every department has weak or abrasive, untrained mid-level to upper management. All of these factors contribute to an incredibly high turnover. All of my colleagues are actively looking for new jobs.

Cons

-Extreme favoritism -inexperienced upper management -unclear path to next level in career path -poor communication -lack of transparency -titles are handed to some and not given to other -low pay not in line with the industry or people's experience -lack of appreciation for employees in certain departments