System1 Group reviews

I was inspired to write this after a LinkedIn post went viral - the post listed 15 signs of a toxic work environment. My experience at System1 checked at least half of the boxes. The first major sign: lots of people resigning, and a shared understanding that everyone is looking for another job. I was at the company for 16 months, and I had a total of 8 supervisors. There is no space to grow: the first level position of Research Associate, which I occupied, was tasked with the same duties as two levels up. So basically you are doing the same rote tasks for at least 5 years, regardless of job title. There is no merit-based promotions - you must do at least x amount of time before being considered for a promotion. You also aren't welcome to make your own decisions - emails must be checked by your supervisor (even the most cursory ones) before sending.

Very high turnover, so teams are always changing and struggling to keep up. With no actual training process in place, it takes months to get new people up to speed, especially since things are constantly changing in how we do things. The laptop and phone they give you mean you're always working, even when you're not. They never hire enough people to do all the work, so most of us work crazy hours, including nights and weekends. Great place to work if you love corporate burnout though. Lots of senior executives hanging around not helping. Lots of vacation days, but it's always too busy to use them. Management is basically a good old boys network - a lot of overweight white guys. Very little diversity in management or in the workforce. US management especially can be very petty, hypocritical, passive aggressive, and negative. It has created a really negative culture over the past year or so. Their claims of being innovative get old after a while, especially since our survey software is barely functional and everything we do is very traditional. We just use the words "emotion" and "behavioral economics" a lot in our reports. Promotions are pretty routine. If you don't suck, you'll get one every 18-24 months, but the job never changes. It's just a different title and a little more money. Even when you're in a senior position, most of the work you do is still intern level. It's more of a research factory than an agency. Not a good place for someone trying to learn how to do market research. Pay is lower than the industry average, but they try to make up for it in the extra vacation days you can never take.