The actual office in incredibly boring. It's this huge open space where nobody speaks and there are a bunch of empty desks with junk (like old printers, wires, etc.) and I found it to be so demoralizing. If we didn't have Skype/Hipchat, I would have gone insane.
Austin - the marketing department was a huge joke, mostly because it had some of the worst management I've ever come into contact with, and when finally let go, left a quagmire of problems behind. From what I hear now the department is doing much better.
The management had a tendency to hire complete idiots and let them run amok, making life more miserable for those of us who wanted to improve things. We had some..characters...in the office who did not know how to behave professionally at all. Some behavior that was allowed to go on by a particular individual was sexual harassment of girls, leaving the office without anyone knowing where he went or when he'd be back, extended lunches, and constantly sending out rude emails. I'm also 90% sure he left that weird review about needing to speaking mandarin. That kind of stuff...all the time. And it was laughed off and never dealt with.
There was no HR, which meant any complaints we had were never handled properly. I would handle my team and if anything needed to be discussed, I'd take it up with the CEO. That was fine enough, but the problem was he also fancies himself in charge of the Development team. And operations. And payroll. And micromanaging marketing because of what a mess it was. So there was really no faith that anything would get done, because it never COULD get done.
The development team did not (as a team, there were and still are some very devoted individuals who work to improve the code) adhere to any type of code standards, so it was always a nightmare dealing with it. Code was rarely reusable, never organized, not commented, etc. They were not held accountable for this. Why? Because the CEO is also in charge of the dept. and didn't have time. Then when he does put some leadership in, the code is left in the same messy state it always has been, without being addressed or dealt with! It was disappointing how opportunities like this were not rewarded by merit, but just whatever felt the most convenient. I ended up dealing with a lot of this, but never paid or recognized for it.
So many projects were never finished, because they were given without any thought it research put in. Everything had a tight deadline, everything was important, everything had no clear vision or end in sight. Working a 12 hour day became normal, I really got numb to it. And so many projects were just abandoned, which was useless for my portfolio and/or sense of accomplishment. Time was never honored here.
That's another thing. We sold ink. Why these campaigns need to turn into mega projects I'll never understand. Why design and dev need to have 2-3 huge projects stacked on top of that I'll never understand. Let marketing do their thing and use templates. Design can supply assets, then you free up design and dev to work on the big projects in Newark. You have a brand manager, why aren't they focusing on the branding and not making stupid campaigns? I get the sense that you don't know what these people you hired are supposed to be doing or what the priorities are.
