Micromanagement ever present in leadership. In most design fields, an amount of creative input should be allowed to exist at all level, (Management has bigger fish to fry, no?) At 10, every detail, down to color choices, font sizes, line weights, etc are lorded over by the design partners. Creative design meetings were held simply to allow younger staff to feel as if they are participating, when in reality, its a show. A design lead will post their own idea, and thats what is used every time. Top down design is fine if thats the company mantra, but to elude to a holistic process that includes all input and not follow through is simply a misrepresentation of ones self. The famous phrase in our office went something like "that's a great idea! so what were going to do is... (whatever they intended on doing anyways.) Certain figures in design lead positions have no aptitude for advanced softwares, and therefore have extreme misunderstandings of time management. A faux sense of understanding has only festered this misunderstanding of time management.
More than anything, during the interview process you are shown pictures of beautiful libraries and museums and told this is what we do, when in reality 99% of the work is banal, office park land acquisitions in 3rd or 4th tier Chinese cities.
In the end, unsuccessful management in terms of staff management and business management, drove the Shanghai office into the ground. After 3 years, the office was shut down with 10 days notice. Although given the option to continue working in Hong Kong, of the 20 person staff, only 2 chose to go. Partners from Hong Kong never sent emails let alone show up to discuss the closure. No final dinner was held. HR simply came to discuss packages and that was it. Pretty cold for a small office.
