Burnout culture and no room for growth
Pros
(I want to start by prefacing this review is purely related to working within the video department) To prospective new hires (video production): you're main task will not be creating the videos you see on 1A's youtube channel. Most of the work will be creating cookie-cutter install videos. Every once in awhile a 1A video will be assigned to you but it may only come once or twice a month. It's great experience to get you're hands on the camera and understanding NLE programs (Premiere Pro) but if you are more seasoned in the industry I'd look elsewhere for work. Other places offer better pay for experience, have a better operational structure, and much more room for career development. If you are fresh out of college and need to build your resume, this could be a good fit. Though you DO NOT NEED a college education to be successful within the video studio. Working in the video department feels very independent from the rest of the company. At times I forgot we were even in the retail game. I see this as one of the pros; the video team is on the smaller side so getting to know everyone is pretty easy. As with any workplace people butt heads from time-to-time but in all it is really a great group of people to work with. If you're considering working here you should know that the video department straddles a line between a more corporate/office culture and a more relaxed culture, similar to that of the service industry. It's one of the reasons I enjoyed working there but is also a reason why I left. It can feel toxic at times if actions or words go to far but in all it's not a bad culture, just one that could use more oversight (from HR maybe: *NOT* upper management). If 1A were to work out the kinks and concerns of those working there I believe it could be the perfect workplace to foster up and coming video workers looking to get their start with hands on experience but it is certainly not a place for continual growth. It can be extremely stifling actually.
Cons
Raises can be good, really good at times, but overall the video editors are under-paid for what they are expected to do (especially for a company based in Massachusetts where the cost of living has skyrocketed). It's a "everyone wears every hat" workplace. You are a one-person video crew from pre-production to post-production; you help plan out the video (shots, structure, story), you man the camera, you do the lighting, you keep track of audio, you direct talent, you are the editor, you handles graphics when you need to, you create the thumbnails, and you post the videos making sure to have all of the information correct. At times you are shooting one-on-one (just you and the mechanic/talent + all shooting is one-on-one) day-after-day (full shoot days). Maybe you really get along with this person but it still wears you down and it can wear them down too. You are also expected to churn out videos like there is no tomorrow. We would always get new quotas, we'd do the impossible and hit them, and then the quotas would increase to a new insane amount, all while being asked to improve the quality of the videos. You are worked and seen as a machine, not a person. And echoing concerns of burn-out and over-work go unheard. I would get the same response to just about every concern I listed "it's just not possible" or "there's nothing we can really do" with no answer as to why. This problem greatly stems from a strong top-down management approach. Upper management has a heavy hand in the decision making but none of them are ever at the studio, they barely communicate with the people doing the work, and seem to ignore any piece of advice that attempts to get pushed upstream. There is also little to no room for growth or career development. Management seems fine with keeping everyone working as a cog in the machine. Every once in a while someone is "promoted" but they are just slapped with added responsibilities that they can barely devote any time to because they are still expected to do all of the other work they had before (one-person crew churning out videos). You can look at the job listings and see that 1A understands the concept of labor specialization however they fail to apply such a concept at the video studio. This shows me that upper management doesn't actually understand how video production operates or they are just to stubborn to alter their structure in a way that would decrease burn-out and open up opportunities for career development. Perhaps the high turnover rate would change if they put in the effort.
