Directive reviews

2.8

33% would recommend to a friend

(151 total reviews)
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Garrett Mehrguth

36% approve of CEO

30% positive business outlook

Directive has an employee rating of 2.8 out of 5 stars, based on 151 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Directive employee rating is 25% below average for employers within the Media & Communication industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

151 reviews
1.0
Jan 5, 2024

Terrible Culture and Leadership

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

A consistent “Pro” you see in many 5-star and 1-star reviews is how great your peers are and I wholeheartedly agree! The people I had the opportunity to work with are smart, innovative, collaborative, helpful, and friendly.

Cons

As a manager, I was able to observe firsthand the CEO’s approach to leadership and culture. In my opinion, his approach promotes profits over value, results over people, and encourages shame and humiliation as tools for management and feedback. - I have observed a lot of shame be used by leaders by giving unnecessarily harsh feedback such as: "“I don’t understand the value you provide”, “I can do your job better than you”, "why can't you use your brain", and "I could have done this in two minutes, why is it taking you so long?". - During my tenure, I witnessed more than a dozen senior leaders leave the organization, some of them having only worked at Directive for a couple months. This is probably due to the CEO regularly downplaying their contributions and belittling their input. - The CEO leads and feeds the company culture of fear and shame. When the CEO speaks it is laced with shame that communicates to employees that they aren’t good enough, that their contribution doesn’t matter, or that they don’t deserve to work at Directive. - It seems that the CEO is frequently sidetracked by competing objectives, and he swings his and the company's energy from one priority to the next like a pendulum. Some of his ideas are good, but they rarely gain traction before he moves on to another, potentially contradictory, objective. This behavior explains why Directive has frequent layoffs and hiring pushes, often simultaneously.

4.0
Dec 9, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

People were fun to work with and swag was often given. EOY bonus, medical benefits and EOY recharge were elite and by far some of the best I’ve had.

Cons

Processes constantly changing (to a point reporting was difficult), expecting the impossible to be done by certain time frames, worked on average 50-60hr/week for 2 years, favoritism with certain veterans

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Directive Response
2y
Thank you for this feedback. We’re happy to hear you enjoyed your coworkers in your time here.
1.0
Dec 5, 2023

Believe the reviews

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Now, there are some good people here to be fair, but they are far outweighed by the most toxic, self fulfilling, and often incompetent people you may ever work with. This place is honestly a dumpster fire from the top down.

Cons

If you have any other job prospects, and I mean any, take them. Come to Directive as a rock bottom, last resort, desperation measure and don’t stop looking for better after you start. They will grind you till burnout and then ask for more. Promote unlimited PTO but highly discourage from using it (they expect you to work all hours anyways). Don’t trust anyone to have your back. And honestly, avoid executive leadership contact as much as possible, no one is here to be your friend.

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Directive Response
2y
Thank you for the feedback. Working at an agency lends itself to longer hours than in-house marketing roles, while that’s the case remind and encourage people to use their unlimited PTO benefit to recharge.
Viewing 55 - 57 of 151 Reviews

Glassdoor has 164 Directive reviews submitted anonymously by Directive employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Directive is right for you.