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.

1.0
Aug 7, 2023

Read between the lines

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The "People Team" are great folks, they do their best to attend to Employee needs and go above and beyond when life happens with things like gift cards. I truly do get the impression that they care about their work.

Cons

Directive is flailing, and has been for some time. Leadership is more interested in fame and seeming like they're on the bleeding edge, when in reality they still haven't been able to nail down the basics of agency operations. Your work guidance changes constantly, new processes are given little time to actually take hold before new ones replace them. Managers are stressed and take it out on strategists frequently, overloading them with work and then putting them on a PIP when they break under the pressure. Morale is one of fear and "who's next". If you look at other reviews, you can see a lot of "I didn't believe the bad reviews, then I got hired". That's very telling. It's also telling that most recent 5 star reviews are given by contractors.

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Directive Response
2y
Thank you for your feedback and compliment about the People Team here at Directive. We do care about everyone that works here and care about our work. As the Director of Employee Experience, I can assure you that when PIPs happen they are based on performance metrics and nothing else. Our belief is that when an employee's performance isn't meeting our standards, they are owed a conversation to communicate clearly where they need to improve.
1.0
Apr 13, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Here are the few pros that Directive actually offers: Pro #1 - Grace. Grace is the unofficial official office mascot, the CEO's dog, who is the cutest and friendliest of big ol' fluffy puppies. She is literally their saving grace. 
 Pro #2 - Coworkers. Coworkers - excluding management - is the one reason I wanted to stay. 
 Pro #3 - Cold brew and snacks. Plenty of snacks in the kitchen. Cereal, chips, jerky. Just don't expect anything very healthy in the cabinets. 
 Pro #3.5 - Working remote after 6 months. I give this only a .5 because even though it's listed as a benefit, management won't allow you to do it all the time (read below for the "unlimited PTO" scam they tried to pull which only lasted for 4 months)... Don't let them pull the wool over your eyes. Be sure to read the fine print and speak with fellow employees when it comes to their "benefits".

Cons

They recently removed their "Unlimited PTO" benefit because - get this - people were taking vacations! WOW. The CEO said that they're changing it to a 3 week soft cap (WTF is that?! You can't put a "soft cap" on "UNLIMITED PTO". Stop acting like you care and just don't offer it!) He also announced that if you take 3 weeks every year it will and I QUOTE "it will look bad on you". 3 weeks of mental/physical vacay A YEAR will look bad on you, but you were just offering unlimited PTO?! Well, if that doesn't just say everything about management... but wait! There's more! 
 You're expected to overload yourself and work weekends. That's not an exaggeration. If you're good at your job they'll keep adding to your workload and say "You can handle it" - not out of support, but because they know they can. If you push back, be prepared to be lectured on the famous "if you want to grow in this company" speech. 
 The internal yearly reviews are a joke. Employees have complained about their workloads for over 2 years now and they still refuse to change the system. Your best employees are leaving because you're not listening to them. Don't you get it yet? Employees don't leave jobs, they leave leaders. 
 There is extremely obvious favoritism. Your employees are not stupid, we see everything and we all talk to one another. We know what's going on, who's not doing what, and who's taking credit for other people's work. 
 Verbally abusive one on one reviews. Management, I suggest you send your directors to management training because most of them have never managed anyone, let alone a whole team, and it shows. They need to understand that their title isn't "King/Queen". They're supposed to be leaders. Start acting as such. 
 Overall, my advice to anyone who is trying to get into the digital marketing space is to avoid Directive. If you want a work/life balance DEFINITELY avoid Directive at all costs. Don't be fooled by the pretty 5 star reviews that are filled with false claims of an "open door policy", only up to 5-6 accounts each, respect, vacation time, the option of working remotely, and great management. Understanding what goes on behind the curtain and knowing that the benefits listed and the 5-star reviews on this page are all written by management or were asked to be written by management -- is absolutely hilarious.

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Directive Response
7y
Hi there, this is Garrett, and this truly is me writing these responses. These reviews are never easy, but I truly wish you nothing but the best. I am confident you learned both good and bad things in your time here and that you will be even more prepared for what’s next in your career. My only wish is we could have spoken together as candidly as you have written. I also hope you can understand that the quality of co-workers here that has blessed both of our lives is a direct by-product of management. I hope you can see our heart one day and understand how much we value you. In closing, thank you for your feedback and I am excited to keep sprinting towards improving all aspects of working at Directive. - Garrett
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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.