"work hard, play dumb" - Anonymous employee BDA Employee Review

2.0
Feb 23, 2014
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There are some good people on the front lines. So much potential at BDA.

Cons

Those good people are not listened to, respected or well compensated. Executive leadership is simply bad. They think people can be moved into any position at the company and do equally as well, regardless of skill, background or personal interests. They promote coordinators into development roles, only to fire them for not being developers. They promote core values, but do not hold anyone above director accountable to them. Voluntary company events become mandatory company events, due to executive level politics. Different opinions and new ideas are welcomed, but then punished or ignored when expressed. BDA offers no bonuses below director level. Directors aren't supposed to mention bonuses, but it creeps out because the directors complain about how small those bonuses are. insultingly low. Yet the owners insist they want BDA to be the best place you've ever worked–when even the worst place gave bonuses. "Work hard, play hard" is the company's internal motto, but "play hard" means drinking heavily. It should be "play dumb" because they act like they dont know their staff has been begging for end-of-year-bonuses for years. they dare not even mention it. 1% of salary is not even an option. instead they spend millions on lavish parties that don't pay anyone's electric bill. The overall tone at the company is one of defeated-spirit and frustration–caused by bad business decision after bad business decision.

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5.0
Aug 19, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
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Pros

Fun events. Lots of motivated people you work with.

Cons

Lots of work that can lead to burnout.

2.0
Mar 31, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Decent base salary if this is your first job out of University. - Free Swag - WFH Fridays - Smart and helpful colleagues

Cons

- Incredibly stressful, do NOT take this job if you do not have a high stress tolerance. - A ton of competing priorities that almost always require quick/immediate action. - You get a ton of emails and are expected to be able to pull up and reference any of them at a moments notice. - Constant whiplash between doing deep, focused work (presentation/catalogs) that have a ton of details and require your full attention versus quick/rapid fire tasks that you must address immediately. There were days where I was working on one presentation all day and couldn't get it done because of how much I was getting pinged to resolve other issues. - To get promoted you must essentially do the job of 2 people (CSC and PSA). Beyond that, there is no real career progression unless you want to go into sales. - Management always says to raise your hand if you need help. But when you ask for help, there is always pushback in the form of others having more task hours than you. - CEO took away one of the WFH days. When Qualtrics had negative feedback he essentially said "If you don't like it - then leave". He is a "Do as I say, not as I do." type of leader. - Workload and responsibilities are not commiserate to the salary.

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