In my career spanning almost 14 years, I have never been more confused, angry, or annoyed than I have here. I was disrespected, taken advantage of, and somehow also ignored. I watched good employees be let go and inexperienced ones promoted to leadership. I did my best: time-tracked my designs (real creative know that’s not sustainable), suggested process improvements, and always gave my best to my clients, but not without a huge amount of discomfort. The men on my team earned higher raises at review time, while I was the one doing my job plus providing support to another department and receiving great reviews from clients. Makes sense!
Every time there was an acquisition, the creatives were moved around. People were let go, and others just quit. I had 3 different managers in 3 months. This is not indicative of a stable company. We suffered, but the clients are suffering the most. They are being given subpar creativity because of a lack of time, employee consistency, and trust in Carnegie. Designers were not even allowed to communicate with clients. How can I build a rapport with a client when they don’t know who I am? The reason behind that is that we were shuffled around so often, the client would get whiplash. In speaking with other departments, this was not exclusive to the creative department. Everyone is fed up, but they know speaking up will do nothing. They are looking for other jobs.
To quote someone in leadership shortly before I quit: “We are asking you to start doing this, though it is admittedly a half-baked idea.” Speaking of quitting, the week after I left, the rest of my team was let go! Companies would rather set their own employees’ lives and money on fire than admit they need to institute systemic change. The people who create actual value are treated as replaceable, while those who create meetings are treated as indispensable.
In summary:
inexperienced leadership
cold leadership
lack of process
time-tracking
too many acquisitions
