Welcome to the Grindhouse - Strategist Directive Employee Review

1.0
May 6, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- "unlimited vacation" - Nice, smart people to work with - Healthcare is a nice positive - Revolving door of strategists/managers so you'll constantly get to meet new people

Cons

- You will be overworked to death, burnout factory. Garrett mentions "work work balance" consistently in office hours with some odd sense of pride that work is the end-all-be-all for your life - Little to no resources, Garrett laid off all our specialist support and increased all the SoWs so much that you need to work 50 hours a week in order to stay afloat. Where is the help??? We are all drowning - Completely unprofessional attitudes from executives, it starts from the top down. I've personally witnessed the CEO belittling the team and managers to the point that it was downright abusive - Sexual harassment from Garrett that was swept under the rug. No amount of "fighting the narrative" can fix your poor actions and the way you treat your employees - Processes change all the time & more things get added on to your plate. - You'll have to get used "figuring it out!" since Garrett doesn't like "processes" or educating the team. The CEO has little respect for any of his employees because in his mind "everything can be done in 5 minutes" or he is the "only one who can do it right" - No career opportunities or training. Very little support for managers - Constantly changing SoWs with little guidance on how to get all the things done

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Directive Response
2y
Working at a digital marketing agency can lead to burnout, especially when you’re as driven and ambitious as our team is at Directive. We try to avoid that outcome, by capping the maximum number of clients an employee can simultaneously work with, and by monitoring workloads and utilization every week. But despite that, we also recognize that in a rapidly growing, service-driven agency, there can be times of increased work that may disrupt work-life balance. We care about the well-being of all of our employees and are always working on solutions to provide better support and resources to our teams. We also take the respect of our employees very seriously, and believe no one should ever feel belittled, taken for granted, or abused. As the Head of People Operations, I assure you my team and I have never received a complaint of sexual harassment about a member of our executive team. And if we ever did, my team and I would investigate the matter fully. I am always available if you would like to discuss any of this further, or you can reach out to a member of my team.

Explore other reviews about Directive

5.0
Jun 16, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Fast growing organization, genuinely sharp teammates & feeling that we're hiring the best of the best, real career growth, transparent leadership team.

Cons

High expectations but rewarding for those who embrace the culture and thrive in a fast-paced environment.

1.0
Jun 8, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

remote work is the only one

Cons

terribly disorganized no structure millions of slack messages a day as their singular form of communicating and it creates mistakes, oversight and backlogs meetings upon meetings with no outcomes everyone was running around like a chicken with head cut off i would advise against working here

7
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