Pros
Trauma bonds with other former Maesa survivors & talented packaging designers. You will meet, work with or interview other Maesa alum (if you continue in the beauty industry) and realize it wasn’t you. It’s systemic. You will immediately get into a one-upping battle of sharing absurd war stories and talk about how it made realize you didn’t know places existed that were this bad.
Cons
Immediate remorse when you realize it’s a bait and switch. The definition of hostile work environment. Vendor & retailer relationships ruined. I wonder just how many employees have or have attempted to file suit. I look forward to the day when the exploitation ends and I see an industry headline “former employees file class action lawsuit against Maesa”. What in the snake oil did these people pitch to Bain to trick them into investing into this tragedy of a subpar product pumper? If you’ve seen Industry on HBO, this is the beauty company version.