Pros
The marketing and photo studio teams were dedicated and incredibly talented. Most of my co-workers were inspiring, collaborative and a true joy to work with, but this does not apply to leadership and the other teams in the company. Management attracts talented creatives with misleading promises, but they cannot keep them because, at the end of the day, the work environment is toxic and soul crushing.
Cons
Please heed the reviews that warn you about joining any of the marketing, photo or creative teams at Surya. I've worked in the photo industry for 15 years, and Surya is by far the most dysfunctional, uncaring and disorganized organization I've ever worked with or for. You will be overworked, underpaid, unappreciated and taken advantage of at every turn. Priorities are constantly changing with little to no warning, leaving teams scrambling to pick up the pieces, work overtime and deal with constant deadline stress. Extreme overtime is expected but not appreciated (especially during markets like High Point, where members of our team were expected to work 16+ hour days and weekends to prep the showroom for weeks on end). At our company holiday party, the CFO asked all of the spouses and partners of employees to stand up so he could thank them for their sacrifice. The sacrifice he was referencing? How little they saw their partners, who were being overworked, reprimanded for taking their vacation days and discouraged from using the work-from-home days they had accrued. It was like some sort of sick joke. After a matter of only a few months working at Surya, I was burned out to the point of mental and physical exhaustion. To make matters worse, management speaks to employees with such condescension and vitriol that even those with the toughest skin eventually are emotionally and mentally depleted. Freelancers who worked with our team were aghast at the unrealistic workload and the poor treatment of our in-house photo team at the hands of management. It was embarrassing, but the company culture was too toxic to hide — even from outsiders. Be warned: Bullying runs rampant and unchecked throughout the company. Attempts to report disrespectful, mean and downright belittling behavior of coworkers to management and the C-suite resulted in gaslighting, blame shifting and silence. I was promised multiple times that bullying would be addressed by management — even after a bully made a disparaging comment about disabilities in front of our entire team — but nothing changed. I didn't last more than a year at the company because I value my skillset, mental health and worth too much to stay in an unhealthy workplace.