Future reviews

3.2

44% would recommend to a friend

(713 total reviews)

Kevin Li Ying

60% approve of CEO

36% positive business outlook

Future has an employee rating of 3.2 out of 5 stars, based on 713 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Future employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Media & Communication industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

713 reviews
1.0
Sep 24, 2021

Blowing the whistle: any positive reviews you see here were all written by HR

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

A paycheck. That's literally it.

Cons

1) Salary Don't bother going above and beyond or raising your hand to do more projects, you will NOT - and I repeat, will NOT - get paid for it. There's no such thing as a raise here (HR will try to tell you that each year a 2% raise is given.. that's a standard of living increase, NOT a performance based raise.) One year the company handed out these Future-branded decks of cards that had advice on them (e.g. how to talk to your manager, how to give criticism). There was a card in the deck about promotions and how to praise employees: nowhere on that card did it mention pay raises. All it said was "we believe showing our employees our appreciation for their hard work doesn't have to just be through pay, it can be offering an employee to work on a fun new project!" How is a new project going to help me pay my bills? Ironically, the amount of money Future paid to have these customized decks of cards created could have probably been put toward a raise for some team members. IT MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE. Why would anyone want to do more work for no performance based raise? Future is exactly the company that says "we have beer in house! we have ping pong tables!" in response to someone asking for more money. BEER AND PING PONG TABLES WILL NOT PAY THE BILLS. 2) Leadership/Management Their only business strategy is to keep acquiring companies. No joke, it happens at least once a month. With all that cash they have available to do it, and how often they do it, it should make you wonder why it's so impossible to get a raise and to hire people what they're worth. They have the money to do it -- they just don't CARE. Majority of the leadership team here just uses buzz words to make it sound like they know what they're talking about and that they have something important to say. If you hear "firing on all cylinders!" or similar office jargon, heads up: this person doesn't have one unique thought to share. People are dropping like flies here. One after another, everyone leaves; people see it and question it, yet management does not acknowledge it and doesn't do a thing to rectify it. Warm bodies, that's all we (employees) are. 3) Job function The job you were hired for will most likely change in a few months, and they will not allow you any input or ask your opinion. Then they get surprised when people quit, how weird! Every few months they'll do a restructure and say "this new verticalization we're doing is really going to streamline the business!" and then you (employees) have to deal with the repercussions (e.g. your job you were hired to do no longer being your day to day job). But don't worry, in a few more months, they'll change everything again, and the same thing will happen. You'll also have a new manager every few months because they truly cannot make up their minds about how things should be run. Or, they genuinely just have no idea how to run things and make it up as they go along. I'm betting on the latter. Also, they tried to schedule an in-person two day conference this month in DC (when majority of staff is in New York). In the middle of a pandemic. Right when flu season begins. I'm laughing as I type this because it's unbelievable and so irresponsible.

1.0
Jan 4, 2019

You Are an Item on a Spreadsheet Here, Not a Human. Stay Away.

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Competent and friendly colleagues (most of which are there as a result of an acquisition) - Reasonable work/life balance - The opportunity to work on interesting publications that can make an impact on consumers

Cons

- Dated print publication mindset - The C-suite's allegiance is to the shareholders not the employees who make things happen - Below market pay - Absurd cost cutting initiatives such as hot desking (you have to find a different work station every day) without a reasonable WFH policy to offset the impact on productivity hot desking has. - They cut corners on critical tools such as video conferencing and word processing tools - Very unfriendly upper management who won't even look you in the eye when walking past you let alone greet you - Lack of innovative mindset - Products have a very legacy feel to them - Difficult to obtain the tools you need to do your job - Abrupt downsizing can occur at any time - They don't invest in employee development. Learning platforms were removed because they claim that "you can learn from each other" without implementing policy/time slots to enable that. - Very little in the way of culture. No budget for team happy hour/events. - Office amenities are very bare bone. Almost no snacks or beverages.

1.0
Dec 3, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Direct managers and coworkers were amazing and cared about the team - Unlimited PTO

Cons

- Zillah is the worst CEO you could ask for and that's saying a lot - Terrible mismanagement from executives - Editorial not given the resources it needs to grow and thrive - Grossly low pay that should be criminal - No hope for any significant raises (even after you get a promotion!) - Constantly buys companies when they apparently can't afford to take care of their employees already - I've seen people break down crying in meetings with executives about this: they don't care - Does not care about United States employees or remote work at all - This executive team treats its employees like disposable garbage

avatar
Future Response
3y
We appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts. We're sorry to hear how you feel about the leadership. We do absolutely value our people - they're the reason we continue to be successful so we're sorry you've felt that leadership doesn't care. There's a lot of ongoing work to make improvements in a number of areas, including pay and communities, especially for our remote workers. If you ever wish to get in touch please feel free to contact us directly.
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