George P. Johnson reviews

The company as a whole has a fair amount of learning to do, however The big blue account takes it to another level. This place is a revolving door. There are some pros to the company but what little there is doesn't seem to exist in Austin. The leader of the office is a basket case who never follows up on a promise and certainly doesn't care about the employees. Leads to fear for upper management and it results in an exorbitantly negative environment. They are CONSTANTLY hiring people with no experience. And to make things even worse, they promote people who have no clue what they are doing. Upper management in Austin doesn't value the talented staff and will replace you with a new hire who came straight from a animal shelter...... Because they can "train them". It's almost unbelievable how ignorant the senior management is. But rest assured, they are happy to drop thousands of dollars on new rugs and comfy couches where the staff that have no work can hang out. If you are OK with no acknowledgement of your talent, terrible pay and want to get worked like a mule, then join the Austin office. The 3 Austin reviews before mine hit the nail on the head.

- The workload is crazy, especially for the best people They are constantly hiring new employees that need training, so the experienced people get the bulk of the work & are expected to also train because managers don’t know how to do the work themselves. - If you are a hard worker and productive, you are expected to bill lots of hours to the clients to make GPJ money. Many top performers are told that if they get work done in half the time a “normal person” would, they should bill at the time of the “normal person.” - The vacation policy & flexibility are deceiving. With all the travel, event assignments & expectations that you bend over backwards for the clients, you never actually get to take vacation (you’ll barely have a free night or weekend, actually). Your life will belong to the company, and your manager won’t care if it’s affecting your relationships or health. - GPJ recruits by making false promises to candidates about the work, flexibility & office environment. They have such high turnover that they are continually hiring in order to get people in to do the work- so they have to sell it. That "cool office" isn't so great when you're there late into the night and in early for client calls. Once you’re working 70-80 hours a week on average, you don’t really care if there’s free beer or lunch sometimes. - The management is dishonest and continually lying to their employees to get them to stay. Promises of raises or relief from a heavy workload go years without coming to fruition. - Once you are hired, do not expect your salary to change much. If you’re truly a top performer, you may get a 3% raise each year. If you’re promoted, you’re even more lucky if you get beyond the standard 3%. There is no true salary range for positions… you may be making $15,000 less than your new colleague with less experience just because they were desperate to hire at the time. - There is no confidentiality with HR or with managers. Expect anything you say to be shared among management. And they will cover up their own mistakes, not thinking twice about putting the blame on their staff. Your manager will not “take one for the team.” - Relationships with other offices is turbulent at best... they are constantly competing with one another instead of working together. Communication is lacking and inconsistent across the organization. - Favoritism abounds; the manager favorites get promotions & salary increases even when huge mistakes are made; employees who challenge the status quo to try to make things better are pushed out. The managers like people who go along with them; they don’t want to be “found out” that they actually have no idea what they’re doing. - Integrity is not a value at this company, at least among HR and management.