High Five Media reviews

Where to start. First, they don’t really allow you to be the creative they saw and hired. They see the “potential” of making you fit into their idea of creative which is restrictive, repetitive and dull. There are absolute ARTISTS that work there but get hindered due to management having a lack of knowledge about creativity and imagination. They prefer to keep it cookie cutter to appear to the mass produced looks that “rich” clients want but don’t realize there are so many more options out there to have as clients too. The business is run by sales people who don’t understand the first thing about what their employees do, all they care about is numbers and not the overall quality of product. You would think three grown adults would spell check/double check a Christmas card greeting before mass printing it? Most of the 5 stars reviews you see in early 2023 are due to management telling employees ON A WORK TASK DURING WORK HOURS to put reviews on Glassdoor. Is that illegal? No. Is it shady? Absolutely. Just like some of the business they make production work on that they, managers, expect you to just put your morals aside, smile and do your job. They have a retirement home as a client a lot of us found shady because they wanted the social team to build a brand new Google page to essentially wipe their hands clean of bad reviews because they were “upgrading” upon a few other things. You will be reprimanded/let go if you speak out on those things. It’s just business, nothing personal. Management will either constantly bring up your mistakes or wait months to bring it to your attention. It’s account managers words over productions word, and production are the ones that get the worst end of the stick. Unless you’re one of the favorites. They have/had people that were willing to take on new roles, learn new skills and/or wanting to try another department. They will not, would not allow it, unless it was their idea. They force roles on people that they were not wanting or asking for, but will dangle opportunities in your face, have multiple meetings about it and then ultimately decide not to do it. They will find any and every excuse to not give you the opportunity you were hoping for, even if it would help the company. They do not have proper training program throughout the company, although a group of individuals are working on it to make it better, I doubt it will be fully implemented. They prefer to waste productions time implementing things like AI for weeks, and taking courses that are actually meant for managers and CEOs on how to bring ai to your employees and the company. While AI is helpful, I think we didn’t have to go so hard so fast just to become “one of the businesses forefront in the Midwest”. Here recently, there has been a high turnover, mostly of people that have been there 2 years or less. Due to a range of reasons. Most people have left due to lack of pay, lack of raises, overload of projects, lack of structure, lack of updated equipment, and partners loosing their temper at employees.

I am composing this review in response to the feedback posted on December 14th, 2023, which itself was a reaction to a review on December 11th. I believe that the review from December 11th more accurately reflects the prevailing experiences of the majority of individuals within the company. A discernible disparity exists between the perspectives of the upper management and the “lower-tier” employees. Managers and partners express great enthusiasm for the "Christmas parties with extravagant gifts, the monthly office gatherings, and complimentary Monday morning breakfasts," considering them highly commendable. While these events are indeed pleasant and, if presented as evidence of the company's lack of frugality, are valid, they do not address the primary concern voiced by employees—namely, salary issues. The compensation for most roles at High Five falls significantly below market rates (bearing in mind that Glassdoor salary data is notably inaccurate). Despite possessing top-tier talent, the company remunerates its employees inadequately. Requests for salary increases are met with reluctance, and on multiple different occasions requesting a detailed breakdown of monthly expenses, a practice I deem extremely inappropriate and not to mention disrespectful since in practice it has proven to result in the bare minimum needed to survive awarded to employees who have gone through this process. Substantial salary increases are primarily reserved for those transitioning into management roles, with no provisions for loyalty or performance-based raises. With absolutely no guidelines for performance based raises there is no accountability for management to actually give them out, and they won't. When employees resign, their workload is redistributed without a corresponding increase in compensation, resulting in significant job creep within all avenues of the company. The matter of remote work has been somewhat sensationalized. Employees are not advocating for full-time remote work but rather seeking a policy for inclement weather. There is currently no policy for inclimate weather. In turn this forces the employee to decide between going out into unsafe conditions or dip into their personal PTO days. Additionally, paid time off is exhausted for sick days, leaving minimal allowance for personal time. The leadership is so stingy with letting employees work from home that employees have been asked to stay at work with no working bathrooms, and furthermore asked to clock out while they drive to a nearby business to relieve themselves in order to ensure that work from home is never allowed under any circumstances. While the company-sponsored events and additional amenities are appreciated, employees are ultimately seeking fundamental consideration. Designating hourly rates ranging from $12 to $20 as constituting a "career job with unlimited growth" is not only uninformed but also disrespectful to those endeavoring to make a sustainable livelihood. I recommend reviewing the sentiments expressed in the December 11th review, and as someone who has worked within the organization for a considerable period, I find myself in concurrence with its perspectives.