However, the free espresso, colas, and juices are a sop to the workers. Yes, it’s fantastic I don’t have to subsist on water, but what would really make the workplace shine is some sense that management actually cares about individual employees and is willing to help them grow. However (at least on the marketing side of the company), were were told “You should thrive on stress. Stress is an opportunity to rise to a challenge.” This is fine if the stress is merely about workload or a challenging problem. But when the stress is, “Is today the day I’m getting fired?” it’s simply not healthy. You are expected to sing your own PR—constantly—management will not notice, care, or promote you without extensive self-promotion—and there is little regard as to whether your self promotion is at anyone else’s expense.
The marketing department has become extremely heavy: I’ve worked at firms that made 4x the annual revenue with literally 1/4 the marketing staff. The overall marketing strategy seems to be: Flog the whales who buy our product until they die. The old-school marketing blasts always generate revenue… from the same customers. Every. Single. Time. Growing their customer base will require a new kind of long-tail marketing approach that LBS is simply unable to embrace right now.
For a company that markets religious product, it is a remarkably unreligious environment. On one hand, this is good: it means that there’s no bickering over theology or church practice. On the other hand, there was not a single meeting that ever opened or closed in prayer. There was never a sense that the actual Gospel enterprise was ever considered. The dollar is the top line, the bottom line, and everything in between. You would do well to memorize this mantra: What have you earned for me lately? If you work in the marketing side of the company and cannot tie your work directly to a significant dollar figure, you will be let go.
There is very little or no transparency in the termination process. When I was let go, I was given no warning, no opportunity to change any behaviors that were not liked, and I was given no feedback during the exit interview as to what I might have done to offend management. This is also the case for coworkers I know who were also let go summarily.
As an employee, I never felt management valued me, my contributions, or my input.
Finally: You will need to cover your family’s healthcare insurance. Be prepared to deduct $500-$1K from your monthly salary to cover that.
