Real Chemistry reviews

3.2

38% would recommend to a friend

(600 total reviews)
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Shankar Narayanan

34% approve of CEO

40% positive business outlook

Real Chemistry has an employee rating of 3.2 out of 5 stars, based on 600 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Real Chemistry 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

600 reviews
1.0
Mar 8, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The benefits and pay are better than industry standards. There are some great co-workers and senior leadership. Good client list if you're interested in healthcare. 5 week sabbatical after 5 years

Cons

Long hours are always expected and most people are working well into the middle of the night, more so than other agencies. There are some self inflated egos in senior leadership that seem more important to maintain than adapting new processes and technologies. Very weak and unsupportive managers with no training program. Catty and tattle tale culture to get and stay ahead. "Unlimited" time off is a joke since most people feel they're unable to take vacation and end up working through time off anyway.

2.0
Mar 3, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Decent pay & benefits; travel opportunities. It's possible you'll make some good friends here. Offices in good locations in major cities. Possible to work remotely on occasion.

Cons

It's a place that has grown and evolved nonstop since its inception without bothering to pause, reflect and refine what it's doing before moving onto the next thing. It's this constant, frantic momentum in every possible direction that is ultimately the downfall here and makes this a very frustrating place to be. Of course the leadership would spin this into it somehow being your own weakness that you can't keep up. But the truth is, the company suffers from an acute jack of all trades/master of none syndrome. It's a very confused and confusing company to work for. The company is comprised of multiple disciplines that co-exist in self-serving silos with no attempt made by employees but most importantly by leadership to better integrate the staff so we can at least understand how we all fit together under one roof. It's ironic because the company preaches something called InterGreatness, which at this point is only wishful thinking. Those who are placed in positions of managing employees more often than not have no experience or talent in managing employees whatsoever. In fact, the leadership of the company is deeply flawed. They are great at PR but not as leaders of people. If you are having any sort of trouble with something, there is no effective way to communicate it up the chain of command in such a way so as to be heard. There is an open door policy but more often than not, if you get the ear of leadership, you will get an earful of jargon, spin and ultimately b.s. that you'll leave the room wondering what just happened. You're left to fend for yourself on many occasions with no clear direction. A huge reason why this is such a stressful place to work is that you can be good at your job, be a lovely person to work with and have an amazing work ethic, but still, you have to constantly look for work within the company in an effort to be billable. So a part of the job is actually looking for a job, which is stressful enough when you're unemployed. But when you already have a job? Really? It's a constant struggle to be relevant and useful. You have to account for every minute of your 8 hour day and if you don't have enough time for which they can charge clients, you are then not billable and if you don't maintain a certain percentage of billable hours, you will eventually be let go. The company restructures, rebrands and acquires new companies and merges teams together who don't necessarily belong together on an ongoing basis. Literally every few months there is an organizational change of some sort. Now that they got a new cash infusion from an investment firm (I.e. they've been bought) there is no sign that this manic constant change will stop anytime soon. Working here feels like balancing on the roof of a speeding train, but one with no clear goal other than "Becoming the best" as the CEO always claims. But the best at what? Everything? What? Many people who work there are secretly quite miserable and most people hate most of the others. It all starts at the top and ultimately results in a simmering, not overt, but still a fairly toxic environment. Most of the good reviews here are written by people with direct stakes in the company and to someone who works there, it couldn't be more transparent. This could be a great company but for some reason they feel the need to keep changing instead of perfecting what they do.

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Real Chemistry Response
9y
What you describe is the W2O of the past. Leadership has taken this type of feedback to heart over the last year and has made a concerted effort to make changes. For instance, the investment you mention comes with a new and objective Board of Directors along with investment in infrastructure and people. That’s one of the reason’s they’re adding roles like mine. As chief people officer – here just over 2 months – I’m charged with helping create greater clarity in roles across the company, finding way to better integrate our capabilities, and making sure that our people have a greater voice in shaping the future of W2O. (Sounds like you haven’t had a place to share your concerns to date so I encourage you to stop by or set time with me so I can better understand some of the things you mentioned.) Not sure if you’ve noticed any changes recently. But in the short time I’ve been here, I've seen the W2O leadership listen to and act on direct feedback. In fact, some of the feedback has helped us improve our paid time off, generally, as well as our paid maternity/parental leave, along with a great new offering for New Parents. You’ll begin to hear more as we evolve our systems, tools, organizational structure, and mindset towards the positive changes you’re suggesting.
2.0
Oct 26, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Office in a prime Manhattan location - Free snacks and lots of catered meals - Lots of happy hours and alcohol (provided that's your thing) - Unlimited PTO (but see below) - A lot of autonomy, very little micromanaging, mainly because managers are too busy to worry about what you are doing anyway.

Cons

- People have a "live to work" vs a "work to live" mentality. A lot of overworked people who work long hours. I have seen plenty of people working until 8 PM and on vacation. Speaking of vacation, the unlimited vacation time is a sham, because when you try to take it you are looked at like you're lazy. - A lot of "forced fun". If you just want to sit an do your work vs going to the useless toasts, happy hours and forced social events, you are looked at like a social pariah who hates the company and your coworkers, when you really just want to do what you were hired to do. - A lot of egotistical senior management. People have been talked to like kids and yelled at, and since it is an open plan office everyone sees it. - Political landmine - again, if you just want to do your job vs kissing butt, it works against you. - Speaking of open office, the layout sucks. Loud, and you hear people's phone calls and music being played in the office. Very distracting.

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