VSA is top heavy. Few women in leadership/exec roles. Virtually zero diversity. They pretend that they're working towards inclusion and diversity but they have been singing that same song since I started and nothing has changed. (I even heard upper management suggest an all black internship to help with diversity) Leadership is out of touch with how the majority of employees feel. They normalize and celebrate feeling overworked.
The only way to get a raise is to leverage another offer. They'll even promote you, give you more responsibility, and zero pay increase.
There are some good mangers/creative directors. And those who get those types of managers tend to stick around longer. But many lack leadership skills, have huge egos and refuse to admit that VSA has any sort of problem. Many of them have only worked at VSA and don't understand that their behavior and the environment they create is toxic. They don't stick up for their team or seem to care about their well being. Some of them will barely lift a finger on a project and then take all credit for its success.
I have seen (and experienced) a decline of mental health in many employees at VSA.
I know instances of sexual harassment where HR had been notified of and did NOTHING about.
They laid off almost 50% of designers due to "loss of revenue" during covid (while saying every week that we shouldn't worry and new work was coming down the pipeline) Which then left those who escaped layoffs extremely over worked. And on top of that, they cut everyones pay. They preach transparency but don't practice it.
Overall, I'd try to avoid this place. It'll seem great at first but most are left with a bad taste in their mouth.
