Pros
Keep your rose-colored glasses on for as long as possible. “Seek The Positive” (i.e. “Toxic Positivity”) is a phrase that’s thrown around a lot. If you’re able to distance yourself from frustration, log off at an appropriate hour, and actually allow yourself vacation time without stressing about client coverage – you’ll make it here. We’ll hire anyone living & breathing, from anywhere within the U.S. Fully-remote work with no obligation to be in-office, in fact, you’ll likely never step foot into the office at all! (Only higher-management gets flown in on Exclusive’s dime) Those local to Boston, can enjoy the excessive amount of food frequently catered in-office for upper-management. If you’re looking for a remote job for easy coin, this is it. Micro-managing (let alone basic onboarding) does not exist so you can get by doing less than the bare minimum and it will take you no less than 6 months to be let go.
Cons
On the contrary, if you’re a hard worker, you’ll be rewarded with more work, sometimes even the job of three people. If it bothers you that people do not do their jobs, this isn’t the role for you. Exclusive is in a dire straits that has led to losing over 50% of their paid/IMS teams over the last 12 months, many with bad blood. During this time our Glassdoor rating has dropped from a 4.1 to a 3.5. We’re struggling to attract reputable candidates, so management has turned to fluffing our reviews with fake entries to offset recent experiences from active employees. Our rate of hiring cannot keep up with the rate in which we are losing employees. For every team member that leaves, anywhere up to 30 accounts are redistributed to the remaining specialists, for no extra compensation. What should be a 60 to 90 day onboarding period has been brought down as short as 10 days, so be prepared to be offloaded another specialist's problem-accounts on your second week of work. I encourage all current and incoming employees to be transparent with each other regarding salary. There are no defined ranges of pay for seniors vs. juniors vs. coordinators and associates. A 2-year tenured senior could be making the same as an incoming coordinator, just due to the fact that we need a enticing salary to back-fill our turnover. It’s even gotten to the point where we’ve had to hire outside consultants to take over accounts of departing specialists, paid at an hourly wage far more than an average Exclusive salary. Upper management has not turned over in anywhere from 7 to 15 years. The average tenure of a current Exclusive specialist has dropped to less than a year. Although we’ve had recent specialists leave as early as 9 months, 6 months and even 3 months. I feel for those still present, now juggling more accounts than ever. The process of client-selection has not improved. As of recent, some clients have been transitioned to up to three different specialists over the course of 3 months. Clients notice this, and bounce. We’ve lost the vast majority of our top accounts, leaving Sales increasingly more desperate to sign anyone who bites. Thus, many of these new clients are poor fits, with unrealistic demands that falls on the specialists and account managers to navigate. Despite cases of verbal abuse, contract breaches and explicit racism/misogyny, upper management will never agree to let go of a client. Exclusive no longer has the infrastructure to give the appropriate attention to the number of clients we continue to bring on. When enrolling in Exclusive’s one of two healthcare options, be prepared to have your paycheck cut by 20% to 30%, for either a $1,000 or $2,000 annual deductible for a single person. A 401k option is available with a tempting matching offer, though you will not receive this matched amount until you reach 5 years of employment. Since we are a Massachusetts-based company, you will receive paycheck deductions for Massachusetts Paid Family/Medical Leave, which you are not eligible to use if you live out-of-state. You will be allotted 10 days of accrued Paid Time Off. “Summer” Fridays take off only 3 hours of the afternoon for only a 2-month stretch of time. This does not apply if you have client calls during these times. Attention from management is disappointing. Many that have climbed through the ranks did not do so from exemplary performance, but instead from the fact that they just haven’t quit yet. We are so short on specialists and since 80% of our current team are recent-hires, clients have had to be offloaded to managers. This leaves as many as a dozen reports per manager, alongside a growing portfolio of needy clients. The most disappointing however – management is now instructed to no longer give junior specialists opportunities to grow their experience outside of their client load. Newly-hired specialists will be bound to the limits of their job description – bid opts, campaign builds, answering emails, writing reports. This makes it difficult for specialists to learn new skills and thus be qualified for an outside position, making it harder to leave. Moreover, although we are “managing” our service for each client, we are not given a “manager” title until at a minimum, 3 years. Incoming coordinators will not be given a manager title until at a minimum, 5 years. In the majority of identical agency and in-house positions are labeled as “manager” and are looking for candidates with that same “manager” title, again making it harder to leave.