Slowly sinking - Anonymous employee IN-Focus Digital Employee Review

Varied experience, because they expect you to just figure out how to do whatever position is currently open as well as your job.

The "average" turnover for this company is 2 years. But if that doesn't tell you enough then maybe the details can. I'll start by saying if you're looking at the Graphic Designer position. DON'T TAKE IT. They have combined it with an entire separate position of custom back end website design. It's a nightmare position with no realistic support from the CEO. That job sent everyone who filled it to tearful breakdowns. Environment: Toxic. Dramatic. Bad for your health. The CEO is completely unwilling to help, but all too ready to bad mouth you behind your back about how you did get something done that she foisted off on you at the last minute because it wasn't "the way [she] would do it." She won't even tell you how she would have done it, just say it behind your back to others. The company claims to "encourage learning" but management is fully unwilling to teach. Ironic for a place owned by both former and current college instructors. If they have knowledge that could help you, you sure won't find out from them until afterward. The CEO also asks some incredibly unprofessional things of employees, including scrubbing the floor with a magic eraser for hours until that employees knees are bloody just to save $100 and for people to cut their lunch short to run her personal errands. Add to this the constant vague overtures of how many people they know and how many friends they have in town. Making them mad could severely limit your ability to find other work in town in fields that on a local level rely heavily on person-to-person contact to find contract work. Work/Life Balance: In-Focus Digital is completely built on worker exploitation turned up to 11. Perfect example of how small businesses can be a nightmare to work for. Owner "doesn't believe in work/life balance" and actions certainly back that up. There is 0 respect for your own time. You have to put everything down on the work calendar if you want any warning before you're being called into an event instead. Going out of town? Well could you just come back in the middle of that? We need an extra hand even though you're just going to stand at a camera that could easily be handled by the next person over because it doesn't move at all. Benefits: The "benefits" are a laughable 5 days PTO/year and strictly controlled over whether you even get to take them. If you try to take one on the other side of a holiday weekend, that holiday is suddenly ALSO coming out of your PTO. By the way, if you're "part time" (aka hourly but working near to or more than full-time hours), you don't even get the holidays as PTO in the first place. You just lose that day of pay. You will in no way be compensated for overtime. That extra Saturday you worked an event? Don't expect anything for it. Not even time off or an early afternoon unless you make them feel forced to give it to you but not on any day that's slightly inconvenient for them on a personal level. There is NO health or life coverage. There is NO 401k. There are NO Bonuses (because they barely make enough to cover overhead, if that) and you may get promised a raise but it won't materialize. This company does not invest in its employees in any tangible way. Equipment: The equipment is out of date (computers that haven't been maintained, still using cameras that use TAPE for live events, equipment that is failing in every area of the business, etc.) and everything has at least one broken part because they can't even be asked to budget for upgrading to keep up with competitive quality. Compensation: FAR under competitive rates. Bill it as a resumé builder until you actually need resumé material and then suddenly it's a problem with client permission. So really you just end up getting underpaid with nothing to show for it. If you work overtime as an hourly employee, the CEO WILL NOT PAY YOU OVERTIME. She will ILLEGALLY ask you to take time off in a different pay period instead. She WILL NOT pay your overtime rates. Overall: There is NO clear communication from management. There is NO respect for you as a person with a life. There IS emotional manipulation to make you feel like you are responsible for Management's mood. It's a bad place to work.

Opportunity to learn things you never considered having experience learning- it is a self driven self taught experience. You also may meet some important people who are clients.

Little to no communication, education, and guidance. Often set up for failure at a clients expense. Micromanaged and misdirected constantly. Horrible organization and management.