More a joke rather than an agency
Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich
....
Verbesserungsvorschläge
Fun fact: As soon as I left my review, two positive ones 'magically' appeared. Ridiculous.
I think it’s time to accept criticism like adults instead of acting like children. Rather than pretending that everything is wonderfully perfect on your social media channels, try to implement a REAL change within the agency. There's plenty of food for thought here. I wonder—maybe, instead of spending a fortune to get negative reviews removed, you could consider using that money to train your designers, to get them more days of holiday, to raise their salaries. After all, without them, even awards might remain an unattainable dream, don’t you think?
And one last thing: I advise all designers who want to know what it’s like to work here to privately contact former employees who have worked at this company (they’re easily found on the most popular social networks used for working). I’m sure they’ll be able to give you a much more transparent and truthful idea of what is written here on Kununu. And I’m equally sure they’ll have many stories to share with you.
Arbeitsatmosphäre
What is most striking is the silence and in general the atmosphere of stress and tension that hovers in the air. Sometimes colleagues get fired when you least expect it. There is a feeling of being constantly watched and supervised. In general the mood is very tense and stressful, you can also feel when the bosses are in the office and when they are not.
Image
They want to present themselves as one of the best and most successful agencies in Germany, but they forget that without the designers who have worked for them, there would be no awards. I’d go so far as to say that, without designers, they wouldn't even exist as a business. And it’s amazing how clumsily they try to remove negative reviews on Kununu using their overpriced lawyer, as if that would be enough to change the perception of their negative external image. I'll let you in on a secret: people do talk to each other outside of Kununu, and even designers—I'm afraid your external image is hopelessly compromised.
Work-Life-Balance
It seems to me a gamble to talk about work-life-balance. You work intensively daily for 8-10 hours with a 1-hour lunch break (when you have the chance to get one), use of mobile phones is forbidden by contract, everyone has always a very long list of to-dos with tight deadlines for the day. There are days in which you are so overworked that you can't even look out of the window for a moment.
Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein
One of the things that struck me the most is the insane amount of materials/presentations/briefings that are printed every day. Environmental sustainability, the great unknown.
Karriere/Weiterbildung
They never offered me further training or education, with the possibility to evolve. The amount of work is always such, that there is never enough time to invest in your personal training.
Kollegenzusammenhalt
Never had any kind of problem but you can feel how stressed out and unhappy the team is, frankly I don't know how the bosses don't get it, they probably prefer to look the other way. Don't rely too much on the know-how and skills of senior colleagues, they may decide to leave the agency when you least expect it. Consider that the team changes quite often (you can also check it from the most popular working social media). And usually when employees leave their jobs so often it is a symptom of a deep distress. Don't be fooled by what they write on their website, the team is not made up of 16 people but rather 6 (including the bosses). I also strongly doubt that any designer has ever set foot in the studio based in Valencia, except for the bosses of course.
Vorgesetztenverhalten
This deserves a separate chapter. They are convinced that they can successfully run a business by acting as invisible leaders, when in fact, they achieve the opposite result. What is invisible is their leadership skills. They are quite incapable of motivating employees and, especially, of building a team that is efficient in achieving their business goals—goals that are often opaque and unclear. The team changes frequently (designers leave or are fired), and instead of investing in people and allowing them to grow, they prefer to hire junior designers, possibly from abroad. These designers do not have the same salary expectations as the German ones, and most likely, they won’t stay long. But what is most striking is the way they work, with mood swings and frequent conflicts with each other. Sometimes, you feel like you're babysitting them. You might easily grow to dislike them for these behaviors, but in the end, you just feel sorry for them—they clearly need help.
Arbeitsbedingungen
Everything is kept to the basics: a salary slightly above the minimum set by German law, and 24 days of holiday allowed per year. You are expected to start work punctually at 09:00 (don’t dare be late). Overtime is paid (though sometimes they “forget” to pay it—always check your payslips), but during the 6-month trial period, it is not compensated (a word to the wise is enough). During the interview, they explain how little or almost no overtime is required, but I have never worked so much overtime in my life! If they were able to organize the workflow more efficiently, overtime wouldn't be necessary. Once a week, we all have lunch together, where we pretend to be a happy family. And guess what we talk about during lunch? Work, of course. Isn't that nice?
Kommunikation
This is perhaps one of the biggest problems: communication is done through e-Mail with misunderstandings on a daily basis. I find it absurd that they haven't yet found an alternative and smarter way to communicate than email (like Slack?). Then you receive e-Mails from the bosses very rude and humiliating, with tones above decency. Who do they think they are?
Gehalt/Benefits
Salary always kept below average.
Interessante Aufgaben
Here you have the possibility to develop wine and cosmetic labels (for the only mainstream cosmetic brand they show on their website). So in general: pretty repetitive work and for the same product categories. Very often technical skills such as proof and print file preparation are also required, skills that a designer should not usually have on a high level as there are art-workers for that. But since they are constantly squeezing costs you will also be asked to be an art-worker and a re-toucher. A separate chapter is also the way they ask you to work: rough and fast. You are often asked to re-use and re-adapt ideas found online, which is not only deeply humiliating for a designer, but also ethically wrong.