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Joshua Harden (Owner of PRESWERX) here. I want to take each of these point-by-point. Let me start by stating that EVERY Employee has my direct personal cell phone number and is encouraged to call me directly to express ANY concern whatsoever. That said, I'll take the "Cons" comments point-by-point:
“There is no HR department or Employee handbook to establish basic Employee guidelines and benefits”
Appreciate the feedback, and will take under continued consideration.
“No overtime pay”
Correct. Employment at PRESWERX is a salaried position. When a prospective Employee is interviewed for the Environmental Artist position, they are "art tested." When the art test is submitted, that Employee is asked how many hours it took to complete the art test. The combination of the quality of the art test, and the number of hours they indicate it took, is a significant factor in determining that prospective Employee's initial compensation. If the prospective Employee indicates it took them half the time it really took them, that will most certainly become evident after they start. This results in two Employees, with the same approximate compensation, performing at two totally different levels. If one Employee is able to accomplish the requirements of the job in 8 hours, and the other Employee 10 hours, this is where the "over worked" comments come in. If you're an applicant and taking an art test for us, it's critical that you accurately represent the length of time it took you to complete the art test. If you grossly misrepresent the length of time it took you to complete the art test, you will absolutely feel overworked (because our expectations for your performance are aligned initially to the amount of time you told us it took you to complete the art test).
“No sick days”
Some people get sick more frequently than others. Some people don't get sick at all (or very infrequently), and instead wished they had more vacation days. For this reason, we provide Personal Time Off ("PTO days"). Employees are free to use their PTO days for vacation, or when needed, to take time off because they are sick.
“Pay is lower than the average wage for the state of FL (as of this posting, the average is between 45k-51k annually, which may be attributed to company-paid insurance)”
Disagree. Compensation is often listed in our job postings, and discussed at length during the interview process. We work hard to reconcile your initial compensation, with your resume and performance on the art test, and our initial expectations of you. Sometimes, Employees compensation is adjusted upward within the first few weeks or months of their joining the company (because they've exceeded our expectations). As of August 2022, as the Owner of PRESWERX, I am confident everyone is paid fairly and commensurate with their skills/contributions. Moreover, I am confident that we have ALWAYS paid our Employees fairly dating back to when we opened our doors in 2017, but I respect the commenter if this is how they feel/felt.
“Communication between the art team and management is a constant struggle”
Disagree. Communication has always been excellent. We’ve grown from “nothing” to 40+ team members today. Over the 5+ years we’ve been in business, we’ve proactively sought to improve the way we communicate as a team. From when we first opened (when we were working in a warehouse), to our first real office, to now, 100% Work From Home. Communication has always been great, BUT when we do get specific feedback from our Employees on how we can further improve communication, we make every effort to do so.
“If you are uncomfortable or unhappy with how you are being treated within the workplace, management will listen to your concerns but rarely takes action to avoid confrontation”
Disagree. This kind of feedback has ALWAYS resulted in changes to the work environment.
“Projects are prone to crunch time with little consideration for the art team, this proceeded to escalate as the company turned from in-office to work-from-home conditions. Changes required by clients seldomly included more time to complete the changes, so unplanned evening and weekend work would be necessary with little to no notice.”
Disagree. Workload is balanced. Are there 1-2 weeks every quarter where we’re in crunch mode? Absolutely; But this comment makes it sound like “the norm,” when in reality, it’s not “the norm.” I will say, that this particular condition/concern, was more prevalent in 2017, 2018 and 2019, but over the years, we’ve gotten very good at avoiding this exact issue. It’s hard to compare what we did / how we operated in 2017 to today – the company structure, efficiency, etc. have significantly improved. In 2017, we were in “grind it out mode” (which is EXACTLY what's needed when you start a business -- and was very clearly communicated to prospective Employees back then in 2017/2018). Today, we still work SUPER HARD, but we’re also wayyy more efficient in how we operate / how our team members operate, etc.
“The prospects of earning a promotion are slim, so far, with promotions only happening after lead members of the team have left. Increasing the number of lead artist positions, up to this point, has been slow going.”
Disagree. We've had many Employees grow with our company. For privacy and related reasons, I'm not going to list names here on Glassdoor, but I'll simply say this. We opened our doors in 2017 with ONE person (me), and we now have FORTY people. We are NOT a public company that hires hundreds of people at a time -- 100% of our growth has been organic and controlled. Companies that encourage reckless growth go bankrupt. Companies like PRESWERX that grow intelligently, and with purpose, endure. Bottom-line, don't expect to have 3 promotions IN TITLE in the first 18 months of employment. That's simply an unreasonable expectation in our organization. You CAN however expect that your compensation will be adjusted upward, commensurate with your contributions.
LAST COMMENT regarding the "Advice to Management" comments...
2 of the 3 comments are adequately addressed above, but 1 comment deserves further feedback...
"Include more incentives for art team employees on demanding projects that bring about crunch-time, this would greatly help morale as there were many projects where employees were left feeling overworked, disposable, and unimportant. Account executives are paid a bonus when the client wins, but the art team sees nothing gained from forced overtime."
Regarding the bonuses, when the company was started in 2017, we had "two nickels to rub together." We hired Account Executives that were ready, willing and able to be "road warriors." These Account Executives were spending (and continue to spend) 3-5 nights ON THE ROAD, AWAY FROM THEIR FAMILIES on a WEEKLY BASIS. Please understand, these Account Executives knew what they were signing-up for when they joined the company. Back then, the bonus you're referring to was a way to incentivize those Account Executives to spend the time they needed to, on the road, to help clients "win" their projects. These bonuses were ONLY paid if projects were won. I just feel like these are critical details readers here need to see/understand before passing judgement.
That said, in April 2022, I felt like the company had grown enough, and had reached enough "mass" to justify restructuring our bonus program to include ALL employees. So, since April 2022, PRESWERX has paid many, many bonuses, to most, if not all employees. I don't want to get into the details here on how bonuses are determined (but would be happy to expound on this during any interview with a prospective Employee). Bottom line is, hundreds, and in some cases, thousands of dollars in bonuses have been awarded PER PERSON between April 2022 and the date of this post (August 2022) -- we're talking a span of 5 months.
