Q&A With Mode Media Employees

The company was struggling across the board.

Let the CTO run the company. He had the best insights and business sense. He believes in the simple truth and putting it out there. He also deeply cares about his staff and the effects the company has upon their daily lives.

The CEO created an environment where people were often afraid to speak the truth to him.

The management within Engineering tried to promote a strong work life balance, going back to the founding of Glam. They had a Senior VP and founder who worked hard to ensure the company did not lose sight of this key founding principle. Unfortunately, Executive Management frequently targeted Engineering for budget and staffing cuts. This resulted in seriously overworked staff within Engineering. The CTO and others within Engineering's management team did what they could to help the Engineers out. Their efforts created a highly efficient team used to meeting heavy demands.

It all depends upon the organization you were within. If you were in a group favored by the CEO, then they came regularly and frequently. Conversely, if you were in a group under other founders, promotions generally are few and rare. People can work in those groups for 6 or 7 years and not receive a single promotion. It didn't matter that those people were the backbone of the company or periodically saved the company hundreds of thousands of dollars. The company was fortunate that the people in those teams were very dedicated and stayed - often working 6 or 7 days a week and pulling all nighters to meet last minute needs from management.

On paper, the vacation policy is decent. Many employees though did not utilize their vacation time - either because they were too dedicated to making the company succeed or were too mission critical and had no one to take over the workload. Other employees, though, were constantly taking off on vacations.