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Disruptive Advertising

Engaged Employer

Disruptive Advertising reviews

3.5

60% would recommend to a friend

(264 total reviews)
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Jake Baadsgaard

56% approve of CEO

55% positive business outlook

Disruptive Advertising has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 264 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Disruptive Advertising employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Media & Communication industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

264 reviews
1.0
Jul 15, 2019

This is An Unhealthy Place That You Shouldn't Stay At Long

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

1. The general population of employees are some of the best people you will find. A lot of them are extremely talented, kind and helpful. Because of that it has been a joy working with my friends at work 2. There are nice compensations if you work hard 3. The work-life balance is nice. If you need to work from home, you have the flexibility to do so without punishment 4. There is weekly food shipped so people have snacks

Cons

1. It is very clear there is a A team and B team of employees here at Disruptive. If you are not leadership friends or the sales team your work does seem to be recognized. If you are not making money, you are forgotten. It can be easy to reach out but leadership just refuses to move out if its comfort zone to create an inclusive space for EVERYONE. It also seems like leadership and certain people get special treatment in rules etc 2. There have been a lot of leaders here at Disruptive who have "gone different directions" but I do not believe that when I read the internal emails. A lot of those people thought differently than senior leadership and they got the boot. A lot of people here feel that they cannot be honest because there is punishment or isolation for those who think differently. If you want to promote radical candor, you need to allow radical candor to actually make changes from inside 3. For those of you who wonder what the culture is like its one of control. I have listened to countless company meetings talking about core values and the CEO promoting "self help" courses where he teaches you life skills as his goal is to make "millionaires" but none of those people will actually be millionaires because the room to grow is limited and they hire you cheap...I know this firsthand. Leadership only seems to hire new to industry employees and or newly graduated kids because they are easy to manipulate and by giving them food, improvement courses and things to "help" them it breeds a fake sense of loyalty and care. People are lower quality hires so you can be the person to "change their careers" and create a sense of loyalty. This is toxic and really manipulative 4. The pressure put on fulfillment is crazy and I see that everyday. A lot of the people hired in those positions are not ready for the client work placed on them and I hate seeing that. Disruptive has now put in a new company plan that has people performing in 90 days or they are let go. The pressure to learn the ropes in 90 days is really crazy to me consider the caliber we hire. On top of that rumors are that performance numbers will also soon be made public to the teams which also creates a lot of toxic competition within fulfillment teams. How is that motivating to rank yourself amongst your peers publically? Yikes. 5. There are tons of reviews and or comments Disruptive gets on the "street" and online if you look anywhere that its a "Man's World" mindset and reeks of bro-culture. From making new hires get up in front of the company and share embarrassing stories to introduce themselves, money games and bro "pump up" activities like throwing bread slices at each other to sexist comments this place really needs to step up if they want to grow into a modern and diverse company like they want to. The agency's wants to hire top talent but refuses to change company activities and policies to be inclusive of people. I follow our social media closely and saw that the LGBTQ post was taken down which I was sad to see. This is just one example of a company not willing to diversify, move out of its comfort zone and embrace "difference." Its strangle-held by a few men in controlling everything and it won't make the company a culture people will want to come to if they do not change...

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Disruptive Advertising Response
6y
Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and feelings about working at Disruptive. I agree, we've got some fantastic people here at the company and I know you are one of them. It's my responsibility to create a safe environment where people feel challenged to grow personally, professionally, and financially. I'm super sad to hear we aren't meeting your expectations in these areas. There has definitely been a theme amongst those with a lot of negative things to say where they feel expressing their opinions on Glassdoor is their only option. Unfortunately the approach is destructive and not productive. Using partial or misinformed information to make an emotional point serves no one and prevents us from actually working through your concerns in a healthy way. I expect more from you and I expect more from us to never get here in the first place. We've got some work to do. Most of your concerns have been addressed in my other responses so the only thing I'll add here is that I hear your concerns, I do care, and I will do something about it and I expect you to do the same.
5.0
Dec 11, 2018

They've Become Family

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I feel kind of silly writing a review about a company after only working here for 2.5 months, but in these last two months have been absolutely transformative as far as my career and job satisfaction goes. First, the entire Disruptive team has been so welcoming. I have had the opportunity to learn almost everyone's name (there are 113 employees here, so that's a big deal) and build relationships with people individually. While we are expected to get our work done, there is also real comradery and friendship here at the office. The culture here is phenomenal. The company makes sure it hands you all the keys you need to be successful. Besides providing us with top-of-the-line technology and software to help us get our work done, Disruptive also has systems in place to make sure that every individual has what they need to be successful. Are you struggling with client communication? Great, you can ask your team lead for help and they will actually help you! Are you having issues installing end-to-end tracking? There is a tech lead who will sit down and walk you through how to do things. You will always be supported and are always set up for success. Jake treats his employees like humans—because we are. He ensures that everyone is compensated fairly and does everything he can to make things right between the company and employees. You can tell that he truly does put his employees above the bottom line, which only adds to the amazing culture that exists here. There is also an amazing "adult policy" PTO system. You can take time off as long as your clients are content, which is amazing. It's just one more way that Jake shows us that he values us as people, not "workhorses." There is also incredible room for growth—and Disruptive wants to help you get there. I make weekly, monthly, and six month + goals set with my team lead. I'm already working towards my first promotion (again, only been here two months). I have a list of things I need to do in order to prove my competency and I've established real ways that I contribute to my team. We aren't just getting titles when we're promoted—we become a more integral part of the time. However, the biggest perk at Disruptive is the learning opportunity. If you want to grow, both as an individual and as a professional, this is the place for you. There is always an opportunity to learn and grow, which has been a wonderful experience. Looking back on the skills I had when I started the job (a mere two months ago!) versus the skills I have today is mind-boggling. I have grown so much as an individual because there is an attitude of learning and growing in the office. I will be here as long as I possibly can. I love it here. I love my coworkers, my clients, and my job. It's the perfect combination. Can you tell I like it here?

Cons

The only con I can think of is that sometimes it is hard to manage the work/life balance. There is always something else you could be doing for your clients, so sometimes it's hard to go home and turn off your email.

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Disruptive Advertising Response
7y
Caring for the individual is one of, and probably our most important, core value at the company. It's so great to see that in action and your feedback is great and inspiring. We'll continue to work on helping find that work/life balance and we're excited to work on that together.
1.0
Oct 30, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The culture is fun, and we have great benefits. Honestly for the most part I do love working for Disruptive and with the people around me

Cons

The CEO created another business that he is making all employees of DA use and pay for. This is a serious time and emotional energy commitment every single week. Although I do believe in the business and want to particiate, it feels very wrong to force (yes, we have no choice) to commit to such when we have so much going on with a restructure, and so much going on in our lives that leadership doesnt know about. I wish it was at least optional, but since its not, it feels like something Jake is doing to make money off of us. When asked if we had to he said "if you dont want to take the courses, maybe you arent a good fit for Disruptive" which honestly was really jarring. Leadership truly, truly doesnt understand how things actually work for the people doing the jobs. They made decisions and have opinions that make no sense to the majority, but I do appreciate them trying to get feedback and learn.

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Disruptive Advertising Response
1y
I’m happy to hear you enjoy the culture, benefits, and people you work with, and thank you for sharing your concerns as well. I want to acknowledge how you’re feeling and also need to state that many of your concerns are simply not accurate. Our training program with Disruptive University is not a different business nor does it require employees to pay for it, it’s our internal training program to help develop our employees as people and marketers that we are also now providing to people outside of the agency as well. Yes, we require everyone at the agency to go through our training program because it’s how we conduct our business. We realize and are sensitive to the fact that it is an additional time commitment, so we provided a 6-month advance notice for people who had not completed the training to choose their best start date. With all that being said, let’s work together to find a solution that sets you up for success with the support you need; we’re on the same team.
Viewing 1 - 3 of 264 Reviews

Glassdoor has 277 Disruptive Advertising reviews submitted anonymously by Disruptive Advertising employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Disruptive Advertising is right for you.