Let’s make this clear – The negative reviews written here are not exaggerated. They are all accurate. The positive reviews on here are pretty fake. There are always ways a company can improve. To blindly say everything is perfect and an employee can’t think of anything wrong isn’t a true review. This company is a Harvard Business Review waiting to happen. That’s how inadequate Teads is. Let’s review, shall we…
COVID & Furloughs: At the beginning of the pandemic, everyone’s job was safe according to top leadership. Two weeks later, they furloughed a good chunk of the staff. Those that were furloughed did receive health benefits but that was it. The company was never giving updates as to how the company was progressing and what the timeline was for bringing furloughed employees back. A recent review states that those furloughed were given monthly updates. No. No, they were not. The lack of communication to those furloughed was unacceptable. Additionally, of those furloughed, the company laid off half of that group in July 2020. The company will tell you it was a tough decision and yet, they are on a hiring surge in 2021 for the roles they let go. They had layoffs to make their bottom-line look good for 2020.
For those still actively employed and working during this time, they did not receive any type of timeline as to when furloughed employees were coming back. Those working were essentially told that, in order to get their friends back, they had to work harder. Some were logging 60-70 hours per week. Now, as a business, you should be able to have proper sales analytics in place to understand your bottom line even during unprecedented times. COVID is a prime example of how Teads can’t think past the next month let alone a week.
Work/Life Balance: There isn’t one. Management will tell you they never knew the burnout was terrible for their employees but that’s a lie. Leadership doesn’t set boundaries. They don’t outright encourage employees to take time for themselves. Unlimited PTO means nothing. Sure, you can take time off but it’s a rare occasion when the work is so overwhelming you can’t see the forest from the trees. The average workday is at least 12 hours during COVID, sometimes longer. The company has done the bare minimum to respond to COVID – two mental health days in Q4. Always remember that the work you put in for the company is never enough. Don’t expect a reward for hard work beyond a shout out via Slack message.
Gaslighting: As you can see from some of the responses on these reviews attempting to justify their actions, gaslighting is prominent at this company. Teads will highlight how they value their employees and it’s of the utmost importance to care for the employees. Based on the first two topics above, that’s not really the case. Your feelings are never correct. You will question your sanity. Teads has master manipulators. They make sure to use positive reinforcement with employees only to flip the switch and wear you down over time. Being here was consistently questioning my confidence and my knowledge in all the wrongs ways. The culture will give you a good taste of the level of gaslighting toxicity.
Culture: It’s toxic. Teads is worse than high school. In fact, I’d rather deal with Regina George and a burn book over the toxic culture Teads produces. They’ll welcome you with open arms and then stab you in the back when it benefits them the most. You never knew who to trust, constantly look over your shoulder, and complete running on pure anxiety because you constantly unsure of yourself thanks to gaslighting. Gossip runs rampant. Those spreading the gossip are the favorites of leadership. If you aren’t deemed a favorite, leadership will find a way issue a witch hunt on you. You’ll know when you get reprimanded based on the following…
*Leaving work early for personal reasons even when you hop back online later at night to complete the work within the timeframe it’s needed.
*Getting blindsided by a performance plan. They hand those out like M&Ms. This plan is placed in front of you after either consistently receiving positive affirmations OR lack of training thus making the situation your fault, not leadership.
*Not making your sales goal when you’re handed a book of small accounts but expected to make them an enterprise accounts overnight.
*Working nights/weekends on your own and then being told by leadership the team needs to work harder. It’s never enough.
*Not immediately going into the office after coming back from work travel. You’re expected to be in the office at all times for optics…even though some leadership live in other states and are barely present in the office space. This is pre-COVID but don’t expect this status quo to change.
*Not coming to the office when you are sick. Prior to COVID, health and wellness were not priorities. Employees pushed themselves to the brink and sacrificed their physical health for the company.
Training: There isn’t any. They’ll tell you about the site that houses resources but it’s not the most valuable and is a mess to navigate. The on-boarding is awful when you start. You’re thrown into the fire when taking on books of business. Leadership has described working at Teads as a “sink or swim mentality” and it shows. Teads is focused on revenue and growth but training is very much secondary for them. Once you’re thrown into the fire, you can ask others for help if they aren’t drowning in their own work. As it is “sink or swim” with Teads, you’re bound to overwork yourself and mess up only to be blamed by leadership for your mistakes rather than management reflecting on what they should have done better to prepare an employee for the work ahead.
Internal Systems: In addition to the lack of training, the internal systems are the worst to work in. There isn’t anything stopping you from messing up an entire campaign because the systems don’t have boundaries in place not to do so. Human error happens and the campaign management systems will not stop you from making those errors. Combine that with the overwhelming amount of work and good campaign management is sacrificed. Teads wants to move to their self-serve platform, which is held together by old Elmer’s glue, to streamline the business. Building campaigns in that self-serve system is also a mess. Engineering didn’t really think about the layout of a system, only what it can do. It’s makes the day-to-day a joy to handle.
Manual Work: Managing campaigns is not a streamlined process. The only way to accurately manage revenue is through a Google doc one needs to manually build. Everyone has their own way of doing this. It is not cohesive across the company. Pulling reports and comparing them is also cumbersome and takes time because everything is a manual entry. Billing is all completed in a Google doc as well. If you’re on regional accounts, which you most likely will be when hired – billing can take a few days to complete. Even then, there isn’t a way to accurately track what’s billed as it’s not in Salesforce. You have to go on a treasure hunt when there are billing errors. These are just a few items that make daily work a tedious process.
Diversity: If you want to work for a diverse company, this is not the place for you. Aside from an inspirational post on LinkedIn or an email signature with an influential figure for Black History Month, don’t expect much else. When the lack of diversity was discussed with management, they said they were making it their mission to do better. Fast forward two months and they stated that they are “ahead of the curve in diversity”. First off, no one is ever ahead of the curve on diversity. It is a continually aspect of a company to be aware of. There is no curve. There’s just actively diversifying a company and actively advocating for different communities beyond a social media post. If you look at leadership, it’s pretty much all white. The only department with an ounce of diversity is Ad Operations and it has been said that it’s the most diverse department. That statement alone is pretty appalling to even note. To look at the overall diversity in one major U.S. office – they have a total of three people of color, which equates to about 10%, or less.
