In my studio, you will be asked to be in charge of something, or 'own' a project, and then criticize, change, and re-do all of the work. The expectations are unclear. Nothing is ever good enough. Favorites are picked, which makes the entire team uncomfortable (including the favorites). People are gossiped about and bullied. Under the premise of "caring a lot about the job" and "only accepting the best" there's an insistence that the team spend countless hours working nights and weekends, even when not on a deadline. You will be shamed for requesting to be paid for that overtime (by implying that you are not fully committed to the job/project/team). Unnecessary extra work abounds, and puts us under a huge amount of anxiety and stress, no matter how great the project looks or how prepared we are for a meeting. The reasons for the additions/changes are because of a dream the night before, or something that a competitor was seen doing. Unrealistic demands are made (example: an entire SD presentation to be completed in one week, by one person). If you say the deadline cannot be met, you will be pitted against one of your teammates and told that they could do it, so why can't you? The phrase, "when I was your age, I did whatever was needed by my boss, no matter what" is a common refrain.
We are willing to work overtime when necessary, but we also want to have a life outside of work and we want to be trusted. Everyone is burnt out and completely stressed. We want to grow, have some autonomy, and stretch ourselves to be the best designers we can be, but are boxed in by these requirements to do it in a certain (archaic/inefficient) way. What it really comes down to is that our team is managed based on issues with insecurity, anxiety, and immaturity...and that makes everyone around miserable and the projects unprofitable.
