Maru Group reviews

Where do I begin? Please read if you're considering working here, or at The Harris Poll (Maru was just acquired in 2023), especially under the MET or CGS Vertical. This was my first full time role out of school, and I was backfilling a role of a Research Manager. I was supposed to come in as an Associate and was promoted titles prior to being hired because they were clearly desperate. Since I was referred in, they automatically put an unhealthy amount of trust in me. I knew this was a red flag, but I was promised adequate onboarding and support, and unfortunately -- that was far from what I was given. My grandfather was literally on his deathbed at the time I was being hired and I was promised a truncated schedule as it was right around the holidays, and this was not honored, either. I had a surgery and a vacation scheduled in the month of December and despite the fact that I wasn't contributing any value on the team or taught anything at this point, was berated for not being a "team player" and was met with countless walls of texts (and MORE throughout my time there) for having a pre-planned 2 day vacation RIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, and for a surgery I had prescheduled -- both of which I flagged to HR. Throughout my time, it felt like I was fighting with a bunch of middle schoolers. I was thrown into a project within my first 3 days and berated for asking questions more than once -- mind you, this was my first experience in a full time role and in Market Research. I didn't know the terminology, processes, or how to approach a project -- and when I asked for clarification, there was such subliminal and often explicit shame. I'd be told things like "Oh, as you recall" "Oh, I think I mentioned this earlier" and "Oh, I think I've already told you this" on my THIRD day. It was never ending, and this continued on and worsened during my time there, with people constantly having a severe attitude problem when I asked a question, answering with "What are you talking about?" or "You should already know this" (I had 0 training and there were no streamlined/organized resources or people to turn to, or to train me). I yearned for connection and asked a colleague to come to the office with me ONE TIME, to which she said "I have a nice set up at home, there's nothing in it for me." And when our very cliquey manager was in town who was closer in age to her, this same colleague made the effort to come in. It was evident I was not liked and people didn't care for my presence, no matter how many times I tried to connect and reason with them, or even get to know them outside of work. I was met with constant backlash, demeaning behavior, ignorance, and rudeness. It is an insanely unsupportive environment despite what level or team you're joining at -- I've conferred with multiple senior employees that have left the company (some of which are still there, too!), and the negative experience is OVERWHELMINGLY aligned. I hardly learned anything I wanted to during my time at Maru, and 1 week, and more so 3 months in, I was 100% sure I had to either quit or find a new role. Family and friends told me to stick it out to the half year mark, and so I did. I continued to hardly learn or experience any type of productive mentorship or development opportunities. My direct manager was also on quite the power trip and was hired as a director with only 5 years total of industry experience. Hey girl! If your'e reading this -- I acknowledge her brilliance and knowledge -- but she (and MANY other members of this all female team) had a serious attitude problem and superiority complex, and it impacted every single conversation she had with me (positive or negative). It was evident she had never managed someone before, never mind being so close in age, and it led to multiple hostile conversations. Inappropriate jokes stretching as far as mocking someone for wearing a wig and speculating if they had cancer were welcomed by certain members of the ruling class, and candor from others was chastised. The industry nepotism and age gap between myself and the women on my team created such an air of toxicity and made way for many differences to expose themself -- resulting in more than one interpersonal argument or call-out against me. I stopped caring around half a year in and let it play out, and I was eventually laid off with the SVP off camera. It was a cold, disingenuous, and inhumane experience from my first to last moments there. I had tried moving teams for an entire 6 months and had filed an official complaint against my team and it never came to fruition, so it's safe to say I was thrilled to be let go and be eligible for severance and unemployment while working on finding my next gig. But it also felt deliberate to be let go, and was bad timing. I was dealt a two-faced card in the end. It's hard to lose your job, but it's even harder to lose yourself in one. I have almost no redeeming experiences or professional growth to share from my time at Maru, and that is in large part due to the childish, toxic, self-important and self-absorbed atmosphere (looking at YOU, Media, Entertainment, and Tech folks!) that didn't have the emotional or mental capacity to properly onboard or support an employee that wasn't fitting into the orchestrated corporate lie they were perpetuating every single day. It was exhausting and excruciating to speak to such vain, empty people everyday and pretend like I gave a hoot about QA'ing reports for clients that literally hated them, and ended up breaking business with them. Maru had strained relationships with more than 4 clients across my time there and left a pretty poor impression on some of the larger ones. Not only did their employees dislike working with them, but their clients, too. All in all, a genuinely negative, isolating environment that depleted me of all my energy and hope to grow. It made me feel utterly stagnant in my first full time professional role. Maru has a completely disorganized, dysfunctional, chaotic, dismissive, and out-of-touch approach to its business and its people. 1000/10 recommend straying as far away as possible. This may be an angsty review, but it's also just an honest one -- I'm not a spiteful person and often took initiative to make this situation the best it could be. I went into the office to interface with members from other teams, tried to implement efficiencies in our manual reporting to be able to work on more insightful projects, and voiced my concerns over personal growth and development countless times. In the end, the fact is, they DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOU, and are full of B.S. -- through and through, from the way they approach team conversations, to the way they talk about the future of the company, to how much they're invested in your growth. These people have all worked with each other for years or been friends for years, and are not interested in making way for newcomers to feel welcomed or supported whatsoever. Maru might not exist by the time you're reading this. But the Harris Poll acquired them and will probably stick around, so be weary of them as well if you're thinking of applying. Be weary of Stagwell companies in general and do your due diligence to connect with people currently in the role and read reviews to get the full picture.

• FLEXIBLE WORKING - EYE BROWS RAISED Flexible working is an option, but there is still (in places) an old fashioned approach to this. There appears to me some lack of trust shown, whereas on the other side of the coin there are those who work regularly from home but appear to treat it as ‘time off’. There is some work to do to achieve consistency and fairness in this area. • SUPPORT AND DEVELOPMENT A number of minor inductions will be given to new starters (the basics about the business and team structures), but then you are mostly on your own. You will need to be quick at finding your feet with the in-house bespoke tool (not easy to use or particularly well built). Those who struggle to adapt at high speed to this system will be perceived negatively by those around them (and above them) when all that the staff need is time, dedication, training and further support. The support comes from the lower ranks in abundance, but is slightly lacking from the management team. • MANAGERS ARE NOT MANAGERS As mentioned, in most capacities there is a need to learn a highly bespoke system with intricacies that are not even understood by those who have used the system for many years. It’s a challenge but not impossible. Building familiarity with some of the system here often means you are then ready to be promoted. That has the unfortunate result of staff with minimal required people-skills being put in positions of authority. The people put in charge in management capacity are not managers, which results in vital ingredients (motivation, reward, support, development and listening to your staff) often going missing. Some management training is offered, so take heed from the fact that the company is attempting to amend some of this. Bare in mind also that the structure for promotion is a restricting factor here, with those promoted to the management level simply just more system-experienced than mid-level or low level colleagues with very little variance in job responsibilities. This can cause morale damage with the lower ranks who clearly know that those above them are doing very little different to them (often less). • PROMOTION CRITERIA OLD FASHIONED If you’ve read the above then you can get a feel for the promotion path (e.g. learn system, deliver a few projects and use some common sense and an ability to work under pressure). However, your hard work may go unnoticed - with promotion out of reach for those who ‘work 9am-5pm and take a lunch break’. Effectively, if you do your contracted hours and take the lunch break then you are not going to be considered for promotion. This was disappointing to hear, especially as a number of management staff are in their position simply on working long hours with little demonstration of any skills other than doing exactly the same as those in the lower ranks below them (e.g. using the complex system). With so many senior staff following this mindset (e.g. long hours are the only way to get promotion) then changing this outlook to a refreshing one may not be soon achieved. • LONG, LONG HOURS Following on from the above point here. The working hours are officially stated as 9am to 5pm. However, this isn’t often the case, with often mandatory over-time. Unfortunately it’s a result of being severely under-staffed. You will not be compensated for working extra either (apart from a textual thank you note, which is better than nothing). Even the lowest level ranks are expected to work long and hard a lot of the time, resulting in severe burnout and dented morale. • BLAME CULTURE Some examples were present of when a junior member of staff makes a mistake (often as a result of lack of training, poor communication and little support) management have demonstrated a ‘throw under the bus’ attitude. Experienced managers will know what should happen in this circumstance and it isn’t that attitude for sure. • LEADERSHIP NOT GETTING RESULTS Those at the very top (in my experience) were lacking energy, enthusiasm and charisma to inspire the business. A reputation amongst the ranks that senior managers can be found hiding in dark corners of the office, whilst others were never present. Strong aspirations to grow and improve the business have unfortunately not materialised, nor does it feel like these will ever achieved. I do wish them the best but there is a lot of work to do and some brave decisions on change to be made. • REDUNDANCY AFTER REDUNDANCY As a result of the above, you will find that redundancy is a common trend here. It’s a shame as it’s people who end up being sacrificed to save money as a result of the poor decisions at the top. Big changes over many, many years in terms of head count reduction. • DOG-FRIENDLY OFFICE Originating from when the business was tiny and first started many years previous. It is a nice thing of course to be allowed to bring a dog to work, but with it comes a number of unprofessional touches. For instance: - Dog owners appear to be given the freedom to march out of the office, take overly regular breaks (even during meetings) - which breeds an unfairness to those without an office dog. - Having worked in and amongst a number of colleagues who were allergic, fearful of or not animal fans - they were frowned upon as the minority if their concerns were raised (verbally and in writing were both ignored). A dog jumping up on them in a meeting, with some a little erratic in their behaviour was not always a welcome event. - An uncomfortable working environment for this around some of the dogs. E.g. You will need to double-check your chair before you stand-up for fear of running over a dog's tail. Some of the barking in and around the working environment is loud and a distraction. - Dogs attend meetings with you, which leads to often important meetings having vital messages interrupted by barking or toy-chewing under the desk. Some larger meetings would become a farce with reduced concentration and output. - Dogs are allowed on the chill-out area furniture and also in the food preparation kitchen areas, with little consideration to those who are not pet-people. As mentioned, it can be a nice touch, but perhaps raise the cleanliness and professionalism and restrict dog attendance to specific events only. Staff without dogs can then focus on with their work without distraction and the owners can target a higher proportion of the day doing what it is they get paid for (which should not be tending to dogs, or cleaning their mess). Is it fair on a dog to keep them tied up under a desk all day? SUMMARY: Some nice touches and good team spirit, but that is needed to get you through the high expectations to deliver in often unfair time-frames. You can get some good experience, and it would be a good approach to consider Maru Matchbox as a stepping stone or stop-gap. The morale is extremely low following continuous redundancies, with most staff entering 2020 fearing for their jobs. There is much hard work to do to fix this and the attempt to bring some element of future success back to the business - will they achieve it? Many will remain to be convinced, but I wish them luck in obviously challenging times.