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private:atlasobscura
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https://www.glassdoor.com?employer_id=1072592
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Nov 19th, 2020 12:00AM
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Open
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Open
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Atlas Obscura
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|
New York, NY
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|
Everyone's nice UNTIL you get to know them for real
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I love travel and have a head full of obscure and arcane knowledge. I really, really wanted to work for Atlas Obscura - it seemed tailor made for me. And it was great...at first.
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Sooner or later, everyone's true colors come out in full force. This is not an honest or ethical company.
It was minor stuff at first, but I knew it was time to look for my next job after The Gaslighting.
I wasn't the subject. The victim was a tour guide I'll call A.
A had warned Atlas Obscura about a different tour guide, B. Specifically, B's popular tour (affiliated with Atlas Obscura) was not B's own original work.
Some months earlier, A had publicly warned B to stop bothering her and stop taking credit for others' work. Atlas Obscura knew about this and was quick to assure A that B hadn't worked for the company in some time.
Well...B and her friends had a fit when A was granted brand affiliation and they made some accusations (which I discovered were untrue).
Atlas Obscura yanked A's affiliation, less than a day after it was granted. She protested. There was ample evidence against B (I checked it out on my own time - carefully, so no one would know what I was doing), but Atlas Obscura refused to listen to A and falsely accused her of "antagonizing" B.
Atlas Obscura repeatedly lied to and gaslit A, claimed she was somehow going against the company's "values" (which weren't listed anywhere on the company's website and which they refused to share with her), and flip-flopped on whether B was still working with the company or not (remember, they initially claimed she didn't).
Not only were A's statements against B all true, the situation was MUCH worse than A had let on. B has plagiarized multiple local historians, including at least four local tour operators, and was recently called out by a respected historian for a badly researched essay that accused a deceased prominent figure of a hate crime without any real evidence to back up such a claim.
TL;DR version: this outwardly nice company viciously attacked an innocent person and sided with someone who has a history of dishonest and shady behavior. And that was when I knew it was time to update my resume and get the hell out of Dodge.
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-1.0
|
NEGATIVE
|
-1.0
|
NEGATIVE
|
|
|
0.0
|
1.0
|
3.0
|
1.0
|
3.0
|
4.0
|
1.0
|
|
1072592
|
Open
|
The way you treat affiliates says everything about the company's "values". Stop favoring the popular people and the ass-kissers.
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0.0
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[]
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REGULAR
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No
|
Yes
|
|
0.0
|
|
|
|
Jan 8th, 2021 01:19AM
|
Jan 8th, 2021 01:19AM
|
Atlas Obscura
|
|
Travel & Leisure
|
|
private:atlasobscura
|
https://www.glassdoor.com?employer_id=1072592
|
Nov 11th, 2020 12:00AM
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Open
|
Open
|
Atlas Obscura
|
Anonymous
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United States
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USA
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Good people + pay, but toxic management
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Some of the brightest, most creative, hardworking people work here. There has traditionally been room to grow within the company. Some managers and teams are great. Pay is good.
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People are scared to communicate to managers about workplace issues. There’s incredibly poor communication between departments and between upper management and staff (this was a problem pre-covid). A number of people and teams behave competitively toward each other instead of collaboratively, or don’t communicate at all. There is only one HR person, who seems to work more on behalf of upper management than the employees. There is incredible lack of diversity amongst upper management. The cofounders seem really out of touch with what is happening within their own company. Covid layoffs were handled very poorly causing a serious lack of trust in upper management.
|
-1.0
|
NEGATIVE
|
-1.0
|
NEGATIVE
|
|
|
2.0
|
2.0
|
3.0
|
2.0
|
2.0
|
4.0
|
1.0
|
|
1072592
|
Open
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Listen to the people who work for you, and work on building trust and positive relationships. Get more diversity into upper management, not just for quota filling and optics, but to bring diverse opinions and new contributions to help the functioning of the company. Communicate a clear vision and goals.
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0.0
|
[]
|
REGULAR
|
No
|
No
|
|
2.0
|
|
|
|
Jan 8th, 2021 01:19AM
|
Jan 8th, 2021 01:19AM
|
Atlas Obscura
|
|
Travel & Leisure
|
|
private:atlasobscura
|
https://www.glassdoor.com?employer_id=1072592
|
Aug 2nd, 2020 12:00AM
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Open
|
Open
|
Atlas Obscura
|
|
United States
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USA
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The cons outweigh the pros
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|
The staff is friendly and smart and the workload is usually manageable. There is sometimes room for creativity if you are willing to take on the extra work. The pay is decent for the industry, though there are big disparities by department. When the company had an office, it was in a good location.
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Departments are siloed off from one another, so your experience largely depends on whether you like/trust your manager and immediate colleagues. Upper management is overwhelmingly white and male and seems 1. uninterested in fixing that and 2. inept at communication with staff. The company laid off a quarter of the staff because of the Covid crisis and the departing employees were not treated well or even given much opportunity to say goodbye. The founders have a history of taking the ideas of employees without adequate credit or input from the people who came up with them. In the past year the workplace has felt more corporate.
|
-1.0
|
NEGATIVE
|
0.0
|
NEUTRAL
|
|
|
3.0
|
2.0
|
3.0
|
3.0
|
2.0
|
3.0
|
1.0
|
|
1072592
|
Open
|
nothing will get better until leadership is more diverse
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0.0
|
[]
|
REGULAR
|
No
|
Yes
|
|
0.0
|
|
|
|
Jan 8th, 2021 01:19AM
|
Jan 8th, 2021 01:19AM
|
Atlas Obscura
|
|
Travel & Leisure
|
|
private:atlasobscura
|
https://www.glassdoor.com?employer_id=1072592
|
Apr 17th, 2019 12:00AM
|
Open
|
Open
|
Atlas Obscura
|
Field Agent
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Los Angeles, CA
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|
Poor communication and revenue split
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|
I only contracted with them for tours and events. Events would generally sell out, but no financial guarantee . I met a few cool people.
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In the three years I was there I received virtually no communication from management. They seem to have audience matching problems and a lot of customers they sent me had very different expectations versus what I was contracted to do. The company did little to promote events outside of placement in their newsletter. In addition, I was expected to do customer service and administrative tasks beyond my duties as organizer. Worst was the revenue split. Most companies in this space will take a commission between 10%-30% and/or guaranteed payment for work done, Atlas Obscura takes 50% and doesn’t cover expenses. When they ended my contract they tried to short me $50 on my last event. Just overall disorganized and unprofessional.
|
-1.0
|
NEGATIVE
|
-1.0
|
NEGATIVE
|
|
|
5.0
|
2.0
|
3.0
|
3.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
1.0
|
|
1072592
|
Open
|
|
0.0
|
[]
|
CONTRACT
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No
|
No
|
|
4.0
|
|
|
|
Jan 8th, 2021 01:19AM
|
Jan 8th, 2021 01:19AM
|
Atlas Obscura
|
|
Travel & Leisure
|
|
private:atlasobscura
|
https://www.glassdoor.com?employer_id=1072592
|
Mar 14th, 2016 12:00AM
|
Open
|
Open
|
Atlas Obscura
|
|
Brooklyn, NY
|
|
Great place to work!
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|
Friendly, hard working staff and great programming/mission
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Niche organization but not a bad thing!
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|
|
|
|
|
|
6.0
|
5.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
|
1072592
|
Open
|
|
0.0
|
[]
|
|
No
|
No
|
|
1.0
|
|
|
|
Jan 8th, 2021 01:19AM
|
Jan 8th, 2021 01:19AM
|
Atlas Obscura
|
|
Travel & Leisure
|
|
private:atlasobscura
|
https://www.glassdoor.com?employer_id=1072592
|
Sep 22nd, 2015 12:00AM
|
Open
|
Open
|
Atlas Obscura
|
Editorial Fellow
|
Brooklyn, NY
|
|
Editorial Fellowship (3 Months) Review
|
|
-excellent experience, lots of responsibility from the start
-ample opportunity to write about whatever you want
-great people, fascinating brand
|
-small editorial team , you need to write a lot!
-hard to think of ideas on a regular basis that are "on-brand"
|
1.0
|
POSITIVE
|
1.0
|
POSITIVE
|
|
|
6.0
|
5.0
|
5.0
|
5.0
|
5.0
|
4.0
|
5.0
|
|
1072592
|
Open
|
-hope to see Atlas grow a ton in the future!
|
0.0
|
[]
|
|
No
|
No
|
|
1.0
|
|
|
|
Jan 8th, 2021 01:19AM
|
Jan 8th, 2021 01:19AM
|
Atlas Obscura
|
|
Travel & Leisure
|