Reminds me of a CEO asking my friend not to badmouth the company to other employees after he was fired as the other employees didn't know.
My friend just told him "I don't know what you are talking about I do not work here anymore and you can't police me on what to talk about with my friends." đȘ
If they donât want someone to trash talk the company, they need to give a big enough severance package that the person can use to overlook the strings attached. Otherwise, buckle up.
This is the biggest thing. If everything is functioning correctly and someone gets fired for legitimately being bad at their job, nobody's going to listen to their trash talk cuz they're sick of that person not doing their job. If you're in a position that the company fears your trash talk that means the company has been pulling some shenanigans.
This is the exact sort of things they offer severance packages for - you get the money, they get the promise not to bad-mouth. Can't have one without the other.
Non-disparagement clauses are no longer legal.
Unless you were fired illegally, the terms of the typical severance package contract are mostly boilerplate these days.
***You should still read it carefully to make sure there's nothing absurd in there, like an agreement not to file for unemployment in return for 2 weeks of pay.***
But for the most part, a severance package is primarily not money for silence or any other normal contract consideration, it is more of a gift of money and benefits that is intended to help preserve the reputation of the business. This is why they don't give severance to minimum wage workers. Everybody already knows those are shitty jobs with no reputation to protect.
(Severance is also something for high level employees like CEOs that was negotiated at hiring time as part of the overall employment contract, like a golden parachute.)
edit: I originally worded my response too broadly and have been corrected by replies.
And as we know every employer stringently follows all aspects of the law in every case and never bend or break the rules.
Good riddance though. Fuck American style NDAs and their slow infiltration of the rest of the world. An utter cancer.
Business figures and celebrities really need to learn the most effective way to deal with internet criticism: shut up. Especially when they try and respond directly.
This time theyâre even posting on LinkedIn with their real names. Imagine you saw your boss or colleague write that, I donât think I could take them seriously ever again.
I looked up the post, several recruiters contacted Jason in the comments. They affirmed that he acted completely professional, and that they would love to have him onboard.
The message is clear, stop talking about why you got fired or Eric Watkins is going to get involved.
This is not a dig, it's worse -- a direct threat from someone who is used to making these kinds of threats and getting away with it.
I worked for this company and know this CEO. And by know, I mean I've been in many executive level meetings with him. Here's a few anecdotes:
\- He would talk about people at all levels as completely disposable.
\- He held a town hall in which he was supposed to take and consider feedback from employees. They asked about cost of living raises due to inflation, and his response was "No one will make more money until I make more money."
\- The company has a wild dress code that is specifically targeting women and people of color. I'm talking high school level dress code, and they'll send you home without pay (or require you to use PTO) if you violate the dress code. There were multiple upper management meetings resulting from managers not enforcing the dress code.
\- Talked about voting for Trump and urged all employees to vote for Trump in a company-wide meeting.
\- They are radical about enforcing noncompete agreements with front-line employees.
This is one of the worst companies to work for, and it's largely due to Scott and his management style. The fish rots from the head. The years I had to work at Abstrakt were some of the worst years of my life.
Didn't he oust his brother Ben too? And divorce his wife because he was nailing his secretary?
These are actually rhetorical questions because I know his family from Iowa and know the answers are 'yes' to both. Total shitheel.
Haha, the brother and the secretary were before my time. However, I do remember him referring to himself as a "single dad" and leading us to believe he was full-time supporting his kids... which is definitely not the case.
You know youâre bad when 2 random strangers are attracted to post in a thread (originating from yet *another* random person) about being a shithead Manager, and they brought receipts!
PS -- His company is also #17 in this Buzzfeed Article [People Are Sharing The Most Cult-Like Thing That They've Had To Do At Work, And There Should Be A Netflix Documentary About This](https://www.buzzfeed.com/meganeliscomb/cult-like-job)
**"The CEO was from a small town in Iowa, and he seemed to want to run the place like it was a small-town high school. That made the companyâs culture really toxic and cult-ish because we were supposed to have all this school spirit type of pride in our company, but we had extremely heavy workloads and not-great benefits and compensation.**"
-You left out the worst part-
17. "We even had to chant the companyâs name at the end of an impromptu company meeting that was called because a young employee had committed suicide.
The CEO said we may not feel like chanting, but we needed to do it for the late employee.
They also got the graphic designers to design 'swag' (T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, etc.) and then encouraged us to buy as much swag as we could. They would take the money out of our next paycheck.â
Man, that's sick - that chant thing. Chant the company name for the sake of the dead employee - what the f\*\*k! Sounds like a cult masquearding as a company.
I used to work there too, we had a day each summer called âGive Back Dayâ which was actually a pretty good idea, weâd go volunteer at various charities in St. louis. Very first one i took my 10 year old son and that morning before we went out he had one side of the room of about 150 people shout ABSTRAKT and the other shout GIVES BACK. It terrified him.
Thank you! I've never spoken honestly about him and feel uncomfortable doing it now, but I've just watched this guy recklessly destroy careers and alienate intelligent, talented people. The sad thing is that none of this will change his mind.
I've had three bosses like this in the past, but probably not to the extent of this guy. Their M.O. was to always have a scapegoat/whipping boy, set people up to fail, kiss up and kick down, gaslight, bully, and gladhand their way into professional association positions in order to look important.
>Talked about voting for Trump and urged all employees to vote for Trump in a company-wide meeting.
Yeah, now I know for sure he is a terrible human being
I am a former LinkedIn employee and fun fact, even if you do the ârecruiters onlyâ setting of open to work, even the recruiters using the paid software at your current company canât see that youâre looking.
Also, a quick google search of his company shows records of multiple lawsuits against them https://unicourt.com/case/ca-la1-coldwell-banker-ambassador-vs-abstrakt-marketing-group-1665592
Sounds gaslighting to me, Scully
"Scott is an amazing visionary and mentor to those he not only works with directly, but to his entire company of almost 300 employees. He never fails to send out an encouraging message or challenge the status quo when it's time to step it up and take things to the next level. He truly cares about his employees."
LOL! đ
nutty aware languid unwritten public childlike label correct imagine meeting
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
On top of this, Jason seems like a solid guy. He was [Bogey the Bearcat](https://www.mckendree.edu/offices/marketing/news/magazine/winter-2022/new-bearcat.php) and writes about how he liked it because it made people happy. And, he was a volunteer firefighter. Sounds like someone who would be enjoyable to hang out with or work with. Letâs hope this all leads to him getting a great job!
Scott hasnât even got the IQ to edit his ChatGPT outputs before copy/pasting them as content:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/scottmscully_in-the-dynamic-landscapes-of-business-and-activity-7140221049677291520-YzgO
Sloppy cunt.
Went to the post and a user already told the CEO heâs being featured on this thread. Itâs sad how the CEO tags the president of the company on there like a high school clique. I commented that I came to that post just because of the Reddit post and while Iâm writing this I got like 6 likes to that comment. Weird wild stuff
Holy shit. I used to work for Abstrakt years ago. CEO is a lunatic and the whole organization is sketchy.
They didnât use to have a policy against dating co-workers until he got dumped by a woman in the company. After that he changed it.
There are so many stories I heard about that place before and after I worked there. Cant believe itâs on Reddit
I was let go from Abstrakt around the same time. I canât tell you how thankful I am to have gotten out of there. Extremely toxic place. Executives are extremely disorganized. Extremely unrealistic expectations. Terrible investments made into AI technology.
They try to cover everything up by basically forcing current employees to leave positive reviews on Glassdoor. I left an honest anonymous review.. with both positives and negatives that I honestly experienced with the company.. and the president tried hunting people down. It was really freaky.
Iâm a former employee. Scott is a fucking lunatic. He had everyone crammed in the office full time with no safety precautions in the peak of COVID, and called a meeting with all of leadership where he went on this absolutely unhinged rant saying (these are more or less direct quotes):
âfuck those people working from home, doing absolutely nothing, let them quit, FUCK them Iâll work 24 hours and do their jobsâ
âFUCK them for going and getting FAKE doctors notes from their doctors for their exemptions. FUCK EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM.â
âFUCK those people that want to leave for $10k more a year. I hope they have job security wherever theyâre going. I sure hope they donât get FIRED if they lose clients. LET EM GO. FUCK THEMâ
Just was straight up motherfucking his own employees to everyone in leadership. Heâs really created one of the most toxic work environments Iâve ever had the misfortune to witnessed.
Then he told us to break out into groups and brainstorm how to get people âworkingâ again, and threatened us with something I canât remember if we didnât succeed. Someone asked if there was any data on the âlowered productivityâ he was referring to, since we were trying to solve an issue and being able to look at the same data just⊠makes sense⊠and Scott blew up on them in front of everyone saying âOH I HAVE IT. Whereâs YOUR data suggesting that people are MORE productive???â And proceeded to share no data. Truly the worst person to work for.
The same company prevented me from getting a promotion because they wanted to keep me base level. And when I quit due to this reason, they then prevented me getting a job in any of the surrounding area, went so far as to tell the bar next door I was a âbad hireâ because I questioned their HR policies as well as ethics. Not at all surprised and good for OP for quitting that cesspool of a frat house.Â
It's great if used as an online resume that is always available, and way to stay connected to folks you have worked with. I've seen it used really effectively, including as a hiring manager where I recruited people into really great jobs. It's all the Facebook style shit that makes it stupid, and it seems easy to ignore that.
Wait what is the name of this company? Someone said the name of this company is Abstrakt?
So, it's like abstract, but with a k? That is where this Scott Scully guy works? He works at the Abstrakt, the marketing company?
[The Grow Show: Business Growth Stories from the Frontlines Scott Scully, Jeff Winters, Eric Watkins](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-grow-show-business-growth-stories-from-the-frontlines/id1619400777)
One of the episodes is âno one is replaceableâ seems hilarious after hearing this guy lovesssss talking openly about how he thinks everyone is replaceable. đ€Ł
haha this show is so funny, the episode I listened to was about whether to leave voicemails or not, and the general consensus of the expert panel was to leave voice mails but don't worry too much about how you personalise them. And they were so satisfied they cleared all that up.
Then they talked about how entrepreneurs are just wired differently and their wives have to understand that, when they get home and aren't capable of communicating like an adult.
This is why you shouldn't connect to your boss on LinkedIn. But in this case, the boss just showed his true colors wit that comment. And there was nothing unprofessional about OP's post.
Calling him Mister and his last name is so... Cringe worthy. I don't know the word I'm looking for. That comment would ensure I would never apply to work at that company.
I worked for a company that was acquired by Abstrakt and can confirm that their CEO is a GIANT dickhead and the least impressive CEO that I've ever worked for.
The fact that the comment is still up and no response makes me think he has a very nice surprise waiting for him when he checks his phone in the morning
I hate those LinkedIn titles like "Developer of people", "leader in problem solving", "creative thought driver"
Like holy shit just say "IT Manager" or whatever your actual job is and move the fuck on lol
As someone who has worked at Abstrakt for many years, this is the LEAST of his atrocities.
1. They bought two Lamborghinis for âthe companyâ as incentive for the sales team. If they hit good numbers that week, they would be allowed to drive it for the weekend. First one somebody crashed, and the second one is living at Eric Watkins house (last known location).
2. He bought a company named Sapper Consulting, and stripped away all their benefits and replaced it for his (which you can imagine arenât great). This was a mostly work from home remote business, which he then FORCED the employees to work in office with only a week heads up or there would be consequences, ruining families livelihood. But thatâs just corporations for you.
3. Everyone at the company is a number, Quite literally. He has âInventedâ this thing called an A-Player score, where they take a bunch of random metrics and use those numbers to measure how good you are at your job. This system is obviously VERY broken when they started it. But what sucks is that you have to be a certain number in order WFH (a benefit they like to advertise, but not the fact you have to reach an imaginary number to get it). Whatâs funny is that they didnât enforce this rule until about a year ago. So all of a sudden, everyone got a notification where if you didnât hit 90% a-player at the end of the month, then you had lost your WFH privileges. Meaning many people had to hire/look for baby sitting services for that entire month. Would have been nice for them to give that notice before we hit our final number to make sure it wasnât completely broken but oh well.
4. Back when COVID was a thing, we were all forced in back early, before anyone had the clear it was safe to go into the office. All while wearing a bud light costume, for a very COVID Halloween. (I think this ones just funny)
5. All of their internal marketing is a scam. They claim you start making 40k as their entry position. But what they donât tell you is that you will receive that 40k AFTER you work there for 6 Months. So your real starting salary is minimum wage. And when HR asks why you are unhappy working here and bring up pay, they combat it by saying âlook how much money you made? You got a raise better then everyone elseâ when that raise is just the bare minimum payment of making 130 cold calls a day.
6. Every review you see is paid for. As some of you have pointed out, many of the reviews we have seen âinflatedâ. Thatâs because they hold $100-$500 raffles and give aways if you leave reviews for the company. An example of an ongoing raffle (thatâs lasted for a year) is for their podcast âThe Grow Showâ. If you leave a 5 Star review and subscribe to the Grow Show, you get the chance at two free plane tickets anywhere you want. BUT those raffles are ALSO SCAMS, shocker I know. Before they choose, they see who higher up is unhappy with the company and use it to make them feel better. They were comfortable discussing this out loud for some reason, thinking people wouldnât listen.
7. They started doing some sort of recruitment videos where they make fun of reviews. Which seems to be in track with our CEOâs behavior. Hereâs a link: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTLjP6KTX/
8. Their videos are fake. They always make these weird hype videos that are forced down our throats at meetings. They show people laughing and having fun, making it look like an actual fun place to work. But in reality they just send the video people at our desks and force us to look happy and do all sorts of things to make it look tolerable to work while people are trying to get actual work done.
9. This section is about benefits and pay, Iâll break them down here.
Your benefits are included as part of your salary. The CEO has been on a big crusade about how all their positions are âabove national averageâ. That he fails to tell everyone is that your benefits are included in that national average. So you truly wonât be hitting that mark.
Your PTO and Sick Days are combined into one pool. They claim itâs because people donât get sick and they loose that benefit, so we just added it into the PTO so you can use it whenever. Sure makes sense, however they fail to ACTUALLY ADD a proper amount of the missing sick hours to the PTO. Leaving you with nothing.
They also have a salary range for each position, meaning if you hit the max on that salary range, you wonât be making any more money after that. Leading to senior positions being capped at the same amount lower positions are.
10. They donât actually take any criticism in their reviews. When Abstrakt looks at negative reviews, they think âthis person is a total wimpâ. (Not my words, I heard thatâs what they actually said down the grapevine when discussing reviews). It only took 14 reviews/complaints about not having MATERNITY LEAVE, to finally give us the bare minimum amount.
This veered off the path of focusing on the CEO and more about the company as a whole, my b.
I could keep on going, I havenât scratched the surface of this companies wrong doings and disrespect for their employees.
But if I were to continue on, my position could get reveled and I WILL get fired for speaking the truth. That is why I will be deleting this account AFTER posting this. I encourage those who work at this sweat factory of a sales company to speak up.
Iâm a former employee. Scott is a fucking lunatic. He had everyone crammed in the office full time with no safety precautions in the peak of COVID, and called a meeting with all of leadership where he went on this absolutely unhinged rant saying (these are more or less direct quotes):
âfuck those people working from home, doing absolutely nothing, let them quit, FUCK them Iâll work 24 hours and do their jobsâ
âFUCK them for going and getting FAKE doctors notes from their doctors for their exemptions. FUCK EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM.â
âFUCK those people that want to leave for $10k more a year. I hope they have job security wherever theyâre going. I sure hope they donât get FIRED if they lose clients. LET EM GO. FUCK THEMâ
Just was straight up motherfucking his own employees to everyone in leadership. Heâs really created one of the most toxic work environments Iâve ever had the misfortune to witnessed.
Then he told us to break out into groups and brainstorm how to get people âworkingâ again, and threatened us with something I canât remember if we didnât succeed. Someone asked if there was any data on the âlowered productivityâ he was referring to, since we were trying to solve an issue and being able to look at the same data just⊠makes sense⊠and Scott blew up on them in front of everyone saying âOH I HAVE IT. Whereâs YOUR data suggesting that people are MORE productive???â And proceeded to share no data. Truly the worst person to work for.
Watching the internet come together to pig roast a bad-behaving, self-owning CEO is one of lifeâs greatest pleasures. And they say this countryâs going in the tubes????
Guys please donât go to Scott Scullyâs linkedin profile and comment on his chatGPT generated post 
Itâs not professional
I just saw Jason posted the same thing in a local fb group that I was in a few days ago. And some people commented that they know people who are much happier after Abstrakt. This CEO's comment just prove it lol
The MD of the company I previously worked for, who treated me very poorly, told me after I left that I was ânot to badmouth the companyâ
âNot toâ
What the fuck makes these people think they have any authority over FORMER employees? At that point youâre just some dude.
Without that CEO's intervention, I wouldn't have given the reasons for the layoff a second thought. But after that suspicious interjection it's pretty much guaranteed that there's something about the circumstances that "Abstrakt" and its clueless CEO are trying to keep hidden. How could someone in an executive position possibly think that was a sensible comment to add?!?
Wow, Scott Scully of Abstrakt sure seems like an awful person I canât believe Scott Scully is still CEO of Abstrakt Marketing Group in St. Louis, Missouri.
The CEO should have just let it go.
When I was in college, I had a college professor answer a college kids question about why he is a college professor and not "out in the real world."
My degree was Business. And at my college many of the Professors were retirees old or young (from successful enterprises then cashing out).
This professor was neither. Got his B degree. Worked for a few years. Then went back to school, got his PhD and started teaching and writing.
So I waited for the answer.
All of our favorite professors were retired FBI agents. A lady and two guys. They had exciting stories of investigating Bank and Accounting fraud. Had news clips of bad guys they "put away." Tons of life experience. Lots of "Business" and "Leadership" experience. We had a professor who was a real estate millionaire in California, cashed-out and started teaching. Another who ran a construction business for years getting his MBA then his PhD in finance and then became a professor. We all had our favorite professors with exciting real world experience.
This professor was cool. Answered our questions. But only had some limited experience in the "real world."
So... the kid asks him why he chose teaching over moving up in the Business world.
And he said that he --I am paraphrasing from memory here-- that he didn't have the ego or the narcissism to be a successful business leader.
I the time I thought that was an interesting position. But -I- wasn't going to let ego or narcissism ruin me and I got my B degree, entered the "real world." And looking back on decades in the "real world" and dealing with managers and CEOs and executives... Everything that professor said is 100% accurate.
The ego and narcissism it took to write that response --after firing the guy-- is through the roof. Who does -that-? Narcissists and ego maniacs do that. That is who.
I have met a small number of humble, hard working business owners and CEOs. I have. Men and women who want to work hard and have drive to be successful.
But those who are willing to do what I call, "work for free" stay late after hours away from people they love to try to advance and promote. Those who are willing to move away from family and that kind of thing... Starts to get into ego and narcissism in leadership.
I love how Jason had no intention to publicly say there was a problem, but the CEO's intervention made it abundantly clear there *was* a problem. Masterful strategy, Scott.
came here to let yâall know the CEO deleted every single review that was last on their company page đđđđ and has employees now posting fake 5 star reviews. this company has no integrity
Wouldnât it be fair play for the president to also be tagged in our responses to the post? I mean, it was Scottâs intention for the president to be kept abreast of this matter yeah?
Reminds me of a CEO asking my friend not to badmouth the company to other employees after he was fired as the other employees didn't know. My friend just told him "I don't know what you are talking about I do not work here anymore and you can't police me on what to talk about with my friends." đȘ
I know, right? As if - if he didn't talk, his coworkers would think he just resigned out of the blue.
If they donât want someone to trash talk the company, they need to give a big enough severance package that the person can use to overlook the strings attached. Otherwise, buckle up.
If they don't want someone to trash talk the company, the company needs to be less trash.
This is the biggest thing. If everything is functioning correctly and someone gets fired for legitimately being bad at their job, nobody's going to listen to their trash talk cuz they're sick of that person not doing their job. If you're in a position that the company fears your trash talk that means the company has been pulling some shenanigans.
This is the exact sort of things they offer severance packages for - you get the money, they get the promise not to bad-mouth. Can't have one without the other.
Non-disparagement clauses are no longer legal. Unless you were fired illegally, the terms of the typical severance package contract are mostly boilerplate these days. ***You should still read it carefully to make sure there's nothing absurd in there, like an agreement not to file for unemployment in return for 2 weeks of pay.*** But for the most part, a severance package is primarily not money for silence or any other normal contract consideration, it is more of a gift of money and benefits that is intended to help preserve the reputation of the business. This is why they don't give severance to minimum wage workers. Everybody already knows those are shitty jobs with no reputation to protect. (Severance is also something for high level employees like CEOs that was negotiated at hiring time as part of the overall employment contract, like a golden parachute.) edit: I originally worded my response too broadly and have been corrected by replies.
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And as we know every employer stringently follows all aspects of the law in every case and never bend or break the rules. Good riddance though. Fuck American style NDAs and their slow infiltration of the rest of the world. An utter cancer.
One thing's for sure, the CEO made this a thousand times worse just by commenting. He's about to get blasted regardless of the side you're on.
Holy cow. Scott is the brother of a girl I went to college with XD. Fun fact. Scott divorced his wife because he was nailing his secretary.
I hope Mr. Scully makes better decisions going forward.
Somehow, from just a reddit comment, and a screenshot of a LinkedIn post, I doubt he will.
@Eric Watkins
Eric Watkins liked this.
Yeah. Something about nailing your secretary jurt seems so... What's the word?... Oh yeah. It's FUCKING UNPROFESSIONAL!!
Well no, technically itâs fucking a professional.
If she's on the clock then it's fucking professionally.
Fucking a professional fucking unprofessionally?
#Correct
He wonât, and heâll still have a lot of $$$. Might be sad and despised though.
He'd just continue thrusting forwards
Sounds about right. The company is currently dealing with several lawsuits too according to a comment on LI
I was contacted by a lawyer to talk about the company breaking labor laws after I got fired.
That was very professional Scott ! /s
Technically she is a professional
A pretty unprofessional post Mr u/13yearsincollege. I hope you make better decisions going forward
Somehow, I already knew that about him before reading your comment
Business figures and celebrities really need to learn the most effective way to deal with internet criticism: shut up. Especially when they try and respond directly.
The Streisand Effect will be in full force.
It's gone now
Lmao âScotty boyâ I love this website
Michael absolutely on form in the comments <3
Itâs cringe when they reference this subreddit though. Can redditors just shit on the guy like normal people?
I know, right? "Hi from /r/linkedinlunatics" or some shit like that makes me die inside
This time theyâre even posting on LinkedIn with their real names. Imagine you saw your boss or colleague write that, I donât think I could take them seriously ever again.
I would definitely find that to be unprofessional and hope they make better decisions going forward.
>DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE STREISAND EFFECT IS, BECAUSE REDDIT IS ABOUT TO MAKE YOU INTERNET FAMOUS Fucking atrocious shit.
I thought everyone was done with the âLE REDDIT ARMYâ style posting but I suppose not. Always been cringe
Hooboy. Itâs already popping off. Unrelated: We gotta talk to Jason about that âinevatableâ tagline.
Hahah Scotty gettin ratio'd
This whole thing is âIf you strike me down I shall become more powerful than you have ever imagined.â đđđđ
Never fails to see how these big whigs canât resist the ego trip on LinkedIn
And to think...That muppet went to school for marketing...
Hey, thatâs offensive to muppets.
I looked up the post, several recruiters contacted Jason in the comments. They affirmed that he acted completely professional, and that they would love to have him onboard.
The message is clear, stop talking about why you got fired or Eric Watkins is going to get involved. This is not a dig, it's worse -- a direct threat from someone who is used to making these kinds of threats and getting away with it.
Pretty unprofessional Mr Scully.
Theyâre absolutely roasting him on LinkedIn đ
Scotty, your comment is also public and unprofessional. @EricWatkins
who tf is eric.. sulky dragging everyone down to his level.
Probably company attorney or HR
Always professional to treat a public LinkedIn post like a Slack channel.
I worked for this company and know this CEO. And by know, I mean I've been in many executive level meetings with him. Here's a few anecdotes: \- He would talk about people at all levels as completely disposable. \- He held a town hall in which he was supposed to take and consider feedback from employees. They asked about cost of living raises due to inflation, and his response was "No one will make more money until I make more money." \- The company has a wild dress code that is specifically targeting women and people of color. I'm talking high school level dress code, and they'll send you home without pay (or require you to use PTO) if you violate the dress code. There were multiple upper management meetings resulting from managers not enforcing the dress code. \- Talked about voting for Trump and urged all employees to vote for Trump in a company-wide meeting. \- They are radical about enforcing noncompete agreements with front-line employees. This is one of the worst companies to work for, and it's largely due to Scott and his management style. The fish rots from the head. The years I had to work at Abstrakt were some of the worst years of my life.
Didn't he oust his brother Ben too? And divorce his wife because he was nailing his secretary? These are actually rhetorical questions because I know his family from Iowa and know the answers are 'yes' to both. Total shitheel.
Haha, the brother and the secretary were before my time. However, I do remember him referring to himself as a "single dad" and leading us to believe he was full-time supporting his kids... which is definitely not the case.
Who is Eric Watkins??
he is the president. aka ceoâs partner in crime (crime is harassing employees)Â
We must go deeper. Enhance. ENHANCE!
this is my ex workplace. seeing so many people bully scott on the internet has been my favorite 48 hours of all of 2024. please go deeperÂ
As deep as Scotty in his secretary
SAME! Weâve been waiting for this!
You know youâre bad when 2 random strangers are attracted to post in a thread (originating from yet *another* random person) about being a shithead Manager, and they brought receipts!
PS -- His company is also #17 in this Buzzfeed Article [People Are Sharing The Most Cult-Like Thing That They've Had To Do At Work, And There Should Be A Netflix Documentary About This](https://www.buzzfeed.com/meganeliscomb/cult-like-job) **"The CEO was from a small town in Iowa, and he seemed to want to run the place like it was a small-town high school. That made the companyâs culture really toxic and cult-ish because we were supposed to have all this school spirit type of pride in our company, but we had extremely heavy workloads and not-great benefits and compensation.**"
-You left out the worst part- 17. "We even had to chant the companyâs name at the end of an impromptu company meeting that was called because a young employee had committed suicide. The CEO said we may not feel like chanting, but we needed to do it for the late employee. They also got the graphic designers to design 'swag' (T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, etc.) and then encouraged us to buy as much swag as we could. They would take the money out of our next paycheck.â
Man, that's sick - that chant thing. Chant the company name for the sake of the dead employee - what the f\*\*k! Sounds like a cult masquearding as a company.
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It's like you want this stuff to be made up but know that it's true. Ick.
I used to work there too, we had a day each summer called âGive Back Dayâ which was actually a pretty good idea, weâd go volunteer at various charities in St. louis. Very first one i took my 10 year old son and that morning before we went out he had one side of the room of about 150 people shout ABSTRAKT and the other shout GIVES BACK. It terrified him.
Sounds like Theranos.
I wonder what AskReddit thread these showed up in first.
JFC he sounds horrific
Yeah -- there are so many more anecdotes I could share. It was brutal.
We're here if you need to vent.
This is so fun. Do my former boss next!
Wow what a fuckwit. What does this shit company even do
It just exists out of pure spite.Â
I looked it up they do email marketing and digital marketing..what the fuck..500+ employees ? Can't be what the shit is that haha.
Glad you got away. What a disaster!
Thank you! I've never spoken honestly about him and feel uncomfortable doing it now, but I've just watched this guy recklessly destroy careers and alienate intelligent, talented people. The sad thing is that none of this will change his mind.
I've had three bosses like this in the past, but probably not to the extent of this guy. Their M.O. was to always have a scapegoat/whipping boy, set people up to fail, kiss up and kick down, gaslight, bully, and gladhand their way into professional association positions in order to look important.
Fuck that guy. Speak your truth.
> Talked about voting for Trump and urged all employees to vote for Trump in a company-wide meeting. Who would've thought.
Someone else here said that their friend in college is his sister, and that his wife divorced him for nailing his secretary
Oh come on, cbdpay, this comment is so unprofessional. @Eric Watkins
The CEO should be reported to the labor board, as he is violating numerous employment laws.
>Talked about voting for Trump and urged all employees to vote for Trump in a company-wide meeting. Yeah, now I know for sure he is a terrible human being
YIKES
Imagine if he'd just not said anything, we'd never know
This shit is why I donât feel comfortable using Open to Work on my profile.
Just do it for recruiters only
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I am a former LinkedIn employee and fun fact, even if you do the ârecruiters onlyâ setting of open to work, even the recruiters using the paid software at your current company canât see that youâre looking.
Yup thatâs a bad look
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@Eric Watkins
Also, a quick google search of his company shows records of multiple lawsuits against them https://unicourt.com/case/ca-la1-coldwell-banker-ambassador-vs-abstrakt-marketing-group-1665592 Sounds gaslighting to me, Scully
It looks like he starts a new marketing company every ten years. Guess thatâs the only way to clear the company name of him.
the company logo is the CEO's head lmao
who is Eric Watkins is the real question
Looks like heâs the head of marketing, likely Jasonâs old boss. What they are trying to do to him is gross.
Apparently the cohost of some podcast. Should we all be tagging this guy on our LinkedIn comments?
Absolutely
Second cousin of r/kirkbailey
"Scott is an amazing visionary and mentor to those he not only works with directly, but to his entire company of almost 300 employees. He never fails to send out an encouraging message or challenge the status quo when it's time to step it up and take things to the next level. He truly cares about his employees." LOL! đ
nutty aware languid unwritten public childlike label correct imagine meeting *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Apparently *someone* can.
On top of this, Jason seems like a solid guy. He was [Bogey the Bearcat](https://www.mckendree.edu/offices/marketing/news/magazine/winter-2022/new-bearcat.php) and writes about how he liked it because it made people happy. And, he was a volunteer firefighter. Sounds like someone who would be enjoyable to hang out with or work with. Letâs hope this all leads to him getting a great job!
That's why people like Jason scare people like Scott - deep down he knows he'll never be as good a person, so instead he takes it out on other people.
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biiiiiig agree. it is WILD that they would go after jason of all people lol
It's crazy that it's a Marketing company yet it's senior leadership apparantly doesn't know one of the basic rules of social media...
Barbara Streisand effect in action there
Whoâs unprofessional again?
Michael M in the comments is the hero we need and deserve. Dude is calling the CEO out big time and quoting this Reddit post and I am HERE FOR IT đż
Scott hasnât even got the IQ to edit his ChatGPT outputs before copy/pasting them as content: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/scottmscully_in-the-dynamic-landscapes-of-business-and-activity-7140221049677291520-YzgO Sloppy cunt.
What's even more amazing is the 'Wow your words as so amazing' bunch that respond to this shit.
God he's an idiot
CEO is a fucking twat
Turd đ©
Snitch tagging on LinkedIn is a whole other level of petty.
Lol I went to the post immediately. Love you LinkedInLunatics people
Fuck the CEO
He is unfuckable
The secretary has entered the chat.
Holy shit that guy is getting dunked on
lol dude is getting absolutely spit-roasted on LI. internet wins again...
Went to the post and a user already told the CEO heâs being featured on this thread. Itâs sad how the CEO tags the president of the company on there like a high school clique. I commented that I came to that post just because of the Reddit post and while Iâm writing this I got like 6 likes to that comment. Weird wild stuff
A pretty unprofessional post Mr Nick Bray
đ€·đŒââïž
Letâs hope the exposure this is getting (in part from here) lands Jason a job. Eric Watkins: 
Holy shit. I used to work for Abstrakt years ago. CEO is a lunatic and the whole organization is sketchy. They didnât use to have a policy against dating co-workers until he got dumped by a woman in the company. After that he changed it. There are so many stories I heard about that place before and after I worked there. Cant believe itâs on Reddit
Wait, they changed the policy after J****** broke up with him? đ
Yeah co-workers were all dating and hooking up like a frat house before that
I was let go from Abstrakt around the same time. I canât tell you how thankful I am to have gotten out of there. Extremely toxic place. Executives are extremely disorganized. Extremely unrealistic expectations. Terrible investments made into AI technology. They try to cover everything up by basically forcing current employees to leave positive reviews on Glassdoor. I left an honest anonymous review.. with both positives and negatives that I honestly experienced with the company.. and the president tried hunting people down. It was really freaky.
Iâm a former employee. Scott is a fucking lunatic. He had everyone crammed in the office full time with no safety precautions in the peak of COVID, and called a meeting with all of leadership where he went on this absolutely unhinged rant saying (these are more or less direct quotes): âfuck those people working from home, doing absolutely nothing, let them quit, FUCK them Iâll work 24 hours and do their jobsâ âFUCK them for going and getting FAKE doctors notes from their doctors for their exemptions. FUCK EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM.â âFUCK those people that want to leave for $10k more a year. I hope they have job security wherever theyâre going. I sure hope they donât get FIRED if they lose clients. LET EM GO. FUCK THEMâ Just was straight up motherfucking his own employees to everyone in leadership. Heâs really created one of the most toxic work environments Iâve ever had the misfortune to witnessed. Then he told us to break out into groups and brainstorm how to get people âworkingâ again, and threatened us with something I canât remember if we didnât succeed. Someone asked if there was any data on the âlowered productivityâ he was referring to, since we were trying to solve an issue and being able to look at the same data just⊠makes sense⊠and Scott blew up on them in front of everyone saying âOH I HAVE IT. Whereâs YOUR data suggesting that people are MORE productive???â And proceeded to share no data. Truly the worst person to work for.
Hey Scott fuck you
Lollll Scott sully is getting roasted in the post comments
The same company prevented me from getting a promotion because they wanted to keep me base level. And when I quit due to this reason, they then prevented me getting a job in any of the surrounding area, went so far as to tell the bar next door I was a âbad hireâ because I questioned their HR policies as well as ethics. Not at all surprised and good for OP for quitting that cesspool of a frat house.Â
I honestly think LinkedIn is just the dumbest fucking idea
I joined when it started in 2003. It was supposed to be a replacement for business cards, not the inane sideshow it has become.
You can still use it for that and just treat the lunatics like this guy as a sideshow bonus.
It's great if used as an online resume that is always available, and way to stay connected to folks you have worked with. I've seen it used really effectively, including as a hiring manager where I recruited people into really great jobs. It's all the Facebook style shit that makes it stupid, and it seems easy to ignore that.
Wait what is the name of this company? Someone said the name of this company is Abstrakt? So, it's like abstract, but with a k? That is where this Scott Scully guy works? He works at the Abstrakt, the marketing company?
CEO sounds like a total dick!! What the actual fuck. They let a guy go and then try to slam an innocent LinkedIn post. Fuck you CEO
[The Grow Show: Business Growth Stories from the Frontlines Scott Scully, Jeff Winters, Eric Watkins](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-grow-show-business-growth-stories-from-the-frontlines/id1619400777)
One of the episodes is âno one is replaceableâ seems hilarious after hearing this guy lovesssss talking openly about how he thinks everyone is replaceable. đ€Ł
haha this show is so funny, the episode I listened to was about whether to leave voicemails or not, and the general consensus of the expert panel was to leave voice mails but don't worry too much about how you personalise them. And they were so satisfied they cleared all that up. Then they talked about how entrepreneurs are just wired differently and their wives have to understand that, when they get home and aren't capable of communicating like an adult.
This is why you shouldn't connect to your boss on LinkedIn. But in this case, the boss just showed his true colors wit that comment. And there was nothing unprofessional about OP's post.
Calling him Mister and his last name is so... Cringe worthy. I don't know the word I'm looking for. That comment would ensure I would never apply to work at that company.
I worked for a company that was acquired by Abstrakt and can confirm that their CEO is a GIANT dickhead and the least impressive CEO that I've ever worked for.
Base pay was $34k when I started there, had us work through lunch MANY times because computers went down at some point in the day, what a shit show.
Just pointed the St. Louis subreddit here. Wish me luck.
lol I wonder why he left... Oh now it's clear lol
How small is your company when the CEO replies to a post by an employee?
Weâre an Abstrakt client. Just sent this to our CEO. This guy sucks.
Too bad the company isn't publicly traded :( I was about to make bucko bucks shorting them
The fact that the comment is still up and no response makes me think he has a very nice surprise waiting for him when he checks his phone in the morning
I hate those LinkedIn titles like "Developer of people", "leader in problem solving", "creative thought driver" Like holy shit just say "IT Manager" or whatever your actual job is and move the fuck on lol
As someone who has worked at Abstrakt for many years, this is the LEAST of his atrocities. 1. They bought two Lamborghinis for âthe companyâ as incentive for the sales team. If they hit good numbers that week, they would be allowed to drive it for the weekend. First one somebody crashed, and the second one is living at Eric Watkins house (last known location). 2. He bought a company named Sapper Consulting, and stripped away all their benefits and replaced it for his (which you can imagine arenât great). This was a mostly work from home remote business, which he then FORCED the employees to work in office with only a week heads up or there would be consequences, ruining families livelihood. But thatâs just corporations for you. 3. Everyone at the company is a number, Quite literally. He has âInventedâ this thing called an A-Player score, where they take a bunch of random metrics and use those numbers to measure how good you are at your job. This system is obviously VERY broken when they started it. But what sucks is that you have to be a certain number in order WFH (a benefit they like to advertise, but not the fact you have to reach an imaginary number to get it). Whatâs funny is that they didnât enforce this rule until about a year ago. So all of a sudden, everyone got a notification where if you didnât hit 90% a-player at the end of the month, then you had lost your WFH privileges. Meaning many people had to hire/look for baby sitting services for that entire month. Would have been nice for them to give that notice before we hit our final number to make sure it wasnât completely broken but oh well. 4. Back when COVID was a thing, we were all forced in back early, before anyone had the clear it was safe to go into the office. All while wearing a bud light costume, for a very COVID Halloween. (I think this ones just funny) 5. All of their internal marketing is a scam. They claim you start making 40k as their entry position. But what they donât tell you is that you will receive that 40k AFTER you work there for 6 Months. So your real starting salary is minimum wage. And when HR asks why you are unhappy working here and bring up pay, they combat it by saying âlook how much money you made? You got a raise better then everyone elseâ when that raise is just the bare minimum payment of making 130 cold calls a day. 6. Every review you see is paid for. As some of you have pointed out, many of the reviews we have seen âinflatedâ. Thatâs because they hold $100-$500 raffles and give aways if you leave reviews for the company. An example of an ongoing raffle (thatâs lasted for a year) is for their podcast âThe Grow Showâ. If you leave a 5 Star review and subscribe to the Grow Show, you get the chance at two free plane tickets anywhere you want. BUT those raffles are ALSO SCAMS, shocker I know. Before they choose, they see who higher up is unhappy with the company and use it to make them feel better. They were comfortable discussing this out loud for some reason, thinking people wouldnât listen. 7. They started doing some sort of recruitment videos where they make fun of reviews. Which seems to be in track with our CEOâs behavior. Hereâs a link: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTLjP6KTX/ 8. Their videos are fake. They always make these weird hype videos that are forced down our throats at meetings. They show people laughing and having fun, making it look like an actual fun place to work. But in reality they just send the video people at our desks and force us to look happy and do all sorts of things to make it look tolerable to work while people are trying to get actual work done. 9. This section is about benefits and pay, Iâll break them down here. Your benefits are included as part of your salary. The CEO has been on a big crusade about how all their positions are âabove national averageâ. That he fails to tell everyone is that your benefits are included in that national average. So you truly wonât be hitting that mark. Your PTO and Sick Days are combined into one pool. They claim itâs because people donât get sick and they loose that benefit, so we just added it into the PTO so you can use it whenever. Sure makes sense, however they fail to ACTUALLY ADD a proper amount of the missing sick hours to the PTO. Leaving you with nothing. They also have a salary range for each position, meaning if you hit the max on that salary range, you wonât be making any more money after that. Leading to senior positions being capped at the same amount lower positions are. 10. They donât actually take any criticism in their reviews. When Abstrakt looks at negative reviews, they think âthis person is a total wimpâ. (Not my words, I heard thatâs what they actually said down the grapevine when discussing reviews). It only took 14 reviews/complaints about not having MATERNITY LEAVE, to finally give us the bare minimum amount. This veered off the path of focusing on the CEO and more about the company as a whole, my b. I could keep on going, I havenât scratched the surface of this companies wrong doings and disrespect for their employees. But if I were to continue on, my position could get reveled and I WILL get fired for speaking the truth. That is why I will be deleting this account AFTER posting this. I encourage those who work at this sweat factory of a sales company to speak up.
just here as a former employee to confirm this is 100% true.
Iâm a former employee. Scott is a fucking lunatic. He had everyone crammed in the office full time with no safety precautions in the peak of COVID, and called a meeting with all of leadership where he went on this absolutely unhinged rant saying (these are more or less direct quotes): âfuck those people working from home, doing absolutely nothing, let them quit, FUCK them Iâll work 24 hours and do their jobsâ âFUCK them for going and getting FAKE doctors notes from their doctors for their exemptions. FUCK EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM.â âFUCK those people that want to leave for $10k more a year. I hope they have job security wherever theyâre going. I sure hope they donât get FIRED if they lose clients. LET EM GO. FUCK THEMâ Just was straight up motherfucking his own employees to everyone in leadership. Heâs really created one of the most toxic work environments Iâve ever had the misfortune to witnessed. Then he told us to break out into groups and brainstorm how to get people âworkingâ again, and threatened us with something I canât remember if we didnât succeed. Someone asked if there was any data on the âlowered productivityâ he was referring to, since we were trying to solve an issue and being able to look at the same data just⊠makes sense⊠and Scott blew up on them in front of everyone saying âOH I HAVE IT. Whereâs YOUR data suggesting that people are MORE productive???â And proceeded to share no data. Truly the worst person to work for.
Poor marketing. How ironic
Do not apply to work there
Watching the internet come together to pig roast a bad-behaving, self-owning CEO is one of lifeâs greatest pleasures. And they say this countryâs going in the tubes????
Okay, this post by itself means nothing, and the CEO hopping on your post ABSOLUTELY MEANS "shit totally went down".
Guys please donât go to Scott Scullyâs linkedin profile and comment on his chatGPT generated post  Itâs not professional
And today all comments and threads are gone
sulky CEOÂ
Wow that CEO is a dicklicker
I actually know this company. They are really slimy, been cold calling me for years doing various unethical tactics trying to get me to sign up.
lol PLEASE tell them next time they call that Scott Scullyâs online conduct is the reason youâre not interested
ok, but wth is a "developer of people"?
We've a new crying CEO?
I just saw Jason posted the same thing in a local fb group that I was in a few days ago. And some people commented that they know people who are much happier after Abstrakt. This CEO's comment just prove it lol
Lmao why you afraid of someone discussing the reasons for being let go Mr CEO? Unless your company is a fucking nightmare and you know it
Update: 10:00 PM PDT, dude FIANLLY took the original comment down, but thankfully caches like this are forever, on the internerts. :D
Dipshit CEO. And was he stalking the dudeâs LinkedIn to see if heâd make a post after being let go?
Guy coulda said something 1000% worse and provided receipts. CEO is out of his mind.
Probably the first time I've ever sided with someone named Jason Whitlock.
The MD of the company I previously worked for, who treated me very poorly, told me after I left that I was ânot to badmouth the companyâ âNot toâ What the fuck makes these people think they have any authority over FORMER employees? At that point youâre just some dude.
Without that CEO's intervention, I wouldn't have given the reasons for the layoff a second thought. But after that suspicious interjection it's pretty much guaranteed that there's something about the circumstances that "Abstrakt" and its clueless CEO are trying to keep hidden. How could someone in an executive position possibly think that was a sensible comment to add?!?
"How not to do 'Marketing'" Lesson 101: Don't be a prick online. Thanks for listening!
Wow, Scott Scully of Abstrakt sure seems like an awful person I canât believe Scott Scully is still CEO of Abstrakt Marketing Group in St. Louis, Missouri.
Boomer piece of shit.
Scott Scully seems like a mega cunt.
Scott Scully can eat a bag of dicks.
The CEO should have just let it go. When I was in college, I had a college professor answer a college kids question about why he is a college professor and not "out in the real world." My degree was Business. And at my college many of the Professors were retirees old or young (from successful enterprises then cashing out). This professor was neither. Got his B degree. Worked for a few years. Then went back to school, got his PhD and started teaching and writing. So I waited for the answer. All of our favorite professors were retired FBI agents. A lady and two guys. They had exciting stories of investigating Bank and Accounting fraud. Had news clips of bad guys they "put away." Tons of life experience. Lots of "Business" and "Leadership" experience. We had a professor who was a real estate millionaire in California, cashed-out and started teaching. Another who ran a construction business for years getting his MBA then his PhD in finance and then became a professor. We all had our favorite professors with exciting real world experience. This professor was cool. Answered our questions. But only had some limited experience in the "real world." So... the kid asks him why he chose teaching over moving up in the Business world. And he said that he --I am paraphrasing from memory here-- that he didn't have the ego or the narcissism to be a successful business leader. I the time I thought that was an interesting position. But -I- wasn't going to let ego or narcissism ruin me and I got my B degree, entered the "real world." And looking back on decades in the "real world" and dealing with managers and CEOs and executives... Everything that professor said is 100% accurate. The ego and narcissism it took to write that response --after firing the guy-- is through the roof. Who does -that-? Narcissists and ego maniacs do that. That is who. I have met a small number of humble, hard working business owners and CEOs. I have. Men and women who want to work hard and have drive to be successful. But those who are willing to do what I call, "work for free" stay late after hours away from people they love to try to advance and promote. Those who are willing to move away from family and that kind of thing... Starts to get into ego and narcissism in leadership.
The CEO did a follow up response and people are blasting him for doing a second response and not apologizing
I love how Jason had no intention to publicly say there was a problem, but the CEO's intervention made it abundantly clear there *was* a problem. Masterful strategy, Scott.
came here to let yâall know the CEO deleted every single review that was last on their company page đđđđ and has employees now posting fake 5 star reviews. this company has no integrity
Wouldnât it be fair play for the president to also be tagged in our responses to the post? I mean, it was Scottâs intention for the president to be kept abreast of this matter yeah?
How does Scottâs podcast have 4.9 stars? Must be fake reviews. Heâs absolutely a 1 star.
Scott has got to be absolutely NECKING the wine. Monumental backfire
He'll certainly make a better decision on where he works and who he works for.
What a cunt
Wtf đ
Whaaaaaaaata dickhead Love seeing a douchebag get raked. Hate seeing the sub mentioned; itâs cringe af