MediaLynx hired me and at least three other people under false pretenses. We were told we would be doing a certain job, or that, because we were overqualified for the job that was open, they would be creating a department where our skills would fit in "within a year." When we began to work, it became obvious that this was just a production mill—they needed people to rush their products to their client, Harcourt School Publishers, because they had taken on too much work and did not have enough people to do it.
Several people, including myself, were never able to perform the jobs that we were supposedly hired for.
Shortly before Christmas the company enforced a mandatory 50-hour work week for all employees. (At least three people, including myself, have copies of the email regarding the 50-hour week.) Those who could not work these hours were continually harrassed by managment. After everyone had worked massive amounts of overtime, including weekends, for a few months, an email came around saying that overtime was voluntary. This was apparently done because the management was threatened with legal action from an employee.
There was a very vague and generalized employee handbook that was only available online. The human resources for this company was handled by a company called Gevity in Tampa. The Gevity HR person would come to MediaLynx about once every six weeks. Anyone who wanted to speak to her had to make an appointment, so there was no confidentiality.
Management would therefore come up with all kinds of "company policy, " on the spur of the moment, that was not listed in the handbook. This became a standard operating procedure used by management to harrass employees. We were told all kinds of normal behavior was against company policy: working through lunch when busy; working through lunch to leave early for appointments; speaking to members of other departments (even about work); talking on the telephone; using email or the internet at our desks during downtime, among many more. Employees who had doctor's appointments or other obligations were constantly asked to reschedule them. If a person had to leave even half an hour early, the time had to be made up. It could not be made up with comp time during the required overtime. The company did not allow comp time.
There was the perception that the management wanted to cut employees off from any outside contact, and even contact with one another, for up to twelve hours each day.
There were also several experienced employees, including those hired for their years of publishing experience, who were informed after months of working at MediaLynx that they were "in training." Nothing had been said to them previously about any kind of training, and it was obvious that these comments were meaningless (i.E., there was no training) and only used to intimidate.
The managers also lied to the main client, Harcourt. We were working on a series of math books for Harcourt that was funded by the National Science Foundation. Harcourt had requested that the work not be outsourced overseas, yet all the typesetting and compositing for the entire math-book series was done at MediaLynx's office in India. Only four people in the company were permitted to speak with anyone from Harcourt, and there was an overall atmosphere of secrecy and deviousness. We eventually found out that this was because the managers feared that someone would let it slip to Harcourt that the work was being outsourced to India, despite their requirement that it be done in the U.S.
All this was in addition to day-to-day harrassment by two of the managers of any non-managerial employees who had the misfortune to be in their path. These managers screamed at employees, called them names, and spoke ill of them to other managers. This is apparently still going on at the company, although thankfully, myself and six of my co-workers (from less than a year of employment at MediaLynx) no longer work there.
No one should accept employment from this company. Anyone who uses MediaLynx as a vendor should be prepared to be lied to on a continuing basis, and should know that any agreements or contracts are very unlikely to be honored by MediaLynx.
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