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AbelsonTaylor

Engaged Employer

AbelsonTaylor reviews

2.8

28% would recommend to a friend

(222 total reviews)
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Dale Taylor

52% approve of CEO

22% positive business outlook

Ratings by category

2.7

Culture & values

2.7

Diversity & inclusion

2.7

Compensation and benefits

2.6

Work/Life balance

2.6

Career opportunities

2.5

Senior management

AbelsonTaylor has an employee rating of 2.8 out of 5 stars, based on 222 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The AbelsonTaylor employee rating is 25% below average for employers within the Media & Communication industry (3.7 stars).

Ratings by demographic groups

Reviews by job title

222 reviews
1.0
Jan 29, 2020

Most oppressive and least creative place I've ever worked at in 20+ years

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Was in a handy location in the Loop- now moving to the Old Post Office, which is handy for the higher paid higher ups coming from the suburbs, but makes a far worse commute from the younger, lower paid city dwellers. So yeah, the one pro is now a con. Sums up AT kind of perfectly.

Cons

Abelson Taylor is the least creative, most insular, most oppressive, most corporate, most boring, least collaborative, most lonely, lowest paying, most archaic place I've ever had the displeasure to work at, in over 20 years of agency experience. The amount of times I or someone else was sniped at for 'not staying in your lane!' was simply astounding. They do NOT foster collaboration in the least. They certainly do NOT appreciate outside experience at all- it's like the insular lifers that have only ever been at AT know they are hacks and don't want to be exposed by anyone smarter and more experienced than them, so they smother anyone lower on the food chain from shining. This happens across all departments. I realized within a few months that I had made a horrible, horrible mistake leaving my old agency for this den of vipers- I stuck it out for a couple of years so that it wouldn't look like I was laid off or fired by these bozos. My managers completely misrepresented the role, and had me doing lower level work, I think in part to keep me from outshining them with my various stronger experiences- new employees should be there to help make them look good, but the higher ups would rather have the client's work suffer than look 'wrong'. Total inferiority complexes abound here. Never mind they continue to regurgitate the same, tired ideas from past clients that weren't used over and over again, until some poor sap buys their dreck. Higher level clients have peeled off, leaving 'start ups!' (read: low paying, shot in the dark places that won't sustain this money grubbing behemoth for very long). The amount of back biting, lying, bullying is worse than the meanest girls in junior high. 1000% do NOT recommend. Forget HR, they're only trying to prevent lawsuits to AT- save your documentation in personal email addresses in case you need the services of an employment lawyer.

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AbelsonTaylor Response
6y
Thank you for sharing this feedback. I'm disheartened to hear it, especially since we’ve been taking a number of actions over the past year to help us create a more collaborative environment where everyone feels empowered to do their best work. That was a driving force behind our decision to move to the Old Post Office, where we could start from the ground up and create an environment that naturally fosters creativity and teamwork. We now have dedicated spaces for collaboration, informal interaction, and focused individual work, and feedback from employees has been overwhelmingly positive. We are proud of our independence. It will continue to be one of our most defining strengths. I’m sorry to hear you had such a negative experience with your managers. That’s certainly not what we want for any of our people. I would welcome the chance to talk about this further and hear what we should do differently. Please email me personally at beth.carik@abelsontaylor.com so we can set up a time to talk. Thank you again for sharing, and I wish you all the best going forward. – Beth Carik, VP HR
2.0
Nov 5, 2018

Devastating Layoffs, High Turnover, and Living in the Past

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Snacks! Decent pay and great health insurance. An excellent wellness program.

Cons

Awful, and I mean AWFUL morale. There was a round of layoffs a few months ago where a large chunk of the company was let go, and they let go of some fantastic leaders. After that, it's been a mass exodus. People are leaving in droves, quite literally 2-3 people a week. Additionally, there's a "but that's the way it's always been done!" mentality that is making it hard to win new business. No sick time, no work from home. Everything has to come from PTO, and you don't get much of it, so if people get the flu, they come in anyway, vomit and all (which leads to more people becoming ill). Work/Life Balance is miserable, even for an agency. Additionally, unless you're a Project Coordinator, there's no real defined career path.

1.0
Oct 23, 2017

Project Management Department is a joke

Project manager
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

-free snacks -convenient location -medical/dental isn't bad -some campaigns are pretty cool -charity opportunities are available -The pay is decent, but as a PM you do two roles, Project Management and Client Finance Analyst. -There is Work/Life balance if you are lucky enough to be put on the right team.

Cons

-Work from home doesn't exist. -there is no culture at AT. People are pretty stuffy. -No sick time, you must use precious PTO if you are sick. -Project Management leadership is awful, which impacts the whole department, as well as agency as a whole. It's been over 2.5 years since it's been implemented, and it still hasn't found it's footing. I gotta say that I was really excited to join AT when I was hired. I came in optimistically, even after reading the bad reviews on here, but it was soon apparent management didn't know what they were doing. There is no collaboration between teams. I've never worked at a place where there is so much 'finger pointing' and scapegoating. It wasn't until after I quit and started somewhere new that I realized I would prepare for a meeting only to keep myself off DEFENSE so then if any problem would arise I could show it wasn't my fault, rather than work as a team to solve it. This was especially true with PM leadership, who would aggressively place blame for dropping the ball in some way only to retreat when enough proof was given to prove them wrong. Very aggressive atmosphere that gets exhausting. Project Managers are two roles smashed into one. You are obviously a PM and do PM functions, but you're also responsible for all the financial aspects, similar to a Client a Finance Analyst at other agencies. Accruals, deferrals, billing spreadsheets, estimates, and financial health are all you're responsibility. You essentially do two jobs and get paid for one. Resourcing is awful. There are times when some people, in the same department but on different teams, have absolutely nothing to do while others are working overtime and weekends. There is no 'help' that can be provided, and people are either left doing nothing or get burned out quickly. Upper management has no clue how to resource their teams.

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Glassdoor has 233 AbelsonTaylor reviews submitted anonymously by AbelsonTaylor employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if AbelsonTaylor is right for you.