The micromanagement on junior staff if ridiculous. There is no trust, which means junior staff don’t learn to have initiative, or lead for themselves. I didn’t realise until I moved to another agency where I am given an incredible amount of trust, and really praised for my work. At Costello, you will be pulled up on the tiniest things you do in your work that don’t fit their style. Whilst working there I actually broke out in a rash on my face as the stress they were causing me (over very minor things) was ridiculous. The senior staff are actually themselves very junior, and have only a couple of years experience, and mostly have never worked at another agency. They sell this as a pro to you as they hire from the bottom up, but in reality it does not work, as the people doing the managing don’t really know how to do this properly. The way client work is dealt with is incredible stressful. They put so much pressure on staff to meet client deadlines, even when these are ridiculously tight, and hardly ever explain to clients why deadlines can’t be met. I’d assumed this was normal, coming fresh from uni, but working at another agency I now see that most clients are very understanding when something can’t be completed within their ambitious timelines. Whilst working there, I knew of several interns (who in theory, should never have to feel stressed), who felt overworked, micromanaged and severely underpaid considering the extra hours they had to work to meet unrealistic expectations of them. I think a lot of the staff do not realise that their work culture is actually very toxic, as they’ve not had the experience of life at other agencies, and therefore vote highly in company surveys.
