This Isn't a Company - it's a C-Suite Playing Pretend
Pros
You will meet cool people (not anyone in upper management) with who you will share your PTSD with.
Cons
I was one of the (many) people who disregarded the Glassdoor reviews – it was the biggest mistake of my professional career. I have never encountered a company (either a client or an agency) that was as incompetent and dismally unaware of their shortcomings as Evoke. This is not a stepping-stone for your career, you will not get ahead, and you will only learn how to balance psychosis and a total lack of work and life boundaries. At one point, over 80 employees cycled through here in less than four years… for a company that staffs maybe 20-30 people, full-time. I lasted six months and was looking for a new job by week two. Your weekends, nights, and holidays no longer matter. I was working 80 hours a week within just a week of starting my position. This was not my first rodeo and I’m aware of the taxes of the profession at times, but this was completely chaotic – it’s not even for good reason, like working on an exciting project, it’s a never-ending slough of terrible administrative work created by an incompetent C-suite. The pay discrepancies are gross. Some people are making next to nothing, while others are disgustingly overpaid. The C-suite likes to “promote” people by bumping up their title and responsibility, but not increasing their salary. There is a gross idealization that the C-suite and upper management seem to think they’re all Kelly Cutrone’s and Barbara Corcoran’s of the world… you’re barely surviving at an agency in Madison, WI. I witnessed some of the most egregious moral and ethical failings I’ve ever seen at a company during my time with Evoke. It made me feel sick – I cried constantly and was driven to illness because of the stress of, what I felt, was complacency in the face of gross moral failings. Upper management would rather spend the agency’s time doing PR for themselves then their clients (but don’t be fooled, you’ll still have to do your client work – just likely after hours). Literally… this is not a business. There is such terrible management of clients and of the company. Upper management will do anything to secure a new client contract (including overpromising and then turning around to count their bonuses while the younger staff struggle under yet again more work). I’ve never witnessed a company that will slander employees by name to their client’s face. The only reason that this company is still afloat is through manipulation of personal relationships for clients and the fact that it exists in a small market. Don’t be fooled – their LA and Chicago offices are really just a handful of employees each, who moved from Madison and took their Evoke job with them. They’d never really survive in an actual market that isn’t the size of Madison (regardless of where their clients are based). They know that their turnover is disgusting – so they’ll say anything to you in the job interview to get you to take the job. I didn’t know a single person at the company (including myself) who wasn’t promised a job completely different in the interview, and once in the job, realized that it was completely different than what was promised. There's a reason that they don't have a real HR department. When you quit, all your ex-coworkers will get a fake promotion (title, not pay) so they don’t lose half of their staff at a time and can stop the hemorrhage while they look for their next sucker. Cute social graphics. Zero real strategy. Manipulative practices. This isn’t a company – it’s an upper management and executive team who, somehow, have the money to play agency in a small market while ruining the lives of their staff.
