RPA is a toxic and unproductive agency in a nice pretty disguise. Big picture wise, RPA is dying because it consistently fails to sign new business. While big shiny holding company agencies have all sorts of efficiencies a prospecting client can tap into, RPA really offers nothing. It positions itself as a full-service agency but it's a jack of all trades and a master of none, mediocre all across the board and in every department. If you're a junior level employee reading this and RPA is the first agency you've ever worked at, TRUST ME, there is much better for you out there, no matter how much RPA preaches that it's better simply by virtue of it being independent.
The real issue here is the culture and leadership. The higher up you look at this agency, the more toxic, petty, and superficial all of the leaders are at this company. They love peddling the notion that all junior-level employees should bow down at their presence if they ever decide to set foot into the office, which was almost never. Meanwhile, the agency is mandating more in-office presence from junior to mid level employees, while simultaneously not having enough desk space for everyone.
Playing politics and kissing up to the leadership is really how you get ahead here, it really doesn't matter how good you are at your job if you aren't the teachers pet kissing butt to the directors and above, laughing at their cringe jokes. Politics matters at every job, but politics is really all that matters here at RPA. There's incompetent people that get promoted either because someone above them left, or a leader has taken a liking to them for their personality. Every time a VP or above decides to grace the juniors with their presence in the office, you'll see directors smooth out their shirts and tell everyone to show face and smile. These are all perfectly normal sentiments, but after a few years here, I realized that this matters so much to everyone at RPA because we all implicitly understand that politics is all that matters at RPA.
RPA recently laid off a metric-ton of great employees on zero notice. The higher up people who had been with RPA for years and you felt like were "untouchable," were laid off on a whim simply because of business losses or budget cuts to America Honda Motors. The leadership at this company loves withholding information on the state of the business and keeping things under wraps with the junior employees to not "rock the boat." Some of the lucky ones got out beforehand, but loyalty is not rewarded here at RPA. If there was a team shift? All the directors and above acted super shady for weeks before announcing it. If clients were unhappy or there's an impending budget cut? All the directors and above acted super shady for weeks before announcing it. If you put in your two weeks to your manager? All the directors and above acted super shady and had you keep it under wraps for as long as possible.
They always say that a company that loves to describe themselves as "people first" or "like a family" are all toxic, and they are right because companies like RPA exist.
