Work & Co reviews

Competitive agency culture -with all the baggage that you can imagine the word “Agency” to mean. Political, unfair and full of landmines... lots of white dudes in the partner ranks... and mostly white employees

I have hesitated leaving a review, but for the benefit of new (and possibly more junior) employees, I think it's necessary to give a fair warning. I absolutely agree with many of the comments here that have suggested it is a psychologically unsafe environment. There's a weird bullying culture that exists and many in senior leadership look for ways to break you down rather than build you up. Your ideas won't be encouraged and your advancement won't be supported unless you fall in line and shut up. It is a very sheep in wolf's clothing type of environment. Employees of color: do not be fooled by the agency's participation in diversity and equity initiatives -- it is a facade. At the Partner level, there's little to no diversity at all and there's no support for more junior members of color (they create ERGs, but it's really just a source of information and marketing for them). They have very little interest in changing the status quo, though they'll pretend they do. There's a stench of elitism and an undercurrent of prejudice that makes it really uncomfortable to work here. Your success largely depends on who you are Partnered with from leadership, your manager (to a lesser degree--some managers have more influence than others) , and your mentor. At times, these roles can be the same person, which is not only a total conflict of interest, but further isolates you and makes it difficult to raise issues at the company. I have witnessed how this has negatively impacted many employees at the company and the progression of their career. Career pathing is a joke -- do not expect them to establish criteria for promotion or for the decision to be in any way related to your work. Their decision will largely rest on whether they like you and how willing you are to bully others. In terms of the work, I agree with other comments that have indicated the work is overly serious and not very fun or collaborative. It is a very serious environment where many employees are actually afraid to speak up for themselves and their work. Partners have been told they are brilliant, so their ideas lead and take priority over any real strategic design efforts. I can't tell you how many times I've witnessed Partners diminish a strategist's or designer's ideas, only to propose and enforce their own vision. A lot of ego. The internal feedback is often arbitrary, coming down to personal taste and preference, rather than anything based in real research.