You do not matter to this agency. Their effort to keep you around is out of fear of having to fill your position. They try to make you feel empowered, but the executives and chairman won't go as far as to look at you when you cross paths with them.
Morale is incredibly low. Within my department, there is not a single person who enjoys their job. Directors micromanage everything you do rather than trusting the supervisors and high ranking employees beneath them to manage that. You cannot even count how many times someone has an existential crisis or goes to the bathroom to cry here.
Turnover is incredibly high, and I see many employees in an endless cycle of having to start from ground zero as their superiors constantly leave. You're left to fend for yourself and teach yourself everything rather than receive proper training.
This company basically builds itself as being a stepping stone. Younger employees have no real opportunity here, and basically have to commit to an awful job for a few years to hope to get hired somewhere better.
Zimmerman does not pay you. Period. Do not come work here if you hope to sustain yourself anytime soon. Prepare yourself for a few years of debt and having to live in a moldy apartment, because you will not be able to afford anything else without a trust fund or without living with parents/family.
Work here feels like slave labor. People are coming in at 8am and leaving at 8pm on a daily basis with no overtime and a dismal paycheck. The founder works very hard to instill a work culture that is based on working as a machine 24/7. This looks great for the clients who want an agency working hard for them, but it drains the life out of each employee. At least at other agencies, the paycheck somewhat makes up for this type of lifestyle, but here it does not. What's most ironic is that the founder will always preach to pursue what makes you excited to get out of bed each day, but there is no hope or aspiration here. People that leave cannot get out fast enough, and people that are here hate their lives.
I'm realizing that the hiring process here is also more about filling vacancies rather than finding the right employees. People with no background in what they are doing are brought into jobs of all levels to do work that they were told was going to be completely different from what they are doing. Hopes come here to drown.
On top of all of this, the agency is quite mediocre. The results are never as good as you'd think, and all of our creative is awful. I'm embarrassed every time I see on of our ads out in public or on TV.
