Pros
- Free M&Ms and free food.
Cons
- C-suite spends more effort on marketing a false version of itself to be purchased by a larger agency than developing successful business practices or aiding its dying culture.
- Employees feel underappreciated, overworked, and afraid. There is no room for growth unless you can become a favorite of leadership. Nepotism is encouraged over achievements or expertise. Leadership has fired a considerable amount of people in the past year without warning and explanation.
- No HR: No clear expectations of appropriate conduct, and often there are double standards. Leadership will leave early, come in late, and binge drink with clients. C-Suite will ask invasive questions of staff about their personal lives and offer unsolicited opinions.
- Leadership bases all account strategy on gut feelings. Tactics and pitches are determined by what sounds cool. There are no strategists or researchers on staff. Leadership only uses data after-the-fact to give credence to intuition. Employees must navigate around the ignorance to deliver good work.
- The culture is mistrustful, fearful, and egotistic. Senior management often makes former employees the butt of jokes. They also speak poorly of clients, C-Suite, and each other in front of junior employees. Junior employees often bully each other because they feel like they can only trust themselves.
- Leadership often hires young people, underpay them, overwork them, and then lets them go.