Organic Reviews

They give zero raises or bonuses. Not even the standard 2% bump despite all the employees working their bums off and glowing reviews (in DET anyway) and bonuses from clients. We all know the bonuses all go to upper management. DET is not properly staffed. Most people wear multiple hats. There are 2 reasons for this - Organic is cheap and there is a basic ignorance from upper management on what it really takes to staff up properly. Top management in NYC is a boys' club despite a decent mix at the worker bee level. They treat DET with disrespect. Yet this is the office lining their pockets with bonuses. The CCO is a joke - the Organic website hasn't been updated in 2 years - because all of the decent work comes out of DET and he won't acknowledge it. He never returns emails or phone calls - and his personal website is him as baby Jesus! No work, no resume, nothing. The head account guy at the DET office has only worked at Organic and thus risen to his level of incompentancy. His business lingo and account guy jargon are enough to make your head spin - just try having a 5 min convo with him. You'll have no idea what the meeting was actually about. He has no idea how to make an office great and gives way too much power to the office manager (who vetos things like she's part of the executive team). The DET office is in a laughable work space. While NY and SF sit in posh buildings in their respective downtown locations - DET sits in a dilapidated office building in the burbs. It's well known talent won't even interview here because of the location - why would you when there are better shops in amazing custom spaces downtown? Delivery (aka project management) is king and have zero clue about the creative process. Organic puts too much weigh on "the grid" which delivery is in charge of yet it's never right. Thus people get bounced around to different projects like hot potatoes with too time spent getting new people up to speed.

The main reason for the decent life-work balance is the lack of new business and interesting projects. Probably 75% of the agency is stuck doing banners, emails and social for BBDO clients most of the time. The management puts up a strong front of 'success' but are more or less washed up execs that are only still managing because of their personal relationships with each other. Despite having a 'Chief Talent Officer' there are quite a few HR violations and shady dealings going around if you pay attention -- probably because the old boys' club is still thinks that they're living in the Mad Men glory days. The review process is frequently ignored by managers (and peers) and there's no real chance for a promotion unless you're friends with the right people. Organic may as well accept being absorbed into the BBDO digital arm since it's far from standing on its own as a good digital agency.