Vitro Agency Reviews

First of all, I'd like to thank Glassdoor for giving us the opportunity to speak out against the true nature of this place. It used to be that employers like John Vitro could get away with their abusive behavior. Not anymore. Here's the deal. John knows that the agency has no competition in San Diego and he uses it to his advantage. When he interviews you, he'll be very charming. But as soon as you move to San Diego he knows you're trapped and the verbal and emotional abuse will begin. If you accept a job here, expect nasty emails, finger-pointing, rumor-mongering, back-stabbing, yelling and non-stop insults. No matter how hard you try, no matter how good your work is, no matter how happy your clients are, John will make you feel completely worthless. The turnover rate in the creative department is higher than any place I've ever been. The only creatives that remain are people who have been so beaten down by John, they've lost their self esteem. They are like battered women who stay with their abusive husbands. It's truly horrible how John treats people. But he owns the agency, so he does whatever he pleases.

Rather than start a rant, I'll simply list off actual facts and events witnessed while working here: - Although they claim that producing great work is the end-all be-all, most creatives only produced microsites, brochures or banners. - Although late night and weekend work is constantly expected, not once was food or drink provided nor can you ever expense cabs - Vitro literally would work an employee until he had heart problems and had to go to the hospital (multiple times!) and even after he got back from the hospital, his workload remained the same. - When an employee asked for his contractual bonys after being let go, they paid him thousands of dollars in pennies! - When a client asked for a female creative, Vitro hired one, moved her across the country and after the client was appeased 6 months later, they fired the poor woman. - They would lay people off and give them ZERO severance because by California state law, they "didn't have to." - Every 6 weeks you go offsite for a meeting where they tell you what you're doing wrong as a creative department. - They don't even have a coke machine. - There is a constant, lingering nervousness in the air due to the fact that John Vitro will fire someone strictly due to his whimsy that day. - To keep account people from leaving, they are constantly promoting, creating employees that don't have enough experience for their new position. - They fired someone during a pitch, then proceeded to win the pitch with that person's idea - There isn't one room where creatives can go to work in silence - Creative Directors don't make ideas better, they simply kill them. The process repeats itself until the night before the assignment is due.