Good Stepping Stone to a Real Agency - Anonymous employee Acento Advertising Employee Review

There is no succession planning. They are vulnerable to hiring poor management. Therefore, I highly recommend this place if you're trying to get your foot into the agency world. But once you get a couple of years of experience it's best to get out of dodge. Management is incompetent. The politics here is unbelievable. They play favorites and only those favored get promoted. There is little to no room for advancement as they'd rather buy their talent rather than hire from within. They hire unqualified people for Supervisor and Director roles which put an extra strain on support staff as they are treated as personal assistants. Lastly, they protected one particularly terrible employee (smoked weed in the parking lot, came to work high, lost tens of thousands of dollars, allegedly tried to assault another employee, watched movies during work hours rather than work, did not launch one client campaign on time) for several years. Transactional rather than transformational leadership in a nutshell. They do not offer a 360 review process rather it's a one-way form of communication with management speaking down to you. This should be an open dialogue that allows for discussion of career goals and possible advancement opportunities. It's also imperative that support staff be able to contribute to the performance review of upper management to get an accurate picture. Little to no training is offered. You must be proactive and seek it out yourself. They are likely to pay for it which is a pro, but this should be done outside of business hours as they will overwork you. Management will call, text, and email at all hours of the night or when staff is busy driving, in the studio, or on set with clients. This is rather unprofessional and quite dangerous. I know a few people that have had to pull over on the freeway, take out their laptops, and do some work mid-commute because of their bosses, myself included. They claim they want staff to wine and dine clients, but they are sticklers about reimbursements and do not invest in staff, only executives. They have not won a new client in years. Management continues to hire terrible clients who are rather abusive to the staff. The worst part is they will not side with their own staff, rather they are order takers who do anything to please clients. This makes it nearly impossible for the staff to trust management. One of their best employees was unceremoniously terminated which is unfortunate because this person had spent nearly a year warning upper management about a potential client loss. Management did not address this employee's several warnings. This employee turned out to be right as the client later put in a 90-days notice. Gossip is rampant. Management does a poor job of communicating with staff. The only way to know things is through hallway conversations. That's typically how word gets around about the status of a pitch. They are severely understaffed and it's difficult to know your job description. They have completely dismantled the Project Management team and have no trafficking staff. They have this ridiculous motto that is something like "talent over title." This is just a fancy way of saying everyone does everything. So essentially they will overwork you and not compensate you accordingly. The commute is a nightmare! Up to five hours roundtrip for some employees. Your job will be your life. Do not recommend if you have a family or pets. All five dysfunctions of a team are present at this agency: the absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results.