Toxic leadership, employee burnout, zero work-life balance. - Anonymous employee Agency Creative Employee Review

Oh boy, where do I start? The building Not the nicest building for a "Top Rated" ad agency in Dallas. It doesn't really cultivate the creative vibe, but it does resemble a prison. Small cells for solitary confinement, doors that require access cards, a rap sheet where you're required to document where you're going and how long you'll be gone every time leave (even for lunch), and a monitor that patrols the halls every few hours to make sure everyone is in their cell working. Management The number one reason you should run from this company is management! The CEO is controlling (more on that later), the President has no agency experience, and they treat employees like work horses. They expect a lot from the team, but do very little to set them up for success. They come in late, take vacation last minute, make up rules, change deadlines, cut timelines, short hours in proposals, and bow to the client's every need without consulting the people that are actually working on the projects. They basically expect you to work from 8:30am-11:00pm every day. Employees regularly work nights and weekends, and miss plans with friends and family. It's a sweat shop. They have created a culture where being overworked is expected and even celebrated. If employees leave on time or take lunch, they must not have enough work to do. The agency moto is "I own it". The question is who owns it? The answer is everyone, minus leadership. Management makes every decision, but they take no ownership when a project fails. Rest assure if a mistake is made, you alone will be at fault 100% of the time. I've seen people thrown under the bus and get ripped apart for something they didn't know about, and had nothing to do with. I've also seen them fire smart, good employees, without warning after giving them an impossible task list and no direction. Management will blame the turnover (and there has been a lot) on employee performance, "bad fits", and everything under the sun, but the simple fact is, they do not value their employees. They take young professionals, promise to give you a ton of experience, offer a low salary, and work you to the bone. You will get no help, and you will be disrespected, especially if you're a woman. This is a SMALL agency. Don't be fooled by the website, they only have 12 people on staff. The other faces are contractors, they do not work for Agency Creative. One of the employees currently listed on the site doesn't even work there anymore! Out of the 12, 5 of those people are in management. That means just 7 people are doing the work a team of 20 should be doing. In one year they went through 3 Creative Directors, fired 9 people, and 5 left. Most of those vacancies have not been filled, they just demand more and more from their current employees. Working here is like watching Game of Thrones, you never know who will get let go next. Don't get too attached to the characters you work with, they might get Red Wedding'd at the end of the next pay cycle. Seriously, there's a pattern. The culture The entire agency is run on fear. Fear that you could lose your job (they always happen at the end of a pay cycle) and fear of the CEO's wrath. He does not trust his employees and micromanages every project in every department of the agency. He is obsessed with making the agency seem like a large company and will do anything to please a client. I seriously don't know how they keep the lights on. The budgets are so tight and the team always ends up going over on hours, so they never make a profit. Almost all clients leave for one reason or another. This company is on a downward path, if you're considering a job here, run. If you work here, run. All the positive reviews on here are fake, they are written by management to make them look good. Believe me, it's not.