Better off looking elsewhere - Anonymous employee Brighton Agency Employee Review

1. Poor and toxic leadership - leaders are meant to uplift and support, to encourage and mentor, and to set their team for success. There was none of that at Brighton. There was a pattern, especially among one of the “favorites”, where they would initially love-bomb new employees or give special treatment to individuals who received client praise or had done a great job on a project. Shower them with flowers, notes, special trips to get coffee, etc. Then unexpectedly they would switch gears and go completely cold, with no communication as to why. This is an incredibly toxic manipulation tactic, especially in the workplace. There was one instance where an employee was publicly reprimanded (I mean YELLED at) in front of the entire office. There were other instances where the silent treatment was given and no one knew why. Inconsistent behavior and treatment of employees instilled a “walking on eggshells” feeling and feeling of insecurity like you never know where you stand or why (this takes so much brain power away from doing the actual work!). 2. Bullying into working OT like it’s the expectation, leading to burnout - you are bullied into working 50-75+ hours a week, and when you’re firm about a healthy work-life balance, you are compared to the employees who don’t complain about 175% efficiency numbers, who claims she will “get the work done no matter what it costs” - essentially you’re not good enough or dedicated enough for not spending every waking hour working. There are absolutely no boundaries and leadership takes advantage of employees by shaming them in front of their coworkers and comparing them to the “star” employee. The CEO did this to an employee in front of her entire team. A month later she put in her 2 weeks. 3. Churn - this year, Brighton has lost at least 7 of their account team members, which is no coincidence. The entire agency turnover rate is just as bad. 4. Absolutely no diversity - this goes for race, culture, religion, etc. Current events aren’t discussed which stifles ideas and growth/expansion within our industry. 5. “Embrace change” was one of the core values, but abused - they used this “value” to excuse constant bad decisions or decisions they’d quickly undo because they weren’t thought through. Teams changed constantly, offices and desks changed constantly (the creative team moved from upstairs to downstairs then back upstairs and back downstairs eventually), and job titles and positions moved around without employees’ consent. For example, one employee was hired on for project management and then suddenly a need for an account service role came up and the team leads as well as the exec team just decided to uproot her and put her on that team without consulting her first or asking her if that’s a role she’d even like to pursue/aligned with her career goals. This is her career, not a high school group project. It’s unprofessional and simply inconsiderate on a human level to put someone in a position she didn’t interview for/want without her blessing. Supervisors were swapped around often. Teams changed abruptly and often. Normally that’s fine and to be expected in agency culture, but not this often or flippantly. 6. Unapproachable leadership and ineffective communication strategies - I hate to double down on leadership, but it’s many of our experiences…many were extremely unapproachable and hunkered down in their offices with headphones on and backs turned from the door. When approached for collaboration or questions, you were met with frustration. Unacceptable management - that is not being a leader (note* that this was not the experience with the creative team - they were very approachable). Everything seemed like an inconvenience. Although productive, this is no way to motivate or encourage employees. Happy employees do better work…The preferred communication approach for onboarding a team member onto a new project or campaign was an 8-paragraph email with to-dos on how to do the task but not why and what the purpose or goal of the task was. I felt like I was being treated like a 3rd grader, not a professional with 9 years of advertising/agency experience. Also, that email could have been a productive 5-minute download in person and saved everyone a lot of grief. This was often the chosen communication style. 7. Leadership's actions and words never align - claim to have a flexible work-from-home policy, but then punish those employees who need to work from home. Claim to lead with care for employees, but then don't care at all if a family emergency or personal situation arises. 8. CEO is never there. She has very little visibility with employees other than the Exec Leadership Team. For an agency this small, the CEO should be present, heard and seen every day. She should be cultivating relationships with all her employees to instill trust and cohesion. She should encourage out-of-the-box thinking and new ways of doing things, to evolve ahead of the industry, not behind it or at best alongside it. The CEO should be the guiding light for the agency’s values and what it stands for. In order to do that, you have to be at the office just as much as you expect your employees to be, if not more. Removing all the fluff talk and unbacked claims, I really have no idea what Brighton stands for, what makes them different, or what makes them a leading force.