Pros
Only great if you are an SVP and above in APAC, and if you want to work on the Google acount. There is only one client, so after a few rotations, you may end up moving into the client side. We come in at 10AM and finish work at 5PM, most of us take 1.5-2 hour lunches and disappear for multiple coffee and cigarette breaks. Only a handful of us actually perform any overtime activities. It's great because we can key in our own hours on this 10KFT and make it look like we are overworked and close to burnt out so we can keep asking for new headcount. We can come into the office in shorts and flipflops and some girls wear hot shorts and low cut tops, I feel like it's summer holidays all year around. There is no dress code, so you can pretty much wear whatever you want and come in whatever you want. It's like a vacation time.
Cons
This place is a mess. There is no CEO since Kyoko moved to America. We are run by the opinions of 5 people, 80% of them come from South Asia. Decisions made are mostly based out of poorly formed assumptions of what we Essentials want or need. We want transparency, and you should be transparent with us all the time. Not only about the bad, but definitely about the good. Why should promotions in Q1 be kept quiet? Why do you shy the good ones away from recognition? Why are you not transparent about promotions being delayed over and over again? Some of us could have been promoted by now, but it's too late because of covid? Leadership is always scared about being looked at as the bad guy, there's nothing wrong in firing people. There's something wrong if you don't do it the right way, with compassion. When redundancies were made, did you ask if these people who were made redundant wanted to be put in touch with people you know who could be connected? In this climate, we need to stay more closely united, and all we understood was, "people were fired, we want to keep this private for them." Did they ask to be boxed in a corner? You think of yourself as a tech company - but tech companies like Airbnb (supposedly our client globally) had published (only with consent) the talent whom wanted to be registered. This is THE GOLDEN STANDARD of how we should treat our people - we should recognise them for all their work and help them find jobs through our WPP network and also our very own network. The quarterly performance checkpoints are an overkill = it actually demotivates people and does not excites them. The business keeps talking about wanting to be diverse, but they keep promoting Essentials who have not worked for many other companies or who are set in their own ways. The level of racisim we have been exposed to by our Global counterparts are not to be taken lightly. The only person in the Global Executive Leadership team who is Asian is our Global CEO Kyoko. How is this even acceptable? References to us being the "Wild Wild West," so "1950s", and some of the leaders being "cowboys" by a few of Global leaders is not what a being a global community all about. This is not normal, how can you continue to employ people who are not demonstrating the leadership principles? Sometimes I am even exposed to, "people should be grateful I am giving them my time." by Global Leaders. If your team is seen as a burden, why do you even bother being a leader? Not enough new business, most agencies are pitching 2-3 times a week at least. Essence only 1-2 a month at best.