Sinking ship with nearly 65% laid off - Anonymous employee HackerAgency Employee Review

1.0
Oct 10, 2017
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- There's some good people, but most will be officially laid off by 12/4, including myself. - Decent office and location, but we'll see how much longer that will last.

Cons

- Unable to retain clients. This led to 3 sizeable layoffs in less than 2 years. The last being close to 65% where Hacker had to utilize the WARN Act. - They made a change in our PTO policy that was unfavorable for all employees WITHOUT TELLING ANYONE. They changed the accrual rate so laid off employees would ultimately accrue less PTO and sick time during their 60 day notice period. They also changed the policy so that no one would be paid out unused PTO. On top of that, they let us stumble onto the updates on our own. - Horribly negative and depressing atmosphere. Everyone on the short "stay" list is looking for another job to get out of here ASAP. I'm interested to see who will be left to do any work in a few months. - Leadership left us in the dark for 4 months on when and how lay offs would come after losing clients. We all had to come into work preparing for it to be our last day for that whole time period as we thought the lay offs would be as they were the last 2 times - where you were let go immediately with most getting chump change as severance. - The most loyal employees (10-20+ years of service) were practically punished this round of lay offs as they received $0 for the severance I'm sure they were expecting.

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HackerAgency Response
8y
Our ship isn't sinking, but the boat will be smaller. Saying goodbye to friends and colleagues is not easy. We are working through each of these situations uniquely and confidentially. We are not hiding nor sneaking. We are in the midst of a harsh reality of the advertising agency world. Because of the strength of our legacy of client retention, we have been fortunate to protect our staff from this kind of loss for over 20 years - this has made the changes even more challenging. Becoming an independent shop will give us more freedom as we chart a new course and provide great work for our clients.

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