Stagnant and performative - Anonymous employee MONO ADVERTISING Employee Review

Stagnant - they parade as if they’re on the cutting edge of advertising but the founders and everyone high up has an incredibly traditional approach to advertising. Creative reviews never brought ideas but rather TV scripts. Upper management and creative directors refused to become more progressive or create ideas that could live in the digital space. And when I would point this out, I heard a lot of whining or that I “didn’t understand.” Performative - founders and upper management say all the right things but never follow through. Frankly, it felt like gaslighting. They would create a diversity and inclusion group yet there is no strong female group creative directors. They would hire racially diverse interns but no one in positions of power. Also, when I would speak up on problems like this I was ignored and told to “have empathy” (???). Also, there is a whole group of employees who think their entire job is to have other people do the work while they give “feedback.” I created a presentation and while sharing it with a male coworker in another department he gave a lot of feedback which fundamentally changed my story. I said, “I think this is interesting but I’m having a hard time understanding how I would turn these thoughts into tangible slides and a story. Maybe I’m missing something. Can you help me understand?” And he said, “it’s your job to make the slides.” This was common and a mindset held by many of the heads of departments. It was a way to appear “collaborative” when in reality they just pushed the work onto other people. Oh, I also watched 3 female employees get complained about, put on performance plans, then fired within 3 months each. On the other hand, I saw 3 men get dozens more complaints and not get put on performance plans or fired for years.