Change WAS a good thing - Anonymous employee Betty Employee Review

I have worked at multiple creative agencies over the years and have never had such a negative and disrespectful experience working with a group of creatives than I have at Periscope. Creative is king (which is great, that fuels the business) but there is no respect for coworkers outside of the creative department and the job they have to do after the creative product is complete, which typically means late nights and weekends for everyone. It’s so disappointing because the cross-department relationships and approach to the work has the potential to be so much better. This approach and mentality is something that comes directly from the top down and the message was sent loud and clear that every department needs to support the creative in any and every way possible. There is no female creative leadership at the Group Creative Director level which is a huge miss. If you don’t have the talent in the building, go find it, it would speak volumes to every employee and even the clients – as it is so clear that you have kept the creative leadership male dominated, creating the “good ole boys club” culture. GCD's are praised continually praised for walking the halls and pushing creatives to dig deeper, think bigger, but really they're just there to eat your lunch and not do any of the work that they should be working on. Complete teams are turning over and little is done to the leadership of these teams. I had the highest of hopes when the new CEO came on board, but I have been continually disappointed. She's not a fan of confrontation, and it isn’t her strong suit to deal with internal struggles. Her weekly emails to all employees were great in the beginning because it helped the employees really feel like she was going to be a transparent leader, but those weekly emails quickly became filled with what the weather was for the week and news articles that she finds interesting. You can do better! Periscope touts transparency but the executive team really struggles with this. During their quarterly agency meetings they have a panel where the executive team answers employee’s questions, but their answers never seem authentic and they never really address the root of the question, it’s all fluff. So what’s the point of the panel if you can’t give transparent answers? They don't like questions submitted anonymously so employees have to ask the questions directly to the executive team, but if you’re asking them to get up in front of the whole company and executive team you owe them real answers. Career development and ongoing training are not something that leadership values, but is key to happy employees. This isn’t a new mentality – and isn’t a “millennial” thing. It’s proven that employers who encourage professional development and training have high retention rates, higher performing employees, prepares employees for promotions and new responsibilities, increases employee satisfaction, increases employer’s reputation, helps leadership plan staffing structures and career paths. Industry experts have reported on the importance of investing in employee development for year. It's time to make the investment.