-Bully culture on the rise at a struggling agency where many have been bullied out, fired, or fled. It starts at the top with several members of the leadership team and carries down to middle managers.
-One manager who appears to be at war with every other department has fired/driven out every last one of the employees who were in her department when she arrived less than a year ago. It's to the point that there’s no one left in her department who has any knowledge of the agency’s biggest clients (the ones who pay the bills).
-The same manager openly brags about how many people she’s fired and boasts that the guy who is literally sitting right next to her could be the next to go if he doesn’t shape up. Not the thing to be sharing with other departments, or in the breakroom.
-Some departments have to scramble and work overtime to pick up the slack for poor hiring/firing decisions agency wide.
-All-staff meetings are frequently a song and dance with the same members of the leadership team who appeared to back the new owner/president in front of the entire agency only moments earlier turning around and instructing their teams to disregard what was said and to pad their hours, etc.
-Clients who are wise to the agency’s thrashing are rightfully unhappy with plummeting quality of deliverables and budgets that are quickly burned through due to agency thrash and endless meetings billed to the client. Many of those meetings are unnecessarily lengthy and more about posturing within the agency than getting client work done.
-The flood of positive reviews that were posted in June were fake, and assigned to be written by the PR/social media team. It’s no secret since we’re in an open office and you can hear everything.
If you had asked me a few years ago I would have recommended CMD. Sadly, today I don’t even recommend it for the short term and most who remain already have one foot out the door.
