People are great, Publicis management not so much - Senior Data Analyst Epsilon Employee Review

2.0
19 Aug 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Employees are offered a lot of latitude to explore different areas of interest and are given opportunities to choose which projects they work on. Most of the middle managers are super great and super knowledgeable. If you need information it's really easy to go to people in other departments to ask. Everyone is super approachable, even if you don't personally know the people in those departments they're still willing to answer your questions without hesitation.

Cons

Publicis management does not care about its employees. Epsilon was acquired by Publicis in July 2019 and company culture changed. 401k matching dropped from 5% with no vesting period to 4% with a 4 YEAR vesting period (1% per year). When the pandemic hit they announced that they were deferring raises for 6 months, including people who received promotions. To be fair the executives said they would take a 30% pay cut in "solidarity". After 6 months they deferred raises for an additional 2 months (even though management salaries went back up to 100%). In the same 8 months Epsilon was dominating. My division, Digital Advertising (Conversant), in particular was breaking impression-serving and revenue records in June which is typically our off season and a lot of people left so we were all doing more work for the same amount of pay as the year prior (technically less if you factor in inflation). Even before the pandemic most employees were being paid rates that were below industry standards so deferring raises was just a slap in the face, especially for those who were promoted. On top of everything else Publicis INCREASED their stock dividend from 1.15 EUR to 2 EUR, giving money to the shareholders who did nothing for the company instead of giving it to the people who worked hard to earn that money. Multiply that 2 EUR by the almost 248m shares of Publicis stock and it works out to over 495m EUR or nearly $600m USD when the dividend was issued on June 15th 2021. That's enough to give every Publicis employee over $7,500 or $10,000 if you only count the employees that stayed for all of 2020. Publicis will never give that money to the employees because Artur's (2m EUR!) bonus is based, no joke, on stock performance. Not company performance but how well the stock does. There is zero incentive for Publicis to pay a cent over the bare minimum.

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Epsilon Response
1y
Thank you for sharing your feedback. Your insights will be shared with leadership as we work to improve.

Explore other reviews about Epsilon

5.0
8 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Work culture, people that work here, and hybrid work.

Cons

Compensation and of course corporate politics.

1.0
26 Mar 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There are no "Pros". Company is getting driven into the ground, quickly. Unlimited FTO - sure nice if you EVER get to take time off

Cons

Employees have been strung along last year (2025), told there would be Merit Increases -- should have been in March 2025 (didn't happen); then we're told it would be in July 2025 (didn't happen); then we're told would have a meeting in Sept 2025; there was a All Hands call and we we're told ONLY Top Performers would get a BONUS, and no one else. Then, in Jan 2026, there was money Allocated for FULL Merit Increases for April 2026. NO Senior Mgnt Communication. It's the end of March 2026 and we are told from our Managers (NOT Senior Mgnt) that there would NOT be any Merit Increases, supposedly "tabled" until July 2026. Time will tell.

7
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Epsilon Response
3mo
Thank you for your feedback. Your insights will be shared with leadership as we work to improve.
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