mc Group reviews about "colleague"

Some days might be overwhelmed and stressful.

The motivation for writing this: I wanted to write this feedback long ago but I was a bit lost in miscellaneous feelings. I decided to wait first how I got my reference letter back (I gave myself a deadline of 6 months) that I wrote for myself and the CEO corrected it. I handled it in in June 2018 and never seen it (this is now January 2019) - despite of various contacts to the HR department at mc. In Germany, you need to collect them and mine is somewhere in the paper mountains and paper cliffs in the CEO his office. Yes, mcGroup is a paper-based company where such development as a tablet or laptop is not given. People get a massive overload due to a world - like 20 years ago. Yes, mcGroup is behind in technology - but a bit later about that. Why I stayed longer than a recruiter in general? Because I belong to those few people in the world who understand the CEO his humour and I have very strict parents. People who got everything in life and were always supported will fall out from mc quite in a month. Therefore, if you are coming from a family that had to fight to survive (just think about jobs like waiter and co.) you have more chance to stay in and build an amazing career. the CEO does not hire losers. Why do I warn everyone? Because even interns and trainees do report to the CEO personally, even though there are Account Managers and Account Directors in their path, too. This is an agency, or actually a group of agencies in one house. There are tenders, you/your team apply, you win or lose it. Also, there are base-clients are they are satisfied with mc. But what stands in the background? The projects: The projects for the consultants are various and very interesting. Many of them are moving in international politics and I can assure you - university studies give you only the basics - you learn more at mc. But you must want that. And also you must say no to private life because that stops existing. What mc does well are the project based teams that makes working move forward - notwithstanding the CEO who has never left the world of the early nineties. My beginning: As I started, in December 2017, I had a F2F interview with the CEO on a Sunday. Since Saturday is a party night, I was still tired but somewhat in a party mood. I was naive and thought, this is the only Sunday he leads final interviews, must be because it is December and everyone in the great world has a higher pressure on their shoulders. No, the fact is, there are always Sunday-interviews that makes the job of a recruiter harder. Luckily, recruiters do not have to attend on Sundays, they make a preselection and the bests meet the CEO. How does a day look like? There is flexi-time at mc, you arrive between 8 and 9.30 in the morning, chip your time with a badge and work. Everyone gets 1h lunch break (no appellate - you must take your lunchtime otherwise it is lost time). Around lunch break, the CEO arrives in the office and his secretary (ideally 4 people) start to organize the meetings. The CEO is someone who values very long meetings they repeat each other. These meetings are never well organized. The secretary tries everything to let finish the previous meeting that the next team can go in - but quite often you must wait in the queue even more than an hour. If you are lucky, you are in in 30-45 minutes. What do you do during waiting? Nothing, since no laptop or tablet is given - you cannot work. It is lost time. What happens at the meeting? You must be well prepared and have printed out everything. If it is 600 pages of data and you made a mistake - you must print it out again and again and go back to the meeting, wait for your calling, being sent back, etc.. The recruiters had to print out the applicants (this is high number, there were sometimes kilograms of applicants - literally. Also after a while we had to print out only the matching candidates-that felt better.) (...) That picture in media that mc is planting trees and is environmental friendly? That is a lie. At least they could plant back that they used for paper - unnecessarily. It is not predictable which team gets to have the very last meeting. In HR we usually finished between 8pm and 9pm. I had to work only twice longer than midnight. That was slash. I felt badass that I could do that. But I had, unfortunately, fewer friends and in general, your colleagues will be your friends. What do you get for your overtime? You track it. You must work at least 9 hours a day (plus a lunch break) that equals 10 hours being-at-the-workplace. What you work after that you will get as extra-time. HR has a software that counts it and you can get it as extra holidays. That is a good thing but still the timeframe for that is a week - and if you worked less the next day you have lost your gained over time. Even if it was 8 hours. The team/s: The teams are amazing. Most of the colleagues are interns/trainees/juniors (yes, with 2 years of experience you can still be an intern, max. a junior). People are mostly the Y-generation and they understand each very well. Therefore you will get more energy from your colleagues. You will never be down permanently because your colleagues will cheer you up. mc being wrong about: - paperwork - long meetings - not investing in technology (everyone should get a tablet that they can correct a mistake immediately and should not repeat the meeting unnecessarily) - putting an intern/trainee recruiter in her first months to do secretary work - putting only interns/trainees/azubi’s to the toughest jobs - making sensitive jokes (for me not a big deal but in this is a communication-agency, come-on!) mc being right about: - cafeteria/canteen in the main building - garden with sofas and chairs - nice location - team and project-based work The CEO being right or wrong about: - his (most) employees really hate him (the reason for that is that he tells in absence and presence of certain people really bad things about themselves) - he trusts in some people he should not - he does not trust in people he should - it happens very rarely that he says a thank you for your hard work What I have learned: - endurance - stress-resistance - enforcement-capability - wide(r) knowledge about how politics really work - the art of mostly correct speculation All in one: I have almost only worked in agencies in the last 6 years, even I switched from mc to another agency. But mc is the toughest. I am tough enough but at my age, I wish to have family and friends that is clearly not possible at mc. But as I learned to guess correctly (oh, you will learn lots of skills at mc) - if you wish to have a career in political PR or politics, you will always have overtime - eventually lose your family and at the and you die as a martyr. Or not. (Please note that I left mc over half a year ago - but I assume that the situation is pretty much the same.)

In some situations, we might experience pressure.

overtime hours is very recuurent

Non existing work-life balance Exploiting employees fiscally and spiritual

Getting lazy for spending long working hours sitting in front of the computer, working on projects. This lifestyle can be harmful to my health.

Bad work life balance, high turnover.

- Poor time management, most meetings will start late - Salary could be better - More appreciation to the employees