"When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time," Maya Angelou.
That should have been the advice I listened to when I started at the Ad Council. I had read Glassdoor reviews of the company about the internal politics and higher ups showing favoritism towards individuals regardless of experience, work ethic or proven internal and external success but I took it all with a grain of salt. I understood that there is a statistic that negative reviews are normally written by disgruntled employees, so I pushed pasted the negative and started my journey with this company.
However, my first few red flags should have been learning of the company's history with DEI, company's origin, and frankly looking at who sat in the C-suite. All of these things pointed to the clear facts that this company like most of America, was not designed for the growth and success of those that they deemed as "others." And by others, I do feel that it runs deeper than a conversation on race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.
The Ad Council is the equivalate of a boys club expect the boys in question are white, northeastern, mostly women, with similar backgrounds, upbringings, social statuses, and mindsets.
I soon realized this fact time as time again as I saw discrepancies in pay, titles, responsibilities, and opportunities among employees that clearly deserved more.
Basically if you did not fit into their cookie cutter mold or at least pretend to be a carbon copy of those around you (especially upper management) you were overlooked and stalled in your career growth until you were silently pushed out and then replaced a few months later by someone who better fit the mold.
The irony in all of this is I still believe the WORK that the Ad Council releases to the world is amazing, thoughtful and changing this country for the good. But, it is really hard to believe in the work when the reality of what is going on internally is soul-draining.
