R/GA reviews

Nepotism (marriage to an executive will get you far in this company and no one seems to think that's weird. that's totally weird, right?) Inadequate managers desperate to CYA, who will throw their employees to the wolves if profitability numbers dip but still think they're the bees knees Political, pigeonholing, gossipy clique-ish culture seems to be encouraged. If you don't fit in, you're done for Poor location just off Times Square and behind the Port Authority means lots of garbage/barf, homeless, drunks passed out on the pavement, transients and street-people The actual offices are dismal, with flies, bad lighting, loud noise/talking, no privacy, forty people eating forty lunches with eighty kinds of smells, ancient bathrooms, bad H VAC. There is a pretty gated courtyard in front of 350 and upstairs but: flies Bob's art collection. Kafkaesque interview process pays off with incredible turn-over (i.e. You interview with twelve people over three months, start job, recognize no one you interviewed with bc they all left, and your new manager hates you bc they didn't get to pick you. Start job search again.) No mentoring, no help, no support, no loyalty Meeting overload Poor work-life balance with emails 24/7 Clients run roughshod over the agency while trying to do everything on the cheap No rhyme or reason - someone with a bad attitude who does bad work will get transferred to another group while someone with a good attitude, and a real desire to do work is cut to preserve profits, happens again and again. So weird. Meanwhile if you date or marry a "star" you can coast on their coattails to senior level roles. Basically it seems like there are just some people who have been identified as being special and can do whatever they want/say whatever they want, while others are given no support and edged out. Bottom line - do your research, take the job, save a pile of money, make it for a couple of years and then go someplace where they treat you like a human being instead of a decimal point on a financials spreadsheet.

Really poor leadership. Boy's club culture where if you don't fit a certain mold or aren't in with the leadership team you won't be put on good projects. Period. Conformist culture. Total lack of diversity. The office seems unable to retain any female creative leads or people of color. It's gross. In my time there it would be very rare to see someone with a new perspective able to meaningfully contribute to creative work. This conformity of ideas is probably why they've been unable to attract any new clients.