5WPR Reviews

3.2

65% would recommend to a friend

(342 total reviews)
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Matt Caiola

84% approve of CEO

63% positive business outlook

5WPR has an employee rating of 3.2 out of 5 stars, based on 342 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The 5WPR employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Media and communication industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

342 reviews
1.0
6 Apr 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Decent raises and promotions if you work hard. Learn a lot quickly in regard to media relations. A few laid back people but they don't stay very long.

Cons

long hours, you get grilled if you leave before 6:30 pm. Besides pitching, what do you do? Learned nothing else. Nasty supervisors (depending on your team) Nothing is ever good enough. If you place your client in a top media outlet, within minutes you're getting grilled to produce the next big thing. Shallow people.

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5WPR Response
10y
Thank you for taking the time to review 5W. While we are glad to hear that you are happy with our compensation and promotion process, and that you are learning on the job, I wanted to address some of your concerns since we never like to hear that someone is not happy with certain aspects of their job. We pride ourselves on communicating the importance of work-life balance across the agency. While there are always times when clients’ needs will require working additional hours, we want this to be the exception rather than the norm. We also work very hard to promote a respectful collaborative culture and if you feel otherwise please bring this up to HR so that we can be sure to properly address the matter. We value all feedback received and so that we can continue to improve and grow as an agency. Your response has been shared with leadership.
1.0
5 Feb 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There aren't any really. There are a few smart and decent people who work here, but this is one of the most unprofessional environments you can imagine. Unethical behavior is rewarded, backstabbing is expected and trust is not known amongst those fighting their way to stay employed amongst this harsh and volatile work place. You can get paid well if you are in the beginning of your career provided you take the abuse from the CEO and all other supervisors.

Cons

Everyone is expected to bring in new business - especially if you are a senior PR professional. The CEO is a very mean and unfair person with a penchant for the irrational. He will berate you via email and then fire you for no other reason than he doesn't like your trying to defend yourself from unfair criticism. He is aggressive and imbalanced. All you have to do is Google him to see the tons of bad press he has gotten through the years, though I know for a fact he has hired SEO firms to bury it - and from what I see from these totally false reviews of him and the firm, I guess it is working. There is an almost Lord of the Flies atmosphere around that office as all of the senior management are trying to protect their own jobs, they have little care for their fledglings or colleagues. Long unreasonable hours are expected. And, unethical business practices are the norm. The CEO will accept any client for any type of fee just to get them in the door, even if they are not right fit for practice. It is a terrible place to work. Period.

1.0
8 Jul 2015

Avoid at all costs

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Salary is competitive and they will throw money at you in a desperate attempt to keep you but it's NOT worth it. If you're a greedy person, have zero self respect and want to tarnish your rep within the industry, you'll do well at this company.

Cons

- I almost ruined my career by staying here for the short 3 months I was there - I was brought on to work on a "growing" fashion team and lied to about what clients they actually have..none of the clients actually existed once I finally started - The pitching method of throwing spaghetti at a wall to see what sticks, is not the way to be a successful publicist and editors will think you are a complete joke - Unfortunately the "fashion" clients are such a joke that results were minimal which resulted in the CEO and senior staff becoming monsters and asking you to get x amount of placements to add to the pathetic monthly reports in as little as 30 mins sometimes - beware of employees who have been with the company over a year. They have drank so much of the koolaide that they will do anything it takes to get ahead. They are the greedy people I speak of in the "Pros" section above - The worst company culture I've ever experienced - Upper management would often spread gossip to pin employees against one another for their own amusement

Viewing 1 - 3 of 342 Reviews

Glassdoor has 386 5WPR reviews submitted anonymously by 5WPR employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if 5WPR is right for you.