Gone with the wind are the golden days
Pros
A bunch of talented and good people with great minds and good hearts, regular socialising events throughout the year, reasonably good medical insurance, fair number of leave days, somewhat decent try at preserving work-life balance for some, but mostly functional benefits to make one forget about the low pay and accumulating malfunctions...
Cons
Where to even begin? The good old days at Design Bridge (or should we say "Design Bridge AND PARTNERS") feel like a distant memory now. It used to be a great place to work, where creativity flowed like water, talent was through the roof, and somehow, we all managed to have fun while getting the job done. But then, the acquisition by WPP and the merger with superunion happened, and it couldn't have been done worse even if they tried. It feels like the folks at the top just aren’t listening... The original founders on both sides have all cashed in and mostly either bailed or were pushed out. Now, it seems like the higher-ups are just coasting, out of touch in their own little world, while the rest of us watch as the agency gets swallowed up by the WPP blackhole—all in the name of profit. We’re stuck in this awkward middle ground, with around 1000 people worldwide: too small to matter in the group but too big to be cool. A year into this merger, and it's the same old leadership, sticking to the same old script, with teams not working together. The one thing that remains consistent is the obsession with crunching numbers over creativity. The work delivered is honestly good but not stellar vs. competition. They expect clients to just keep signing checks, totally missing the point of having a mix of clients—some that keep the lights on and others that boost our rep. Then there’s the whole deal with pay and moving up in the company. Pay doesn’t stack up against our competitors. Training is inexistent or poor. Climbing the ladder seems to depend on being in the right clique or getting on the good side of senior management. Bonuses (all discretionary as they refuse to formalise them in contracts) are so-called based on performance grades... established on a suite of criteria that are not discussed but just cascaded to employees. Year-on-year increments have been removed, arguably because "in order to provide them, the company needed to raise its target yoy by 10%, which was putting unnecessary pressure on teams"... as if there's no pressure now and we live in a world where inflation is 0%... So now increments are bound to promotion (read above...) It's been a rollercoaster, to say the least, and not the fun kind. Makes one wonders where it's headed from here.