Good People, Top-Heavy, Creative Work - Designer Wolff Olins Employee Review

Wonderful people ambitious for the work and the future of the industry

Important to focus on work life balance amidst heavy seasons

If you're lucky, you'll work with teams who respect each other and put out world-class work. Most people genuinely care about each other and truly operate as a team. Working for well-established agency allows for instill trust from the clients who want to work with us. The Wolff Olins name still has weight to it and it will open doors for staff when they decide to leave. Free lunch twice a week in addition to fresh bagels every morning (provided by OMC).

Management, or what's left of it, is a complete mess. Inconsistent communication, endlessly changing processes and protocols formed by being reactive (instead of proactive) thus not making sense or being useful. There are a few office gossips who will make sure that news is spread before anyone even knew it was news. Some of those people sit in higher positions. You really need to watch what you're saying as you can almost always be assured it'll be shared widely. Pressure to perform but no incentives (bonuses, raises, or promotions) as the company refuses to understand how to win against their competitors. Resulted in multiple rounds of layoffs with nearly half of the headcount from a year ago remaining. Yet somehow everyone on the operations team still stands. What's left to operate? Feels very stubborn in thinking that we're always the best fit for clients, often showing up as cocky in a pitch. Inability to adapt to the current market. Incredibly top-heavy, making upward growth nearly impossible and making the few mid-level team members constantly on the hook for all of the work. Lack of interest to hire more junior and mid-level talent as nobody "has time" to manage or mentor. Lastly, Omnicom is such a stain on the organization. The hammer comes down and suddenly we are confined to Teams, confined to stringent in-office policies, confined to not being able to use tools because OMC doesn't approve them. Wolff Olins will never be the "best" or "coolest" agency because nobody wants to deal with the bureaucracy. Lastly, where's the DEI? Management and nearly all team leads are white. You cannot tote being diverse if your only diverse staff are confined to the same team or job seniority. Morale is so low after a year of layoffs, distrust, change backed by no rationale, and lack of new work. Everyone is looking for jobs, and if they're not, they really should be. The pro's do not outweigh the con's here.