GTB Reviews

I drafted this months ago when Summer Fridays were stripped away from us and never had the time to actually post it. Now with the Company going from bad to worse I felt the timing was important. We are now an ad agency operating without a Chief Creative Director or a HR Director. Not a work environment that tells us our future is bright and we are secure in our jobs. I have lost all pride and enthusiasm I once felt being an employee here. “I have worked with J. Walter Thomson, Team Detroit and GTB collectively for 20 years. I have always said I love my job and I love my company but with the current direction the Company is taking I am no longer having a love affair with the Company. I had always felt we were in good hands and being steered in the right direction up until now. There is a management movement in play that is trying to change the culture of our company and it’s not for the better. The Company’s handling and execution of eliminating Summer Fridays was poorly executed on so many levels and has created the lowest employee morale I have seen since working here. Why would a Company want to take away a benefit that has been given to employees for nine-years that is a huge morale booster, improves the quality of employee’s life work balance and is used as a recruiting tool? HR used Summer Fridays when negotiating vacation time with potential new hires. Many people accepted a lesser amount of vacation days because they were told they would be getting seven Summer Fridays. We have a HR team that is non-responsive so anyone circling back to them to address this issue is getting the normal “no response.” When I told a friend that I lost my Summer Fridays their response was, “now you are just like everyone else.” Exactly! It was a benefit that made us special and one that indirectly made up for the low salaries and lack of pay increases. It is hard for me to comprehend Management wanting to take away something that makes employees “happy” and doesn’t cost them anything. They left people hanging with the announcement and created an atmosphere rampant with rumors. It was an insult to my intelligence to say it was due to parking lot matrix (parking lot not full @ 9:00am sharp) and that the client didn’t like it. When Management looked out the window at 9:00am and did not see a full parking lot did they also note all the people who start work before they even walk in the door, who work through their lunch hours, who are here long after 5:00pm, who travel on holidays and weekends, and who take work home with them. How do you work all that into the parking lot matrix? We had a Town Hall in May 2016 and were told by the CEO that we are the premier agency in all of the world and how great Ford was doing. He actually told us he loved us. Rah Rah Rah. Our reward…elimination of Summer Fridays.

1) Silos, silos, silos: For a company that prides itself on having "no silos", GTB has got more than the Midwest put together. Over the past year - I have seen Team Detroit morph from an open, collaborative space where everyone from the top down was working for the betterment of Ford with a sense of enthusiasm, optimism and purpose and a common goal. As GTB, it's become secretive, paranoid and a sense of disorganization as to where we need to be headed and how we need to do it. Rumors fly rampant - Mid-managers have their hands tied from upper management (more on that in a bit). There are new processes that are going to lead us into the future - but no one seems to know what they are, letting the people doing the actual work to power through it and keep delivering to the same level of excellence as before to our clients. 2) Upper Management - they don't care about you, and it shows! (when you actually see them). You'll have a yearly meeting where you hear about what a crown jewel you are in the crown of WPP - and that's about it. About a week or so later, you'll have a one off meeting with your department head to tell you how you aren't working hard enough and privileges are being revoked. As a bonus, it'll be blamed on the clients who know nothing about this edict. See the Nat'l Lampoons Christmas Vacation metaphor in a previous review for more information. 3) Removal of work-life balance, which Team Detroit was renown for. Yes - Summer Fridays are gone, and to some extent I can understand why. But you do not need to punish the many who are in there, putting in their hours (and more) for the few who aren't. We buzz in every day - you know who is in the office and who isn't. If the managers are letting people slide - punish the managers and not the populace in general. The 9-5 rule was/is poorly articulated and doesn't take into account employees dropping off/picking up their kids, client meetings, shoots, early am conference calls, offsite meetings and frankly is out of touch when most people are firing up their laptops when they get home. We have so many tools to operate remotely, which the majority of the personnel takes advantage of. This is not 1995 and the infancy of the internet. We are ALWAYS connected - and in touch with our clients and co-workers at all times, whether we are in or out of the office. We help our colleagues and and we help out clients - something they do not see with their eyes closed and doors shut. 4) Compensation is below market value, promotions are rare, raises are near non-existent and talent is not retained with matching/superior counteroffers. You can take on above and beyond your level of scope and responsibility and not see any fruit from your labor until you are so fed up you are almost forced out. Bagels and a food truck every couple of weeks are not motivators. 5) Nothing - absolutely nothing is being done about the rock bottom morale circulating around the agency. Middle management, for the most part is doing their best to keep sprits up, but the thought circulating is - what are they going to take away next? What perceived slight is going to cause another departmental meeting where everyone nods silently and makes a mental note to update their resumes because there is nothing they can do about it, no matter how hard they work.