Anything is Possible Media Reviews

Left my role in September 2024 after 10 of the most stressful and frustrating months of my life, and certainly the 10 most stressful months of my career. I worked for AIP after they acquired the agency I was previously working for in late 2023, and was initially reasonably optimistic about working there, thanks to the many things we were promised in the beginning - competitive salaries, a full social calendar and a healthy work-life balance, to name a few - none of which ever materialised, or at least in my experience. Working for their ‘new’ Manchester branch, we were expected to throw ourselves head-first into their brand of ‘Possiblism’, which I quickly learned was their way of saying ‘no deadline is too unrealistic and no ask (either from clients or management) is too much’. Considering we were required to change almost everything about our previous working processes and culture from day 1, training was shockingly non-existent. That is, unless you count the patronising ‘buddy’ system, which saw everyone in the Manchester team paired up with a ‘Possiblist’ in an entirely different role to theirs - you’d think they’d at least pair us up with someone in a vaguely similar role to ours, who could answer role-specific questions. Then again, they do make a big hurrah of wanting AIP to be a ‘challenging’ place to work, which they’ve achieved tenfold. Don’t be taken in by their talk of being this incredibly fast-growing, award-winning agency, either, as I felt it was all smoke and mirrors. When the opportunity to win a ‘Best Places to Work’ award came up just weeks into the acquisition, we were hounded with company-wide emails and verbal reminders instructing us to fill out the surveys and share how great they obviously think it is to work there - I imagine a lot of people, like myself, just gave in and did it to stop them badgering us. As for ‘fastest-growing’, I imagine any agency could expand this quickly if they were as willing to take on work that they objectively do not have the capacity for, regardless of the impact it has on the staff that actually carry that work out. ‘Work-life balance’ goes as far as getting to work a couple hours either side of 10 and 4, depending on what suits you - not that it matters, I regularly worked outside of these hours - unpaid and off my own back - to try and meet the ridiculous deadlines placed onto my team. I’ll admit I was never explicitly asked to do this (though I'd be beyond shocked if management weren't entirely aware of how commonplace this kind of ad-hoc unpaid overtime is at AIP) but when you’re constantly getting beat over the head with the ‘Possiblist’ rhetoric, you catch on that they want you to get the work done by any means necessary. Take a look at their website and it's clear they are incredibly proud of their 'Possiblist' brand and organisational culture. I'm afraid that to me, it seems like 'Possiblism' is built on a foundation of 'keep calm and carry on', however disingenous that might be. Having values like 'be direct' and 'be courageous' is all well and good, but they neglect to mention that these behaviours aren't so well-received when you have issues to raise with AIP themselves. In fact, around the time certain teams/staff were expressing concerns around workload, we were given a company-wide presentation on avoiding 'negative' language like "I'm too busy" - perhaps they only want you to be direct when it affects them positively, and not when you're highlighting room for improvement. I could write you a novel-length list of things I found wrong with this workplace, but I’m exhausting myself trying to revisit it. Complaints go ignored, questions go unanswered, and it seems you only make progress here if you’re willing to toil your fingers to the bone for a pat on the back. As for that ‘competitive salary', it seemed I was earning well below 80% of the salaries being offered for people in similar roles or with similar experience on Indeed at the time, all while management waxed lyrical about record-breaking contracts and high profits. Most irritating of all, it felt like a lot of these issues were exclusively felt by those in the Manchester office, and when it was brought to the attention of AIP months down the line that a good majority of the team were incredibly unhappy with their jobs, benefits and overall treatment, it was not acknowledged nor properly addressed. Of course, this is just my personal experience and of course there are people - particularly at AIP's London and Brighton branches - who probably enjoy their jobs. They probably won't have felt as overworked, underpaid, underappreciated and overlooked as I did, along with many others, I imagine. After 4 years in marketing, I actually switched careers entirely after being left completely disillusioned with the industry as a whole due to my experience here, and in the months since, I have grown increasingly angry reflecting on the way myself and my colleagues were treated while working for AIP. I’ve finally gotten round to sharing my experiences so that I can close the door on this incredibly irritating chapter of my career and leave it in 2024. So, to conclude, Anything IS Possible, as long as you’re the one paying them - otherwise, you can just about suck it up, do as you’re told and be grateful for the opportunity.