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      Curtis Gabriel

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      Curtis Gabriel Reviews

      2.7

      47% would recommend to a friend

      (18 total reviews)

      35% positive business outlook

      Curtis Gabriel has an employee rating of 2.7 out of 5 stars, based on 18 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Curtis Gabriel employee rating is 27% below average for employers within the Media and communication industry (3.7 stars).

      Reviews by job title

      18 reviews
      1.0
      13 May 2021

      Treat Like Dirt

      Social media account manager
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      I can honestly say leaving and not dreading work every single day is the biggest pro. Other than that, there are some really lovely people who work here who are stuck in the same position.

      Cons

      I was so excited to work for Curtis Gabriel. The unnecessarily long interview process (1 zoom interview + 2 in person interviews) made it seem like the place to be. Sadly a few weeks in it became apparent it’s all a facade they portray on social media. The cons of working here far outweigh the pros. These include: - Terrible pay. I was on minimum wage. - No work life balance . You work LONG hours doing 8.30am-5.30pm contracted, and have to work late/over lunch to keep up with the workload. - Extremely high workload with no consideration for how long tasks take to perform to a good standard. As a result, you are unable to deliver amazing results for any clients, you are just about able to keep the accounts running. - Dishonesty to clients. Clients are promised miracles that can’t possibly be delivered. - Dishonesty to staff. Many staff were congratulated on their contributions to the company and given a “pay rise”. This “pay rise” was just the company raising their salary to meet National Minimum Wage requirements. - Awful mental health policy. The company pretends to care about mental health while ignoring concerns over hours and workload raised by staff. Staff who dare to mention to mental health to management/HR are soon forced out. - No proper training when you start the role. - Abnormally high staff turnover. Notice how the company is always hiring. If it’s that great, why can’t you retain staff? - Boring clients. The company have pigeonholed themselves into some very niche markets i.e. taxi companies and limo rental services. All the accounts are exactly the same so there is no variety or room for creativity. More to the point, social media doesn’t really work for these industries so it feels like a complete waste of time. There’s a reason no other agencies are snatching these clients up. - Micromanagement. You have to do things in a certain way having everything signed off by your manager. As a result, all posts by Curtis Gabriel look exactly the same, again suppressing any room for creativity. - Many staff are forced out over minor errors and fabricated reasons. The company takes advantage of the fact nobody has any employment rights as nobody lasts 2 years.

      avatar
      Curtis Gabriel Response
      5y
      Thanks for taking the time to leave a review, as CEO I’m always open to feedback and are constantly working to make Curtis Gabriel a successful business for our staff and clients. I’d like to address some of the issues you raise in the hope you can see your voice has been heard. As I’m sure I told you when you worked at CG, my door was always open if you had concerns. Clearly pay and working hours are at the core of your review. Establishing and growing an agency has taken CG several years and the commercial reality is that financial constraints are a reality for all businesses. I’m not sure anyone feels they are paid enough, but I can say that we have listened to and are not blind to these concerns. Of course, if we do not pay competitively in the market, we will lose staff and not be able to recruit those that will continue our success. Our current vacancies are mostly specialist positions, showing that we are investing in people who carry enhanced salary expectations. Over the last 12-18 months, across the board our average salaries have increased substantially. Regarding working hours, having been in the business for just over 3 years, I have always committed to ensure staff are not overworked. Agency life is not for everyone. It requires dedication, hard work, commitment and resilience. Those that succeed can go onto to incredible rewarding careers with CG. We have a senior management team who have exclusively worked their way up form entry level positions, they have exciting careers ahead of them. As a business it makes zero sense not to address issues such as work hours. Over the last 12 months we have undertaken staff surveys and had a staff conference where the full results were discussed openly with all staff. Feedback has been listened to and as a consequence, we have recently implemented a total business restructure whereby we have focussed on role specialism, including hiring additional headcount to ensure staff can do a quality job within their contracted hours. Your points around ‘dishonesty’ need addressing. Firstly, we have over 200 clients, if we had ‘promised’ results that weren’t being delivered, they would simply not continue to use our services. Regarding minimum wage, you will have seen my points on salary above. No employee is paid minimum wage at Curtis Gabriel, that is something I am placing on the record. Regarding the industries that Curtis Gabriel specialises in and the fact we have high client retention, your assertion that they are ‘boring’ and social media doesn’t really work for them is a little disparaging to successful businesses. People often join agencies and expect to be allowed free reign over creativity. I’m sure those agencies exist, but they are not the norm. If our work wasn’t impactful for clients, they would simply leave. If they spend money with us, we need to prove ROI that is of benefit to them. Our high client retention rate is due to the incredible work that we do as a team, overall creating barriers to entry and make it challenging for other agencies to displace us. Finally, you are right, we must respect our staff. We are a service business and are nothing without them. Anyone who leaves CG goes with our best wishes, those who stay with us have our commitment that we will invest in them and give them skills and experience that will help them succeed in the long term. This is an iterative process and one we are constantly mindful of. Once again, thank you for your review, I wish you all the best in your future career.
      1.0
      10 Feb 2021

      AVOID. AVOID. AVOID

      Social media account manager
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      Leaving and handing my notice in

      Cons

      -Micro Management - Awful Management -Low Pay - Burn out The reports was definitely the hardest part. Having to lie to customers to say we are doing a fantastic job, when in reality we are not. We are told to mould the reports to make it look good, but in reality we are just costing customer money. You have to wonder why customers do not renew their contracts

      1.0
      14 June 2021

      I should have listened to Glassdoor.

      Paid social specialist
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      Nothing comes to mind in my 15 days there.

      Cons

      I left a comfortable job at a big company, even negotiated an early leave date and withdrawn my application from a bigger agency, in return I was let go after 15 working days. Like other reviews have mentioned, their reasoning to sack you can be something of nothing, and when I put in an appeal that rebuffed everything they said (to set the record straight rather than wanting to stay), it fell on deaf ears. I wasn't sad about leaving though, as I hated every minute of the work. Like many other reviews have stated, there is a conveyor belt of low-quality, low paying clients that are pushed at you, with which it's impossible to do a meaningful job. I could wax lyrical about how they will never be "the best social media agency" that they claim they want to be, but hey, they never gave me the time of day. Warning: Don't make the same mistake I did and ignore the reviews to give them the benefit of the doubt, you'll most likely regret it.

      avatar
      Curtis Gabriel Response
      5y
      Thank you for your review. As CEO, I have recently started replying in order to give some balance and context to reviews left, I feel strongly that yours needs much more detail for interested parties to see. I think the fact you left a ‘comfortable’ job is at the crux of this entire disappointing episode. Firstly, I’d like to place on the record the recruitment process that took place that led to your appointment. The position you were appointed to is one that requires a specialist skillset, and as such demand currently outstrips supply. This means as a candidate you have an advantage and one reason why we engaged a recruitment agency for this post. After 2 interviews, including a detailed case study presentation, we offered you the job. You also negotiated a higher starting salary (well done), which meant you left your comfortable job for a 16% pay rise. Curtis Gabriel also paid the recruiter a fee of over £5k for this. No one could seriously believe that the decision to end your employment within your probationary period is either one we took lightly, or indeed something we would not have done unless it was critical to preserving our relationships with our current client base. We now need to recruit this post again, it's not something we would have wished to do. Regarding the appeals process, it needs to be stated that ending an employee’s employment within a probationary period carries no legal right of appeal. The appeals process in place at CG is there because we have enhanced HR policies that are there to protect and support all employees. Your appeal did nothing to rebuff the reasons for us terminating your employment, and most certainly did not fall on deaf ears. Your appeal was carefully considered before a detailed response was sent to you. I don’t think it’s helpful here to go into detail as to why we ended your employment, but I will go on record to say that serious shortcomings in performance were highlighted to you as soon as they were evident, with considerable support offered. I’d also point out that the decision to end your employment was taken after gathering 360 feedback at all levels. As previously mentioned, the decision we took was a difficult one. This was only done as it was apparent the alternative was potentially considerable damage to the excellent work our dedicated team have done and are doing with our clients. Good luck in the future.
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      Glassdoor has 18 Curtis Gabriel reviews submitted anonymously by Curtis Gabriel employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Curtis Gabriel is right for you.