In recent months/years, Derris has certainly lost its shine. What started out as the "cool" and "different" PR agency with all of the trendy brands and interesting tech startups is now just like any other agency, if not worse.
To start, employees are severely overworked and underpaid. They're guilted into thinking this is the best PR job they'll ever have -- holding perks like Thursday lunch over junior team members' heads. In reality, they won't even pay coordinators and assistant account executives the overtime they're legally due in order to complete the work.
There's also no real HR function, meaning leadership can make shady decisions about your salary, benefits, time off, hiring + firing etc and operate without accountability.
There's unrealistic expectations for getting work done and passive aggressive emails from Director level and above are the norm. The vast majority of strategy, pitching, client management falls on mid-level employees with little recognition, so it definitely breeds resentment.
They say they value junior employees but it's totally performative. They mostly show it by giving "WOWs" at lunch to say they did a good job on specific projects. Behind the scenes, the running joke is that whoever wins Employee of the Week probably had the worst week and worked the most hours. Public recognition is nice, but people want to be properly compensated for good work - this is a business after all.
They stress growth and opportunity as part of the value proposition for being there. In reality, performance reviews are incredibly petty, often personal and there are no real benchmarks to reach the next level. It boils down to whether your manager holds weight in the senior leadership team and is willing to advocate for you.
Which is extra challenging when the leadership team is immature with huge egos. Jesse and Lisa have never brought in any one at a higher level who could potentially challenge the group-think mentality and it shows. The leaders are almost all early hires who gained too much power too quickly and lack real experience or training outside of Derris. Jesse is proud of how arrogant the team is which is telling. Even if they're smart and media savvy it shouldn't give them the freedom to treat people like garbage.
Further, the idea of real-time feedback is just an excuse for directors and above to be critical of the work product or client relations without it being constructive. They’re also quick to blame you when something goes wrong with a client even though they’re completely checked out. And there is never any apology when directors+ were wrong or misread a situation. Some more humility would go a long way.
After leaving Derris, it took me months at my next job to feel confident in my work product because of how leadership looks to tear others down - it's toxic. If you do accept a job at Derris don't overstay your tenure or think they'll take care of you - learn as much as you can, build a client portfolio and leave ASAP. Despite what they preach, they are loyal to no one.
