Dudnyk Reviews

3.0

50% would recommend to a friend

(42 total reviews)

Chris Tobias, PhD

68% approve of CEO

41% positive business outlook

Dudnyk has an employee rating of 3.0 out of 5 stars, based on 42 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Dudnyk employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Media and communication industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

42 reviews
2.0
30 Apr 2021

Beware the big bad wolf

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Strong female leadership in all levels of management. Health benefits are pretty good. A fair number of company holidays (but this may change with continued integration of policies). Shared solutions people may get to work on a few bigger name clients from across the different integrated agencies.

Cons

I used to love working here. We had a fun, team work environment. We felt passionate about the work (helping people with rare disease and cancer + philanthropic endeavors) and working hard paid off. We typically got to go home on time. We were usually granted the flexibility to come in a little late or leave a little early for important life things, like a doctor's appointment or a kid's concert. We celebrated each other's career or life milestones by going for lunch together (often generously granted by the agency credit card). It was a good place full of good people. Now, Fishawack has gutted everything good about this agency. Their choice of rebrand is fitting: they came like a wolf in sheep's clothing with their fancy accents and big promises, but have quite literally been scattering the sheep. The turnover rate is so bad that 1-3 people leave every month (and 5 people left just this past month). All they're concerned about is buying more agencies and getting bigger. Fishawack is too cheap to staff properly, so 10-12 hour days or weekends are pretty common. They never have enough money to invest back into their employees or hire properly, but they've always got money to buy yet another agency. They claim the departments are fully staffed while current employees are getting crushed under the workload. The pay is also insultingly low, and most people leaving have gotten huge increases. There's so much red tape and inefficient levels of management that it's impossible to be heard. People in upper level management got big promotions and face time with the global level, c-suite management so they're quite comfy. Meanwhile, everyone below them is suffering. It's clear that the only way to improve the situation is to leave. Promotions have always been confusing here, but you can forget about it in the chaos of integration. All your managers will be too busy (overworked) and probably don't have the managerial/political power to promote you anyway. Underpaying your well trained employees is much more expensive than you think. They know how to anticipate problems from the very beginning and move things along efficiently because they've done it for so long. I've seen entire projects get derailed, go over projected time and budget due to 1-2 inexperienced new hires. Stop wasting time treating your workers like machinery. Seriously, don't work here if you value your career or mental health.

1.0
9 Apr 2018

All the red flags just look like flags with your Dudnyk blinders

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Modern office, free snacks and drinks, basically everyone has a bar in their office (I will get to this later), safe location and parking, they recognize good branding, pay well, they hire well (but fire poorly, and make no incentive to stay for those contemplating moving on.)

Cons

As highlighted by the existing reviews, it is obvious even at first glance that virtually no-one is "on the fence" about Dudnyk. Its either 5 star or 1 star. The positive reviews were likely written by the management in an attempt to whitewash this site. Most of the senior management brags about being with the company for "X many years" as a boast of authority in their field, but in the creative/marketing industry, this can paralyze an organization, as in this example due to the lack of modern training. Many senior members have not held similar positions elsewhere and as such lack the real-world experience needed to successfully collaborate within a diverse team. This, I feel is the heart of the culture clash at Dudnyk. Senior creative employees are extremely insecure with their personal work and will often target individuals they perceive as a threat (self awareness of inevitable irrelevance maybe). As mentioned in other reviews, new ideas are encouraged but when presented, are often shot down and not actually welcomed. The fact that Dudnyk habitually hires senior employees from outside the organization instead of promoting from within shows the lack of faith this leadership places on mid-level and junior employees, which is in stark contrast to the amount of responsibility that is placed on junior and mid level employees, as noted by the poor work-life balance and the bar in every office. Late nights and weekends are something you better want to participate in if you consider working here. Work WILL come to your desk at 5:30 and you MUST stay till its done, and yes you are expected back in at 9 the next morning, regardless. Much of this is due to the lack of efficiency within the project management structure (which has been in flux for years). Egos. Holy smokes! In creative meetings mgmt. rallies around everyone to come up with "cutting edge - never been done before designs", however their cutting room floor is frequently their greatest creative resource [insert recycle symbol here]. Great ideas percolate up through the ranks from junior and mid-level artists until, it hits the brick wall of the management. ego. Make no mistake there is disdain in the ranks towards management because of this. If you find yourself as part of one of the few cliques, wonderful! If not... keep your head down, and resume` warm. There are many stories of people quitting or getting fired for "no reason given", as such, turnover is incredibly high. In spite of all of this, striking work does get delivered to the clients, though it needs to be said that this is at the cost of the lower level employees work-life balance, because the project management in this company is an absolute joke! Projects constantly need pointless rework because of poor, or no communication, lack of proper planning, failure to yield to warnings, leadership being disconnected from the modern digital age, and the wrong person doing the wrong job. (also just sloppy work because of unrealistic timelines and "process") If you are still considering Dudnyk, here is a fair warning: pay close attention to the sick day/PTO offerings, it is like no other white-collar job I've ever seen (its terrible!) Many people lost an average of 2 weeks when moving to Dudnyk. Also paychecks are for "X" hours... count on working more than that. Period. Negotiate your salary adjusted for min. 45 hours.

1.0
2 May 2021

RUN.

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Some great people. Process is under control.

Cons

Dudnyk was acquired by Fishawack (bad move). Leadership has been put in place who don’t have the talent to live up to their titles. Every week people are quitting. Toxic work culture. Overwhelmed employees. Not a place you want to work.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 42 Reviews

Glassdoor has 43 Dudnyk reviews submitted anonymously by Dudnyk employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Dudnyk is right for you.