FCB Global Reviews

They lost their most profitable clients in 2015 and were unable to win enough new business in 2016. This is public record. Just check AgencySpy. Creatives are stretched thin and are miserable. Newcomers notice the fear and negativity immediately. Some actually throw up on their first day. Many develop ulcers later. Nobody talks about it openly. Account, creative, and strategy are all on different floors making communication difficult and teamwork non-existent. Titles and status are more important than serving the clients and their business. Senior creatives freely dump their own assigned work on juniors and flaunt their right to do so. Communication is one-way with creative directors barking orders at their underlings. It's kiss-up, kick-down. Creatives get no recognition for extraordinary triumphs that win clients or grow business. Instead, they are punished and berated by insecure middle-managers who are threatened by anyone else's success. Everyone is afraid to share ideas. The high-level creative execs jockey for position and back-stab one other for plum accounts. They praise and reward employees who do the same. Everyone is obsessed with their own ranking on their big boss's constantly-shifting hierarchy of favoritism. If you focus on the quality and quantity of your own work, whoever is the current "rock star" will get all of the credit for it. It's no picnic being the "rock star" either. They instantly become a target for everyone else's anger and frustration.

It's taken me two years to be able to take the time to write this review, as just the thought of my time at FCB has been mentally triggering for me. -Work hours: Working until 9 or 10 pm was normal. So was coming in at 8am. This isn't a case of people taking their time, moving about their day slowly. I'm an extremely quick, efficient worker - and I didn't stop working for a second within a day. My worst memory was of arriving home at 9pm, and literally fainting through my front door. I later realized I hadn't had time to eat in nearly 2 days, and was running on very little sleep. Personal lives are not respected, no one really bothers getting to know you on a personal level or befriend you. Everyone is miserable and just trying to get by, too. You truly feel like a cog in the wheel. And you are. -Pay: People here are horribly underpaid. When I left, my salary doubled. -Leadership: Bullying, degrading others, and toxic personalities were rampant. I've seen new grads fresh out of college as well as experienced, "veteran" FCBers be screamed at in front of a group and leave the room in tears. Externally, clients walked all over leadership - and there were zero boundaries. It made for an environment where it felt like we were just slaves to the client - any request, any deadline, it didn't matter. We'd do it. People: In an environment where most people are underpaid, overworked, stressed out, not respected, you name it - the people here are not pleasant to work with. There's a TON of drama, politics, hushed conversations behind closed doors (that is happily spread later through gossip). I truly don't fault the people for this, as who can do their best work and be their best self under these circumstances? I certainly was not near my best self here - I almost lost all sense of who I was. I'll always remember FCB as the lowest point in my career, and likely one of the darkest times in my life. I truly hope that COVID has stirred up some major change at this organization.