Fahlgren Mortine Reviews

For the amount of hours you put in, there is very little financial reward. My salary was pathetically low compared to what I could have been earning (and am now earning) elsewhere. Money isn't everything, but when you're working 60 hours a week, one likes to be compensated fairly. They are constantly understaffed which means long, long hours and very few resources beyond interns to help. I approached my boss several times about being completely overwhelmed but nothing ever happened to fix the situation. I became severely burnt out after weekends and evenings spent in the office. Some people get it a little easier and don't have to work as many hours. After asking a superior about that, I was told that "those people have kids." Well, I am sorry that I am being punished because I don't have children, but I would like to have a life outside of work as well. I really miss the atmosphere there, but I feel like the company invested in the "fun culture" as an external PR tactic to appear to be a "great" employer, while internally, they were too focused on profit margins to provide their employees work-life balance and a living wage. Also, the $100 bonus at the end of the year is a slap in the face. The raises are pathetic too. I got a promotion and my "raise" was basically a cost-of-living increase. Really, really insulting. Finally, I was in a compromising situation with a client and the agency ended up throwing me under the bus...which for me, was the last straw. The sad thing is, despite those things, Fahlgren Mortine was a really great place to work. I still care about everyone I worked with. I miss my clients. The environment was lovely and I learned so much.

The company tends to bend over backward for every client at the expense of the employees. This often results in deadlines that requires employees (particularly those at the end of the production line) to work significant overtime to get the work done. This is rationalized as "the work ebbs and flows," but there is an HR policy that requires employees to log at least 7.5 hours to something every day, even if you've already worked 37.5+ hours that week (the 7.5 hour days are touted as a benefit to attract new employees, but they neglect to tell you that that's a minimum number, unless you're willing to burn PTO). There is also quite a bit of communication disconnect between the departments -- even the ones that should be interacting -- which results in a lot of unnecessary headaches. A lot of the issues are rationalized away as "agency life," or even justified, because the environment is still "better than" the competing agencies in the region. Additionally, the Columbus office, at least, is a cube farm, which can be counterproductive for members of the creative teams, especially when in close vicinity to the more vocal employees.