Gelia Reviews

Where to start... Boys Club: Lets be real, at Gelia, its not just Saturday's that are For The Boys (TM), it's every day. If you're not talking Buffalo Bills, or Sabres, Guns, Motorcycles, or the latest Chris Pratt movie, you're not getting talked to by 75% of the company, and in turn, you're not getting in the club. Lack of transparency: Many times people would just stop coming in and you had no idea why to find out 2 weeks later they quit or were let go, and the only reason you know that is because their boss was talking smack about "how bad of an employee" they were. Never know what anyone else is working on or what is coming down the pipeline. Very little cultural engagement outside of super sterile corporate-style events so there was rarely room to hear that from other coworkers. There were also times where they would just flat out lie about stuff, claiming they had grown the company by 10 employees, but they lost 12 in the process. As mentioned by someone else, they also completely shut down an office and didn't even acknowledge it outside of casual conversation. Cannot communicate effectively across offices: many times double work would be done because no one knew who was doing what, on the flipside, many times work didn't get done because of the same thing. Leadership liked to blame this on employees instead of taking accountability that their processes could be flawed. This leads me to my next point... Leadership doesn't listen...like AT ALL: You could tell people you have time to work on something they say they'll pass you something then they don't. You could say what if we try to do something this way, they'll say that's a great idea, then when it comes time to try it, they say we'll do it like you suggested next time but for "ease" lets do it like we always do it, then the same leader will ask why something took so long and we aren't trying the new way and now its again the employee's fault. You could say "hey I'm getting shredded on my health insurance cost, is there anything we can do about it?" and they'll say not my job to save you money...or give you a raise to compensate. Raise? Promotion? Whats that?: I think I saw one person on my team get promoted in over a year. 2 got minor raises (oops I'm not supposed to tell anyone because then they'll ask where their raise is) but anything of the sort is incredibly rare. If you choose to come here, negotiate a salary you can live on for the entire time you plan to be at Gelia. HEAVY focus on AI, specifically ChatGPT: If these guys could let chatGPT run their company, they would. Can't tell you how many meetings I sat through with leadership where someone started with "I asked ChatGPT how I should..." don't get me wrong, AI is here to stay, but good god, you guys have MBA's and marketing certificates, why are you relying on the computer to tell you how to do your job??? Where are the creative thinkers you claim to have??? For a marketing agency, most have no idea how marketing in 2025 works. They STARTED doing social media work in 2023!!!! Then claimed to be experts on it meanwhile the relatively junior social team is leading the success there (and have since been let go). Often times when accessing internal social channels, the recommended posts were of inappropriate content and the folks who had access would say "this is in our suggested content because that's what our target audience must like!" No guys, it’s in your suggested content because that's the content you're interacting with ON YOUR AGENCY PAGE. I believe many folks at Gelia have good hearts and mean well, but most of us were spineless when it came to standing up to the VP's and C_O's because any sort of friction puts you on the chopping block. This is probably my hottest take and something management might be starting to realize (they've laid off approximately 20 people in the past 6 months) There is SO much "fat" to be trimmed at Gelia. Many people are sitting around twiddling their thumbs at any given time. Having extra bodies is absolutely NOT a bad thing! But when you aren't letting people put hours on a project when they have nothing to do, whats the point of having them? When someone is unable to effectively complete the job they are given, whats the point? I think everyone brings value in some capacity but it's just obnoxious to have to tell someone to do their job so you can get yours done!! Total lack of diversity. There was 1 non-white person at the agency when I got hired, then they let them go. Supposedly 70 employees. You can do the math. This kinda goes with the Boy's Club vibe, but it’s all about the exec's and their favorites too. They'd spend $5-10k for a small team of directors to fly somewhere and hang out in an airbnb by the pool for a week to "plan". Plan what exactly? Not sure cause they didn't actually tell us. They send all of the Account Executives on a retreat (super cool, and a great perk IF you're an AE!!) then make everyone else just figure it out for the week. Funny how a company that places so much value on the email jockeys (still love ya'll and you are necessary, it's just frustrating sometimes) can run without them for a week! And lastly, they send a group of exec's/VP's to SXSW every year for god knows how much money. Guess what the "top takeaway" was from our Director of Ops last year....it was a poem. I love poetry and all but damn, nothing to bring back to the company? Lastly, the company seems to be run by Justin Phipps, not Jamey (Justin's dad). Justin has never worked anywhere other than Gelia. Nepotism wins again! Oh, and his brother runs a chiropractor clinic in the same building as the agency, and he's also a client. I didn’t interact with Jamey much so I don’t really have an opinion of him. Okay actual last one, you have to pay for coffee lol.