Pappas Group Reviews

I worked at Pappas Group as an intern for less than a year

Pros – Small company full of fun, creative people; convenient office location; relaxed atmosphere; cool clients; strong sense of autonomy

Cons – I worked for the company for a short time and didn't see a lot of cons. I will say the office seemed to have its own cliques which sometimes made it hard to interact in a meaningful way

Advice to Senior Management – Keep up the good work!

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Pappas Group

Pros – 401 k
Decent benefits
Decent location
A few talented people
A few decent clients
Freebees now and then
Company parties a few times a year

Cons – Negativity, ego comes from the very top down
Dishonest environment, corner cutting
Favoritism
Revolving door
Creative culture is bland, burnt out
Structure in place should be working but it's not
Dont recommend

Advice to Senior Management – Change your approach to project/account management and internal culture overall. Treat others the way you would want to be treated. Provide what's necessary for the team to do the best work possible.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Pappas Group as a contractor for less than a year

Pros – Smart, strategic thinking, yet creative people
Fun and teamwork
Growth
Cool clients and cool work

Cons – Growing pains. Finding and changing over resources to replace old thinking with the new
Some days can be hectic due to client demands. Getting better by the month though

Advice to Senior Management – Continue to add resources and build our team
Keep improving our professional development programs
Continue to enable more mentorship opportunities to grow our people

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Pappas Group full-time

Pros – free massages
health benefits are okay

Cons – Out of touch management. In the past we had what they are called a "flat management structure" but now titles are thrown around and management seems to change their title whenever they see fit. Management talks down to creative staff and seem to have no disregard for the employee well-being. For having a philosophy of creating experiences that move people, the only way they move employees here is one step closer out the door.

No longer about the creative. We've shifted from focusing on great creative to PR efforts. Employees are making decks and writing arguments for management to sit on panels with in the DC area. Recently we "turned down an opportunity to be on a network television show" (which we heavily publicized) only to write ourselves into the same role for a video of one of our client campaigns. We're responding to RFP's we wouldn't have 5 years ago, or even 2 years ago.

Account Management. There's a reason why the fake reviews management don't address the complaints about the account team. The account team is amateur and receives no training. Instead of hiring seasoned account managers, they've created "Sponsors" who basically do the face to face interaction with the client and because these "sponsors" are members of the management team push down aggressive deadlines with little to no room for creative exploration.

Project Scope. Hours for anyone not on the account team or management team are criminal. Account team (with the support of management) treat creatives like machines. What other shops would require weeks to complete, they say we'll do it in days. And if the solo person put on the project doesn't complete the deadline after working 7 days straight, they are fired.

Monthly pay. It's difficult to budget on monthly pay. Time sheets are due weekly. If they aren't filled out in time our end of year bonuses are withheld.

SF Office. This office was "opened" for our "Strategy Director" because his wife was relocated to this location. We have no clients on the west coast. Now our meetings must start 2 hours later in the day and usually take an extra 15 minutes due to technical difficulties.

Lack of respect work environment. Account team, operations and management all meet for "office happy hours" where the creatives are working. When we're stressing to meet deadlines they'll get in our faces and beg us to take shots of tequila with them. This is just ridiculous. I not only do not want to drink tequila, I mostly do not want to stay here til midnight to finish the work.

Advice to Senior Management – Train your account team.
Make this a quiet place to work, stop forcing alcohol on people. It doesn't make me like you more.
Get rid of the SF office. They have been disrupting communication for a year and a half now and have yet to bring in business. Why should our clients pay for this office?
Show us you care about us. If there is something of importance to be said, don't just send an email, have a conversation with us.
Stop pretending to be something we aren't. And if we're not going to be a creative shop anymore, tell us. Not everyone wants to work at a UI shop (especially when we only have 1 UX designer)

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Pappas Group

Pros – - Lots of exciting clients
- High octane, if you're into that
- Location is nice
- Opportunity is not lacking
- Massages every few weeks
- Free food every week
- There are a couple company outings each year that are fun.
- Full coverage on health care. You don't get that very often.

Cons – - Long hours at the expense of personal time. While advertising is demanding and extra time is understood and acceptable, this place takes it too far.
- The company wants to expand to multiple offices, which doesn't make sense. It's small as is and causes difficulties working with teams.
- Processes are currently out of funk. They're being worked on, but right now, they don't make sense.
- Little training for new people as they come in. This goes both for their roles and also for what existing clients like.
- The job you sign up for and the job you end up doing are not the same thing. While there are certain responsibilities that may not have been included but are part of the call of duty, this place also takes advantage of that as well.
- There's constant tension between the different areas as very few people seem to be operating based off of a plan from senior management all the way down.
- Lack of retirement plan

Advice to Senior Management – There's a lot of stuff that needs to be worked out here. They're working on it, but instead of taking the approach of smart expansion and listening to the employees, they're moving forward guns blazing. Sometimes that works out, but a lot of the time it doesn't. They need to work on setting up more rigid job descriptions and work on having a full training program for new hires. Because job descriptions change often and there is so little training, it's sink or swim for new people. Some people succeed and they add to the company, but others are left out to dry and they disappear and it's not always their fault. Pappas Group needs to go back to its core, worry less about expanding and worry more about setting up employees for success. Once you do that, then as expansion happens, everyone is better prepared and able to handle stress.

Also, there needs to be less expectation on working late. It's advertising and extra work is always required because of the industry. However, a level of flexibility needs to be established because there are many times when the expectation of overtime work crosses boundaries. There are some people who don't help themselves when it comes to overtime, but there are some others that don't get the help that they deserve.

Lastly, the fact that there is no retirement plan or help is laughable. This is the 21st century. The fact that there isn't some form of support does not show good will towards the employees.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Pappas Group

Pros – Everyone wants to do great work and stays until they think its great
A creative environment with good energy
Lots of freedom to try new things and go for what you love doing
Work with a variety of clients on projects big and small
Young group
At the end of the day its all about your ideas and how your perform, complete meritocracy
Lots of positive changes in structure, work days and actual work lately
You get the chance to build something and have lots of responsibility because it mostly flat
Solid/Free benefits

Cons – Its demanding and you can't just cruise
It doesn't have all the tools and people that bigger agencies have
There is a wide variety of work, which makes process difficult
Clients tend to dictate a lot, which leads to lots of changes/revisions
Don't always get to present work in person
Its growing, so its far from perfect
No 401K
Lots of long days like in any agency

Advice to Senior Management – Add more people to the team in anticipation of adding more work
Give more guidance and coaching to new team members
Improve Account Management
Start a 401K
Throw more parties

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Pappas Group

Pros – Good benefits
Okay vacation time
Free food
More hands experience

Cons – Worst management--Some of the managers are so intimidating when technically they should be more approachable
Low pay
Long hours
No retirement plan

Advice to Senior Management – Respect every employee, even if they are lower than you

More employee coaching

Flexible timing and offer work-from-home options

Offer a retirement plan

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Pappas Group full-time

Pros – I've read a lot of these reviews and have to say it's pretty transparent that those who have posted reviews were/are not a good fit for the agency and have likely been let go for that reason. To those who are currently working here and are unhappy, you should probably find a new job. You're not doing anyone any favors by sticking around. And if you're unhappy working more than 40 hours a week, you should probably find a new profession.

Every day, I come into work knowing that I am going to be challenged. That I'm going to get the kind of opportunities here that will make me grow and learn and I'm going to be pushed to always do better. Is it easy or comfortable? No. But that's not why I work here, nor do I expect that. What I do expect, however, is a caring leadership team that goes above and beyond to make the hard times a little more bearable... that values the opinions of every single person at the agency and tries their best to make it work and grow the business so that we can all be proud to work here.

I think the culture portrayed in some of these reviews is completely blown out of proportion. It is not a booze-crazed frat house, and it's definitely not even CLOSE to a sweatshop. If you're the type of person that wants to be challenged, do good work, and have a good time with fun people then Pappas is an excellent place to work. If you have a bad attitude and take yourself too seriously, no need applying because you wont fit in. And that's ok.

Cons – For many, Pappas Group is a great place to work. Of course, every agency (and yes I mean EVERY) agency has its problems. Ours specifically are related to growing pains, which is a pretty great problem to have in the grand scheme of things. But what I think is lacking from the slew of negative reviews below is perspective. Is there a morale problem? Maybe. Will it last forever? No. Because unlike other agencies I've worked for, the leadership team at Pappas is doing everything in their power to correct it rather than ignore it. If you're not satisfied with the ways it's being handled, here's a word of advice: tell someone. Not only will they be receptive to professional, constructive feedback... it will be welcomed.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep your head up and your ears open. You're doing a great job and don't let the opinions of a few impact your view of how the rest of us feel.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at Pappas Group full-time

Pros – Variety of types of work
Variety of clients
(Some) positive relationships with clients
Passionate people
Pay and 401k
Benefits and freebies
Location

Cons – Negative culture
No opp for professional growth
Frenetic process (or lack there of)
Under resourcing
Poor communication overall
Lots of spec work
Favoritism
An unprofessional and immature leader

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Pappas Group full-time

Pros – I've never been friends with so many people I work with
Good benefits (healthcare, massages, lunches, outings)
Get to present almost all my own work
A pretty informal environment
Everyday and every project is different (which can be challenging sometimes)
Surrounded by smart people
My hours don't seem to be as long as my friends at other agencies

Cons – Lots of growing pains - the company is growing fast and adding people and services which is tough on everyone
Communication - a lot of communication problems for a company this small, especially across teams
Project Management - over reliance on a bad project management system seems to make everything seem more difficult
Process - it seems to be constantly reinvented, but there is never time to perfect it because we're always busy and always changing directions
Client Management - we don't manage them that well, have difficulty selling through ideas and seem to constantly be put on very tight timelines

Advice to Senior Management – Some of these other reviews paint the company in a very poor light, but I honestly just don't see it that way. Management can certainly do a better job of laying out where we're headed and sticking to it, communicating more openly about what's going on and addressing some of the problems that are obvious to everyone (communication issues, project management software/process and hours estimates). In the big picture, this is a pretty great place to work.