What is paid time off like at Ipsos?

You’ll learn a lot about research through hands-on experience. Management is progressive and tries to maintain a work-life balance culture by honoring mental health and paid time off.

The nature of the industry is fast-paced and there is a lack of hands-on training from management. And of course, work-life balance is skewed to long hours after office and during the weekend.

The company produces exceptionally high‑quality work and is widely regarded as a leader in the market research space. Teams are filled with bright, curious, and genuinely interesting people who elevate the work and make collaboration rewarding. PTO is generous, and the overall benefits package is strong and competitive.

Stealth layoffs have been occurring for several years, with no industry announcements or internal transparency. Dozens of employees—many with long tenure—have quietly lost their jobs. Junior‑level research roles are increasingly being offshored without any clear communication about long‑term workforce strategy. The company has a strict no‑severance policy. Employees receive only unused vacation payout and any remaining owed salary. Anyone seeking severance must fight for it, and even then there’s no assurance of receiving any amount. There’s a widening gap between the company’s public messaging and its internal reality. Employees are encouraged to participate in “Best Places to Work” surveys, yet the policies and day‑to‑day experience don’t align with that narrative. The company also appears to support work/life balance, but the reality is very different—many employees end up working long hours and forfeiting vacation days to keep up with workloads. Compensation is significantly below market. While many companies face salary criticism, Ipsos pay levels are notably lower than industry standards. Senior leadership lacks transparency. I’ve personally been in meetings where executives reassured a team that jobs were safe, only to learn of team layoffs occurring less than two weeks later. Underlying financial instability compounds these issues. The company is facing real financial trouble, yet this is kept out of the news and largely hidden from employees, contributing to an environment of uncertainty and mistrust. Not a company stock to be recommended.

20 days pto + 10 sick days, but they give you this much because you'll have no boundaries or work life balance. The sick days are for burnout

lack of work life balance, constant micromanagement, low pay, business and growth oriented but won't pay ppl properly. This company will work you to the bone, especially if you are in a lower position. And when you express burnout to management, they will say that it could be worse. Constant project turnovers, high stress for little pay, i could rarely even step away from my desk for lunch. I would avoid this company like the plague.

The benefits are nice lots of time off

This pay is pretty bad

-flexible with remote working and time off -decent pay -managers are generally nice/appreciative

-very limited opportunities to progress -repetitive, unchallenging and unrewarding work -limited opportunities to develop or learn new skills

I work with some really smart people and well-known clients, which makes the job interesting and provides a lot of learning opportunities. The team I work with is great, and the generous time off, along with somewhat flexible work hours, is a plus depending on the team.

The work-life balance is terrible, and burnout feels unavoidable. Even when you think you’ve finally achieved a decent balance, more work gets thrown at you. When others on your team are working late and overloaded, it’s hard not to feel guilty for not helping them, even if you’ve managed your own workload. The pay is lower than average, and loyal employees often make less than new hires. On top of that, bonuses are basically nonexistent, and all the overtime (without overtime pay) leaves you feeling undervalued. Despite having a supportive manager, there’s often no one to lean on without feeling like a burden because everyone is so overworked, and taking mental health days can leave you even more overwhelmed because of the work backlog.

Some of the people here were very nice and willing to help. The benefits (PTO, health, wellness) are good.

My manager was terrible. They could not provide straightforward feedback, were very fickle, and would never accept responsibility for mistakes that they would make. They would tell me every week that I was doing fine but change their mind come evaluation time. Even other analysts agreed that my manager was not the best. The work is repetitive and not very challenging. It's hard to change to a different service line or take on other projects, especially if you don't have support from your manager.

Consulting ebbs and flows, so when there's downtime you have lots of time on your hands; able to work remotely; great exposure to a variety of clients; PTO is rather generous at 20 days

Little room for growth, pay is subpar, there's definitely favoritism

I love my coworkers!! In the 2 years I've been here I haven't met a single person I seriously dislike. The clients are awesome, too. I've learned a lot since being here. You get a lot of PTO (20 days with max 5 carry over from the previous year), your birthday off, 10 sick days... and people within your service line on project teams really do seem to care about you.

They haven't kept their promises about advancing new grads. Raises are frequently insulting for the amount of work you put in. They say they value work-life balance, but have also said, verbatim, that salary is for MINIMUM 40 hours per week. The only reason I haven't started job-hunting is because I haven't had the time. I remember reading reviews on here before I accepted my offer a few years ago, and thinking "overworked and underpaid, but great coworkers? Easy, I have a strong work ethic". And I do, but the burnout will get you quickly, and that is so hard to recover from. The expectation is that you will eventually work more than 40 hours, and that is how you get promoted. Not for just for quality of work, but for sacrificing your personal life for your job. We are critically understaffed, yet there's no plan to hire anyone any time soon. If you're okay with becoming a corporate slave, at least go somewhere that will pay you for it.

Company is solely dedicated to research, so you get to work with some of the smartest/most research oriented people in the business. Solid PTO - 20 days of standard days off, ability to purchase additional PTO days. Great maternity leave.

Compensation is a big downside. Pay is subpar/average at best for the industry and doesn’t feel aligned with how large and successful the company is. There is also discrepancy in salary between people that hold the same role and within the same part of the business and even same team. Bonuses and merit increases are consistently underwhelming and tied to overall company performance, so even when your team is doing well, it doesn’t always translate. The organization also feels very siloed, with limited natural collaboration outside your immediate team and not a ton of visibility into or access to other parts of the business. At the same time, client expectations are high and there’s constant pressure to do more or create new offerings, but support (like sales materials or clear executional guidance) doesn’t always keep up. The size of the company also brings a lot of complexity. Getting things done often involves many teams, which can slow things down and make it hard to navigate or implement bigger changes, so most people end up just focusing on their own lane. On top of that, the company is frequently going through reorganizations, and just when things start to feel stable, something shifts again, making it tough to build long-term momentum. Upward mobility after the Senior Account Manager and/or Director role is very limited - more senior roles come up very infrequently and when they do there are a ton of people that are fighting for the promotion, so likelihood to get promoted beyond Director is very low unless you somehow strike gold with a client / account that blows up and there is overwhelming circumstances that would justify a promotion. No dedicated maternity leave coverage system in place - so teams are required to spread out project work across the immediate team, and selectively choose when to reach out to other teams for assistance/coverage. So in practice, in periods of high project volume, it becomes overwhelming to have to also take on additional clients from maternity leave. There needs to be a dedicated group of contractors that the team can leverage and provide relief when a team member goes on leave.