A company that had something real and chose to let it go
Pros
There are companies that talk about their people, and then there are companies that actually mean it. For a while, this felt like the latter. The creative energy is still (mostly) genuine, the talent is undeniable, and there are people here, particularly the culture team, who work harder than anyone, just to make this a place worth coming to. That effort is real, and it deserves to be said plainly. Other pros worth mentioning: - Top-tier insurance - Hybrid work mode with 2 to 3 days work from home per week - Exposure to great projects and clients - Culture initiatives and events - Nice office
Cons
Somewhere along the way, something shifted. The appointment of a Managing Director and the absorption into a larger network changed the DNA of this place in ways that were hard to articulate at first, and then impossible to ignore. Decisions began to center almost entirely around cost and optics. Office attendance became a metric of loyalty. The kind of thinking that once made this agency interesting quietly got deprioritized in favor of overhead reduction. What followed was painful to witness. Two rounds of layoffs (or "redundancies") within 7 months affecting employees who had given years to this place. The second round was also accompanied this time by salary cuts. The hardest part is not the business decisions themselves. Every company faces pressure, and the regional climate has been difficult. The hardest part is the gap between what this company says it stands for and what it has actually chosen to do when things got hard. The values written on the wall and the culture work done deserved leadership that took them seriously. That leadership, ultimately, was not here. To anyone considering joining: the people here are talented and worth knowing. The work can still be interesting. But go in with your eyes open about where the priorities of this organization truly lie. Other cons worth considering: - Parking is a genuine issue. If you drive to the office, your options are limited: street parking across the road means an 8 to 10 minute walk, which becomes genuinely unpleasant in the Dubai summer when you arrive at the office already drenched. RTA spots in front of the building are few, competitive, and capped at 4 hours, meaning you will need to move your car mid-day. The valet option exists but now runs at 30 AED per hour, which adds up fast over a full working day. - The office itself is on the 41st floor, and the elevators struggle to keep up during peak hours. Around 9am and 6pm, waits of up to 15-20 minutes are not unusual. It sounds minor until it becomes part of your daily routine.
