Collaborative team, but rampant burnout and no growth opportunities - Communications Strategist Byrum & Fisk Communications Employee Review

Led by some of the best strategists in the state, you gain invaluable experience working under their leadership while building your PR and communications skills. You gain a wide exposure to different clients across different industries, and strategists are hands-on with their accounts. If you are looking for a PR job where you get to own your work and be involved with your client accounts from account management to strategy development to execution, Byrum & Fisk is a great place for growing your career.

Given the agency environment, it is a 24-7/on-call job where you're expected to be available at any time, especially if there's a client crisis.

The work was very rewarding, and it was a great team to work with. The partners are masters of strategic communications and Michigan politics. Working there was a great learning experience. The job allows employees to become jacks-of-all-trades in a variety of media, like press releases, design/project management, press conferences, speechwriting, media training/prep, rapid response/crisis communications, social media, video, etc. Top-notch healthcare coverage through BCBSM - best I've ever had.

The partners in the firm are workaholics, and it was very difficult for employees (or the partners, for that matter) to have a healthy work/life balance. By policy, business hours are 9-5:30 or 6, but in practice, many people typically work until 6:30 or 7 p.m., and occasionally even later. The vacation/sick day policy is very stingy. You get very few vacation days, and there are a bunch of rules associated with when and how you take them. (Some of the rules make sense given that it's a small firm, but some don't.) Given the intensity of the work, a more reasonable vacation policy is much-needed to prevent burnout.