Sweatshop/Boys Club - Anonymous employee Highdive Advertising Employee Review

From the highest C-suite position to the lowest position this agency is a mess. The CCO wants to be a very hands on creative director and routinely positions his fantasy-esque ideas against the rest of the creative department who he is supposed to manage. Which creates a ever-present tense working environment. He also doesn't listen to the ideas past the first sentence of a strategic approach. The ECD also pitches his own ideas against the rest of the department. The Creative Directors are routinely verbally berated by their leadership about the "low" level of creativity which puts more pressure on creatives below them. Creative Directors routinely leave this agency because of this. The creatives lower than that level are treated as the hands to execute the aforementioned ideas. Rarely do they get their ideas heard and when there's and opportunity to pitch, the loudest person in the room wins. Not the best idea. They do not understand trends or anything not related to dominate culture. Working non-stop weekends, holidays, and attending social events at the CCO's home are the only way to get the leadership to entertain a creative idea. The HR team does nothing when employees face biases of their leadership team, unrelenting working hours, and has a non-existent strategy to hire diverse talent. The in-house production studio is a sweatshop for the agency that isn't respected by the creative department. The account department lets the clients have whatever they desire at the expense of the creative department. Strategy briefs are routinely 40-60pg documents that do not help anyone understand the direction of a campaign.