Zimmerman Advertising Employee Reviews about "work environment"

Pros

The environment at Zimmerman is great to work in. All of the employees are energetic, hard working, and willing to help with whatever I need. I have learned more here in 6 weeks than I have in a semester at school.

Cons

As a creative, I find myself bored sometimes, and overly busy others. The agency is not the most organized and it directions are sometimes unclear. Additionally, they have not coordinated any kind of outside get togethers for the interns, which I feel is important because there are over 30 of us and I still don't know people well six weeks later.

Pros

Valet Service Unlimited Soda and Coffee Strong Sense Of Community Co-Workers are very friendly Collaborative Environment Lots of Lunch Options Near By

Cons

Zero Training/Managers are unavailable for assistance Very Cold Work Environments No Food options offered in Office, expect you to bring lunch or go out (if you have time) Last Minute communication during impending Natural Disasters

Pros

Getting agency exposure Bonding with coworkers over toxic workplace

Cons

Toxic work environment Outdated mindset Uninteresting creative

Pros

- Great place to start and learn. I do have to admit that I got a lot of great experience here. - While there are a lot of problematic people, there are also some great people you can learn from. - Pretty much everyone I worked with was open to teaching you, answering any questions, and helping out when needed. - Good benefits and time off.

Cons

- A bit of a toxic work environment and problematic company culture. - A total boy's club. - You only get promoted if you're liked by the right person or spent years fighting for a promotion/raise to the point where you're threatening to quit. - The company has been rightfully called out for sexism and racism in the work environment but has done nothing to actually address it. - No respect for work/life balance. While we get a lot of time off, they will guilt you for using it. And they guilt you into working many late nights and weekends.

Pros

The people are very talented, smart and pretty easy to work with. You can really learn a lot from fellow employees. It's a good place to start a career especially if you're straight out of college - Zimmerman is one of the only places that will hire recent grads with little to no experience. Zimmerman subscribes to a lot of research programs that many smaller agencies can't afford to subscribe to. The benefits are standard: medical, dental, but no vision coverage and no more 401K match from Omnicom. They used to give out free bikes for signing up to ride in the MS 150 bike ride but they no longer do that. The management and HR are very vocal about telling employees how much they care about them and want them to have a work-life balance and healthy work environment...

Cons

but you are expected to work 24/7, seriously. That's their official tag line and they really are serious about it (unless they're talking to the department of labor... who did do an investigation on them recently). They bite off way more than they can chew when it comes to taking on new accounts and upper management makes ridiculous and unrealistic promises to potential clients which wins accounts but in reality overextends our resources and most clients end up disappointed and employees end up missing deadlines and making mistakes because we aren't given nearly enough time to do our work. It is very rare that you will get a lunch break much less a lunch hour. Expect to work nights and weekends (without an apology from management or even a thank you) especially if you're not an entry level employee. If you're ineligible for overtime they will definitely exploit your time as much as humanly possible without a second thought. Unless you live in your car, you will need to live with a roommate or at home with mom and dad if you are an entry level employee because that is what your entry level Zimmerman salary will allow.

Pros

They give you a lot of responsibility and almost completely hire employees right out of college. You can work on accounts with big names and really learn the business. They really try to make it a fun work environment and they do try to do company wide activities.

Cons

Firstly, many of the supervisors tell the employees to come and rate the company high on here, which seems unethical to me. Secondly, much of upper management can be over-bearing and there can be little respect for employees, management is usually far older than the average employee so it can be a strange complex. The ads they produce also aren't the best ones, you get told over and over again "it pays the bills", so there's not much pride in the work. Since they hire directly from college, there's a good amount of nepotism, cliques, low pay, and grievous mistakes made by inexperience...this in turn, makes HR almost like college RAs. There is a lot of turnover with employees, a lot. Their business model is to hire cheap younger employees, then make them work at a high volume and not so great quality. The model is good for now but it's not something that will last in the market for years to come, it will eventually plateau.

Pros

You learn so much! The work environment is so fast-paced, you learn something new every day.

Cons

Not great work-life balance and terrible pay. Most people I work with still live at home because they can't afford rent.

Pros

- everybody here makes the work environment smooth and easy - usually have free food and there are always fun activities - It helps you grow professionally if you push yourself to achieve more

Cons

- pay is lower than expected

Pros

Opportunity to learn a lot about all departments within Advertising Great work environment Nice, friendly people Lots of work perks

Cons

Very low pay compared to other agencies in the business In the short time I've worked here, there have been a large amount of exits (voluntary and involuntary) most of their reasons were because of higher pay elsewhere

Pros

1. Experience- Zim is a large agency that is nationally recognized. It look good to put on a resume and you get exposed to a lot very quickly 2. The people- the people are young and fun, and will share your misery. 3. Executive Management-The Execs at Zim are very bright and insightful, when first hired you'll get a chanve to hear them speak and learn a thing or 2 from them.

Cons

1.No Training- You'll get 0 training and a fast paced high stress work environment that is sink or swim. 2. Salary- Many of the low level employees and even some mi-level still live at home because the salary is awful, you wont be able to afford and 'benefits' that Zim offers 3. Mid-Management- for the most part terrible, and unwilling to help. Very self centered and self serving. Wont hesitate to throw low-level employees under the bus to cover their mistakes 4. Atmosphere- although the people are fun EVERYONE hates there job here and is trying to get out. Very high turnover rate. If you make it past 18mos you are considered old. 5. Promotions- almost non existent. Very politically motivated. Flirt or kiss-a** to get ahead is about the only way 6. Work Life Balance- Its work work work with no overtime, no bonus, no raises, and no praise. 24/7 means 24/7. High Stress enviroment -work here at your own risk-