Pros
Sadly, there are very few pros to share, which is a complete turnaround from what it was before parent company, Stagwell, took over the day-to-day running of Allison. There are some great people at Allison, but these are diminishing daily as they either quit or are laid off. The work-from-home policy isn’t bad, but it’s inconsistently enforced. Unlimited PTO looks good on paper, but it’s a red herring as it’s difficult to take a vacation without feeling guilty about leaving your teammates in the lurch, who then have to pick up the slack.
Cons
If you ever want a case study of how to burn a fantastic company to the ground, look no further. After decades of award-winning work, amazing culture, talented people, connected leadership, and great clients, the ominous cloud of Stagwell has taken over and destroyed it all. Allison is now a smoldering mess with little hope of rising from the ashes that Stagwell themselves have created. Don’t listen to the nonsense and hype of “turbocharging” the business [eye roll] or the recent hires of senior people who all appear to be friends and allies of Chairman, Ray Day. It’s smoke and mirrors. Internally it’s a festering mess of dissatisfaction, inefficiencies, secrecy, lack of direction or leadership, and absolute disregard for the people on the front lines. If you decide to join Allison – which is really just a Stagwell pawn – be prepared for: • Being treated like a line item on a spreadsheet rather than a human. Know you are nothing more than an expense to Stagwell. You might have deep experience in consumer work, but will suddenly be put on a technology account because you have open time. There is no regard for matching clients with people’s skills, experience, and interests. • Working for leaders who add no value and have little substance, and definitely will not listen to you or your feedback. • The unwillingness for leadership to hire any junior staff – not even interns or entry level people – nor give any meaningful pay increases, yet magically find the money to hire yet more very senior people who don’t want to get their hands dirty with the work. • Being under the banner of Stagwell and everything it represents. Do yourself a favor and Google their history and some of their dealings. • Living in fear that you could be included in the next round of layoffs. This creates a culture of self-preservation where decisions are made to protect individuals’ jobs rather than doing what’s right for the client/staff/company. • Constant misinformation about what’s happening or why decisions have been made. Get ready for a lot of corporate spin, especially when the news is bad, which it often is. • SVP/EVP/MD level people have been taken out of the loop on decisions so they’re no longer able to do their jobs or manage teams effectively. They are simply required to execute decisions made by Ray Day, no questions asked. It is a culture of fear. • A general lack of moral or professional integrity that permeates from the very top. It is genuinely heartbreaking to see this happen to what was a wonderful company that had built a solid reputation over more than two decades. Don’t be fooled by some of the recent interviews and recognition in the PR trade magazines because it’s a snow job. Allison has some real problems that aren’t being addressed. And the clearest sign of a toxic workplace is when everyone knows exactly what the problems are, but no one believes that leadership is going to fix them. Sadly, this is Allison today.
