Highly political and bureaucratic environment, abusive manager
Pros
You get exposure to big brands, high-profile campaigns, and industry events.
Cons
The environment felt highly political and bureaucratic, with more emphasis on process, documentation, and blame management than on doing good work. Team goals often felt misaligned, which created unnecessary pressure and long working hours. It was common for people to work late because priorities were unclear, constantly shifting, or blocked by internal politics. The culture felt performative rather than genuinely collaborative. I saw low morale, people speaking negatively about coworkers, and a general atmosphere of fear around job security. Leadership was weak in my experience, and some management behaviour felt abusive. My manager was known for shouting aggressively and berating subordinates (bringing people to tears), speaking to new staff in a condescending way, and creating an atmosphere where people felt watched rather than supported. I also experienced behaviour that felt deliberately undermining, including being recorded without consent and being put in situations that felt designed to trap or discredit me rather than help me succeed, putting projects at risk. There was very little creative or technical freedom. Despite the company’s reputation for innovation, the work was heavily limited by legal, finance, and process restrictions. I was surprised to see technology that felt outdated being presented internally as innovative. The office environment was also difficult: crowded, noisy, poorly ventilated which deemed the office bathrooms unusable, and not well suited for focused creative or technical work as people were constantly having meetings on their desks.
