Sunday, October 31, 2010

Euro RSCG Edge

Has been losing employees fast. Account directors, technical director, director of program management, programmers, pms, etc. Probably about 30 people have left this year, with several of the director level people being hired and quitting in 2010.

72 comments:

  1. Euro had hired a bunch of new talent at the beginning of the year, but pm staff has had more than complete turnover, with accounts and development not far behind. Only part of the creative department remains.

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  2. One of those Portland shops you avoid like the plague. They apparently just lost both of their Account Directors, and their Director of Project Management is gone as of this last Friday. They're down to the bone over there, and rumor has it that they leased their new space for 5 years! Oooopseeeee.

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  3. ...as is the case with most of these types of posts, the comments above are completely not true.

    Edge has new management and leadership and is growing and evolving. Agencies change and this one is getting stronger every day.

    Also, Edge is part of Euro RSCG Worldwide, with 273 offices around the world...

    Edge is a part of the PDX ad community and will continue to be for many years!

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  4. Hmmmmm, all of these folks LinkedIn profiles suggest otherwise . . . what's with the turnover?

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  5. It's simple. They could care less about their employees. No reviews. No thank you's. Out of all the agencies I worked for, I've never seen employee's treated as poorly as they were here. HR is a joke. The top execs care about themselves and no one else. It's a sweatshop. The fire people left and right and then don't replace the person to save money, so then you end up doing the work of three people. Lunch every now and then? Nope. Working late, want a pizza? Nope.

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  6. Sounds like a great place to work.

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  7. actually, if you have a good work ethic, you can do very well there.

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  8. work ethic has nothing to do with:

    Not being appreciated

    Treating employee's poorly

    Running a skeleton staff to save money while the top execs take trips together

    No review/raise for 3 years

    These things have nothing to do with work ethic. But these things will crush the spirit and work ethic of even the best workers. If Steve & Greg actually reached out and took 5 minutes to a actually pretend to care and listen to employee's it would be a good first step. Cause god knows no one there can go to HR with a problem, that gets you fired.

    Euro has a lot to learn from other ad agencies. Why do you think so many people are leaving for other shops? They treat their people better.

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  9. Sounds like the Overland Agency minus the owner stealing people's retirement contributions. Are there any decent agencies left in this town?

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  10. Yeah I'm not sure what having a good work ethic has to do with "doing well" at an agency either. I worked for Euro RSCG Edge for a very short amount of time and agree the place is awful. They do nothing for their employees whatsoever. The "HR Team" there, if you can call it that, was a total joke other than the dude that recruited me in (which, granted, I'm still a little bitter about) but he's even quit since then. I don't recall even once a team lunch being bought by the agency the whole time I was there! They have no idea what they're doing.

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  11. Sad thing is they will read this, and shrug it off.

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  12. To answer somebody's question above, there really aren't that many "good" agencies to work for in town. I feel really fortunate that I work for one of them.

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  13. Working at the same agency as the previous commenter, I agree. There are some good ones out there, but they are rare.

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  14. I work for a great and profitable agency now and I spent some time at Euro RSCG Portland - all of the above is true, that shop is a total nightmare.

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  15. I was laid off from Euro RSCG Portland six months after they relocated my and my entire family from California. Even worse, when they were in the process of laying me off and figuring out details, the Director of Human Resources accidentally copied me on the correspondence! Very professional. Stay far, far away from this group.

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  16. She's a peach, isn't she?

    Steve & Greg view her as an asset but are too blind to see that how she treats people is a liability to the company.

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  17. narcissism in action is fascinating at times.

    greg is steve's buddy, so steve creates a position for greg at euro, thereby squeezing out one of the best people euro had, craig. greg comes on board pounding his chest about how much experience he has and how much he is going to help the agency and "i am going to get us a car account!" blah blah bleh. within a matter of months it becomes apparent greg can't do jack, a true charlatan, so greg promotes tom to do what he was hired to do, thereby putting all the pressure on tom, while greg sits back (in his pink shirt) and yells at people to bolster his ego, and steve gives himself a fat raise and drives his maserati home.

    tom, scared for his job, goes on the fast track, grabbing all the low-hanging fruit he can find, thereby turning euro into a wham-bam, zit-cream, snoring-aid, colon-cleanser, make-your-baby-a-freak, snake-oil, late-night infomercial chop shop.

    at this point euro has lost pretty much every legitimate account they had. then they hire mike in portland to replace craig, so when none of this works they all have a scapegoat. poor mike, he's a nice guy and smarter than the 3 stooges in boston combined.

    you can't make this stuff up.

    that said, it is truly sad to see the agency that once introduced the world to "intel inside" spiral into the hands of a collection of blowhards in boston who have no clue what they are doing, and all the power to make it everybody else's problem.

    there's a reason euro is suffering and it only has a little to do with the current economy. when more people have quit than you've laid off, it is time to stop pointing fingers and look in the mirror.

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  18. dont forget...no raises last year, or profit sharing, or reviews cause there was no money. they found money to move greg cross country to California though...

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  19. Wow! This place should rank in the top 5 of Portland agencies to never work for, right next to Babcock, Overland, Bradshaw and R2C! It may actually rival Babcock for the number 1 spot on the list!

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  20. Nothing can beat Overland. Seriously.

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  21. Mike crashed YRG into the ground then got hired on at Euro, so that says something about the quality they look for in their directors!! So let me get this "worst agencies in portland" list straignt -- never work for: Overland, Euro, Babcock, Bradshaw or R2C?

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  22. That would be correct, and yes, rumor has it Mike ran YRG into the ground and was fired from ID Branding due to an illicit relationship with a much younger colleague.

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  23. Mike had an illicit relationship with a younger colleague at ID as well? I know that happened at YRG too. Gawd. Learn to keep it in your pants dude! Silly MadMen.

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  24. It's funny to see that the "HR Team" mentioned above has moved onto CMD and is now posting "tips" on here. (If you can call "check out our website!" a tip)

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  25. I'd add "Pop Art, Inc." to the list of agencies never to work for, ever.

    They're experiencing a complete loss of their account team and production manager teams. (They've hired on some new PM staff, but they're already calling in "sick" a lot. Their singular developer is also "working-from-home" a considerable amount of time.)

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  26. That Pop Art news is really same story different year. They've lost and replaced their entire staff several times over. About every 2 years. They've gotta bring in newbies to town who don't know their sweatshop rep yet and are desparate for a gig.

    List is now updated. NEVER work for:
    * Overland
    * Euro RSCG
    * Babcock & Jenkins
    * Bradshaw Advertising
    * R2C
    * Pop Art

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  27. So what agencies does that leave in Portland that are still decent? Let's see, there's CMD which is a monster agency these days with over 160 employees, W+K, Liquid, Opus Creative, The New Group, R/West, Reilly Weiss Creative . . . . Oh wait, should White Horse possibly be added to the above list of agencies to not work for??

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  28. Dish us up some good White Whores Dirt and we'll add 'em to the list!!!

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  29. Um, how about mandatory furloughs for a large portion of their employees during the holidays? As in mandatory time off with no pay? Sound fun?

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  30. ShitList **REVISED**
    NEVER work for:
    * Overland
    * Euro RSCG
    * Babcock & Jenkins
    * Bradshaw Advertising
    * R2C
    * Pop Art
    * White Horse

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  31. the agency model does. not. work.

    Evidenced by the 20k bid I recently received for 8 static html pages. This agency was asked to take dev-ready design files and simply code up some really basic pages (no flash, just static stuff). The bid included 4 hours for the CEO at over 200 dollars per hour, 12 hours for the creative director, and get this - 2 hours for project management. Har. What CEO needs to have input on static template pages?

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  32. I'll do it for 10k!

    Seriously, where was that?

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  33. This was a bid you received from Euro RSCG Edge? What a joke!

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  34. sorry, i was unclear. the 20k bid was not from Euro.

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  35. Euro wonders why they don't make money and are always bitching about money. But they refuse to hire talent, they freelance the hell out of projects and then bitch in the end that costs were too high. Then the freelancer leaves, another one comes in, has to learn the project which takes more time and it all starts over again.

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  36. Who on earth is running that place??

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  37. We often ask ourselves the same exact thing

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  38. Here's a cost saving measure for you. Whenever the LA office needs to shoot a commercial they fly a DP from Portland (because you know, LA doesn't have any DP's). They pay for him to:

    1. Fly
    2. Hotel
    3. Car

    for about 3 days. Every commercial. I think someone in LA can shoot a zit commercial just fine. But hey, if they didn't do this they couldn't bitch about costs in the end.

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  39. Fraulein SchadenfreudeDecember 9, 2010 at 12:52 PM

    >NEVER work for:
    >* Overland
    >* Euro RSCG
    >* Babcock & Jenkins
    >* Bradshaw Advertising
    >* R2C
    >* Pop Art
    >* White Horse

    I'd add ID Branding to the Do Not Fly list.

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  40. Oh fun times. Where do I start. HR, really at Euro. If Human Resources means doing what is best for the company regardless of employees you have the right place.

    Steve Netzley = doushbag, Tom = Doushbag, Greg = Doushbag. If you want to work for Euro head towards Worldwide. Stay away from Edge. Unless of course you like places that have all of the above.

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  41. They probably hired a guy who ran an agency to the ground due to illicit sexual acts because the HR guy who worked there at the time who helped with the hiring process was popping pills and participating in sexual acts with employees himself

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  42. "Edge has new management and leadership and is growing and evolving. Agencies change and this one is getting stronger every day."

    Just because you've fired anybody with any backbone or mistreated true talent enough for them to leave doesn't mean you're "evolving." The same egomaniacs (Netzley, Johnson, Kirby) are still in charge and doing more of the same, flea-market-style shtick. Seriously, Euro's best press comes in the form of Saturday Night Live satirizing their awkward ads for heinous products. What are we up to, now, three in less than a year? They're in Alec Baldwin territory, only without the substance and recognition.

    A business who can't afford the pay raises, bonuses, or competitive benefits they recruit (read: phish) you with while the execs still take advantage of all of those things doesn't suggest "getting stronger" in anybody's minds but the above mentioned three. After years with that organization, one salesman/buyer left while the support staff saw their paychecks shrink against inflation. Here's a thought, execs: instead of throwing rah-rah Christmas parties at country clubs so you pretend your company is doing well because you feed them steak once a year, how about you buy them some groceries or electricity with that money? Get back to work, a stop trolling the internet for disgruntled experiences posted by folks burned by what you know is heartless management.

    The stooge who posted that canned response should ask the assistants and clerks if the "change" at ol' Euro has them excited for this Christmas or dreading 9AM tomorrow.

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  43. Very very well said. You hit the nail on the head.

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  44. I like how the HR guy here was spicing up the department a little bit! Good for him!

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  45. ROTFLMAO!!!! Oh man, this shit is awesome!Pill Popping HR Execs? Illicit sex with employees? Dang....this is better than MadMen! Euro should get its own Reality Show ---> "Swingin' Agency Shite" I almost want to get a job there now. Sounds like quite the party.

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  46. "Survior: Euro RSCG Edge - Last Employee Standing: The Saga Continues"

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  47. don't bother looking for the hidden immunity idol. there isn't one.

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  48. whatever that is supposed to mean

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  49. Something went over someones head . . .

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  50. This article is just gold: http://blogs.popart.com/2010/11/job-seekers-how-to-get-your-foot-into-the-door-at-an-interactive-marketing-agency/

    Dear Steve Rosenbaum,

    How about you write an article about how to minimize turn-over and keep incredible interactive talent. Oh, wait, you have no idea how to do that. It's now YOU that have to prove something.

    Lose all your account team? Hire some junior PMs! Lose them? Start looking for a "Director of Production", to lure someone into thinking they'll be in a high-level position, when really they'll be nothing more than an over-paid Account Coordinator with Trafficking duties and nary a team to lean on to get work done.

    It'll seem great, until you have a fit.

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  51. How does Steve Rosenbaum have anything to do with this?

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  52. How does "Survivor" have anything to do with Euro RSCG Portland?

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  53. Working at Euro RSCG Portland is like being on the show Survivor, hence the "Last Employee Standing" part. You never know when they may decide to vote you out of the agency and issue you a pink slip. They refer to it over there as getting "processed through the system"

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  54. they refer to it as saving money

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  55. "I like how the HR guy here was spicing up the department a little bit! Good for him!"

    Chris are you posting about yourself again?

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  56. Chris - at all? Or, ever? Do you like this site?

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  57. I work at Euro RSCG in New York, and I honestly love it here. I stumbled upon this and was shocked at what I read. What a difference a region can make, I guess. We don't have any of those issues here. The agency is great and good to its people, minus a few employees who act like they should be in grade school, but that is expected to happen anywhere. Maybe you guys should transfer to the NY office. Seriously, it is sooooo much better than that here. Most people leave the office by 6 and aren't expeted to put their jobs in front of their personal lives. I guess that has a lot to do with management. They seems to be very accommodating here. Come to New York. You'll love it.

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  58. Do you work at RSCG or RSCG "Edge"? Where Edge = producing the lowest common denominator of advertising and making execs millionaires to do it.

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  59. Those execs just lost $100 million...
    "Jaguar Moves Global Account From Euro RSCG to Dedicated Shop Spark44"
    http://adage.com/globalnews/article?article_id=148932

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  60. Come to New York, you'll love it? Must be a sick joke...why don't your friends who leave the office at six stop by in NJ and help out those of us who haven't been outside at six during the week in over six months. This place is a sweatshop, people are overworked and unappreciated.

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  61. Welcome to New York. They work harder. Get over it.

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  62. Well - it's been nearly a year since the original post. Anyone have an update about Euro Edge in PDX or Boston? I'm a freelance creative and did a little work for them just over a year ago now.

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  63. Sure, here is an update.....Edge is going strong and running smoother than ever......2012 looks very bullish.

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  64. They have nobody left in Portland. The GM quit, the CFO quit, they have maybe 10 employees left. Going very smoothly, tough ship to manage. I've heard that place is just as bad as BnJ or Bradshaw Advertising. I'd stay away.

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  65. Euro is a cartoon of what they were just 4 years ago. Now, with the 3 stooges in Boston running the show, it is amazing what some would label "going strong and running smoother than ever".

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  66. Should add Summit Projects to the list of agencies to never work for. That place is run by an absolute clown.

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  67. Who the fuck is Chris anyway? Why does everyone mention him on this lame ass gossip website? Bunch of disgruntled Portland hipsters sounds like to me. Grab your white belts and skinny jeans!

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  68. Could Greg be any more inept in his management?

    He signed on and told the Portland office he wanted an auto account...in the midst of the spiraling economy where detroit was on a ledge.

    Idiot?

    Yes.

    Pink sweater? Check your closet.

    The fact he has brought NOTHING to Euro...now Havas, speaks volumes to his credibility.

    The only positive here? They lost Tom. That dude was an idiot squared.

    Meanwhile, Steve cruises in his Maserati. Go Euro/Havas.

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  69. I'll never forget the company meeting where we were asked in advance to posture questions for Greg, and nobody had any because nobody cared about him. As a result he waxed on about books to read that made him who he is.

    Awkward defined.

    What a fucking idiot.

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