Worst agency in LA - Avis employé Digital Artist Think Jam

I have been  in PR for over 15 years and worked at several different  agencies, including small start-ups and large corporate firms. Think Jam is by far my favorite experience. While no agency is perfect, I found the Think Jam culture to be one who actually strives to put their employees first (something I had not experienced before). The team is knowledgeable, welcoming and hard working. The overall office vibe is happy, collaborative and non-restrictive, you are free to create your own hours as long as you are communicative and get your work done. The executive staff (mostly women in the LA office!) is very hands on with accounts and employees ensuring that everything is handled to the client standard but also that individual employees do not feel overwhelmed. Unfortunately my time was cut short at Think Jam due to the pandemic when my position became redundant with the current state of the business (the Entertainment Industry had come to a screeching halt). Think Jam was completely transparent the entire time with all employees on the state of the business, the timeline of potential tough decisions and all efforts being made to save as many employees as possible for as long as possible-- there were no surprises. I know many people in this industry who lost their job due to the pandemic and no other agency handled this very difficult and very delicate situation with the transparency and care that Think Jam did. I remain grateful--  It's also the only place I have ever worked where it was completely acceptable and encouraged to go see a movie during work hours! Key Take-Aways: - Salary is competitive - Work/ Life balance (European vacation days, flexible hours and Summer Fridays) - Great benefits (the least I have personally paid at any agency) - Management that actually cares about employees - Transparency with employees on the business

One suggestion that I would make is to have more sub-titles between the Publicist, Manager and Director roles so that employees have more consistent upward mobility and motivation to continue to rise in the ranks.

Great team, strong sense of camaraderie, and good clients. The perks are nice enough and offered with a genuine desire to please, but they are catered towards first or second jobbers (free beer, pool table).

Leadership was well meaning but incredibly sketchy. Actual management skills varied widely between individuals. Career progression was slower than in other similar agencies, unless you were one of the chosen few who had worked on the bigger campaigns. Camaraderie was high, but staff changes started to affect that also. If you were promoted, you did everything you did before with more work dumped on top. Favouritism was in play, and one particular superstar senior person had a distinct lack of recognition, which made you wonder why you should bother. C-suite were nice, but hard to access and not very visible considering it's still a fairly small company. Every decision seemed to take an age to make, and promises of changes and progression were made and never acted upon to the point when you would take every announcement with a grain of salt. HR was the absolute worst I've ever experienced.