by Andrew S. Lennon | The Daily Anchor
UPDATE: In the ultimate dose of irony, a week after these layoffs, Ogilvy launched a website to help marketers manage through the recession. In truth, such a website is actually a pretty good idea, but so far it’s an epic fail: 3 of the 5 “booklets” (the only real content) are listed as “coming soon,” and even after I filled out a lead form to download the 2 available booklets I still haven’t received the booklets via email… 18 hours later.
On January 7th we reported that Ogilvy cut 300 jobs in response to reductions in client spending.
I wanted to follow up on the layoffs but so far my research has produced little substance; I haven’t even been able to find a firm figure of how many jobs were cut (I’ve heard anywhere from 150-300… If you have any solid figures, leave a comment.) All I’ve heard is that management remains unscathed.
There’s no mention of the layoffs on Ogilvy.com, either, but that doesn’t come as a surprise; what company ever advertises their own layoffs? Then again, and I know this would be completely unconventional, but I’d love it if the next time a large business laid off 10% of its workforce they posted something about it on their website. Maybe something sentimental (“thanks for your hard work, friends, but tough times demand decisive action...”) or heck, even something brutally honest:
Thanks to the sacrifice of The Honorable 300 we’re confident we’ll be able to weather the recession. In completely unrelated news, all managers should plan to work from home on Tuesday as we’ll be installing new mahogany furniture in every office.
That last one isn’t far from the truth, considering Ogilvy is moving into a new 554,800 sq. ft building in the next couple of months
Well, since every good post contains an obligatory list, here’s mine:
The Top 6 Layoff Headlines that Were Never Posted on Ogilvy.com:
- “So long and thanks for all the accounts!”
- “It’s a shame you won’t get to see the new building. “
- “Sucks you weren’t wearing a management force shield.”
- “We’re going to need your metro card back… leave it with security. Thanks.”
- “We gather here today in memory of the dearly departed, and in glorious celebration of our top-down bonus structure…”
- “To all current clients and remaining employees: we made these layoffs because the nature of the advertising business is changing. I can’t tell you what those changes are or how layoffs help to address them, but I’ll let you know as soon as we find out.”
While the mediaverse seems to have lost interest in covering the layoffs, commentors have been having a field day!
So, with a lack of any real developments to share with you, I’ve compiled some of the most interesting/insightful/scathing/witty comments I could find.
Key Excerpts from Recent [awesome] Comments in the Blogosphere:
On cleaning house of Ogilvy’s upper management:
First Shelly, then Hendra, then Wall, then Grey, then Apicella. Those are the people who’ve taken a once-great agency and turned it into a stinking pile of politics, favoritism, egomania and downright meanness. God only knows how much money in salary and bonuses they’re sucking out of the company, all while losing 95% of the pitches they get involved in. Such a shame.
From a current Ogilvy employee:
…Upper management got so complacent, self serving, and so political that they frequently put their personal wants ahead of the client, the creative work, the brand custody, their people and the health of Ogilvy. They created such a self-congratulatory culture of stunning averageness that they began to believe that they were doing good work, even as they stared at sub-standard layouts before they quickly labeled them “a emotional movement”, and then sold them as such to a client who, unfortunately, had to learn the hard way.
From another current Ogilvy employee:
From yet another current Ogilvy employee (I’m sensing low morale…):
As one of the remaining employees at Ogilvy (so far) I’m so saddened by what the agency has devolved into. I came here because of the culture. It was an island of humanity and class in an otherwise cut-throat industry. Now, you have co-Presidents who rarely interact with 99% of the staff; seems they spend more time at their collection of homes.You have a Chief Creative Officer who inspires fear and bewilderment and political backstabbing rather than great work — and who can’t seem to break free of the IBM model of advertising or a certain mean-spirited director. You have an expensive move to west-side Siberia, making everyone who takes the subway face a long, long trek through a still-not-yet safe-at-night neighborhood. You have another creative management type whose responsibilities are a mystery to all. I would jump at a new job if I could find one.
From “Nonplussed:”
D. Ogilvy always talked of “hiring people better than you are,” so that the company would grow to be one run by giants, but many creative heads like these two hire those who think like them and are “nearly” good, so as not to be overshadowed… The net result is a downward progression in the same rut (i.e. the same clique mentality, same jock humor, same sensibility across the board). Mr Ogilvy also said that if you paid peanuts, you’d get monkeys. But not if the monkeys are paying themselves (yep, they get heaps). Bonuses are only given to those from top down till the bonus money ran out, which meant that almost all the hardest worked little people got nothing at all, and the bigwigs in their cushy offices got the most.
Is any ex-Ogilvyian reading this? How many people were cut in your department? Leave a comment and give us some insider info.
On Thursday we are all required to attend the Annual Meeting – at which we expect to hear news of this mythical “restructuring” which has been whispered about since early last year. I don’t think anyone thinks they will have gotten it right but it won’t really matter since we all know they won’t be able to get it together to actually implement any significant changes.
The big news yesterday was actually the announcement of the move to 46th and 11th in 2009. There is not one employee (besides management) that thinks this is a good idea. Expect a MASS exodus before the move. Not to mention the extreme difficulty they will have recruiting good creatives – there is no way anyone worth their salt will agree to work in this neighborhood – it is a wasteland and it always will be.