If you are not one of the 5 people running an agency or an office, when it comes to layoffs, you are either fucked or are yet to be fucked. Please discuss.

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@Grey the point of this post was that there is no level that is safe unless you’re in the C/M suite. And that’s the gospel goddamned truth at every agency. ECD’s, GSD’s, Global Business Directors ... lose who pays for you and it’s over

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I'm new to fishbowl but an old man in advertising. I'm pretty surprised by how my industry is filled with sulking malcontents. How is it supposed to work when an agency loses a big account? The principals are supposed to fall on their swords and fire themselves to keep staff around. "This is the business we have chosen." -Hymen Roth

Get back to work.

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I forget where I read this, but there was an article somewhere by a guy who decided his company policy would be to never pay anybody off. It was a smallish place. When they lost an account or had a lean year, instead of firing people he asked everybody to take some unpaid time off, I think like a week each or something, and they could trade it around - somebody who could use two weeks to care for kids could take the week of somebody who can’t afford to be unpaid for a bit. This included all senior people and the founder himself. Apparently people were into it, and I think the loss of a little money was made up for by the boosted morale, seeing that the partner cared and knew firing people was worse, and it wasn’t all about the bottom line.

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@SSD1 - it’s mismanagement from Leadership when an account leaves and there are huge layoffs. People should be redistributed on other accounts or put on pitches etc. Agencies shouldn’t run so lean to not have money for a rainy day; it’s irresponsible.
You wouldn’t retain the business if you didn’t have a team below you. In fact, when an account leaves an agency it’s usually because of Senior Leadership, in some capacity, it’s not due to the poor AE or Associate Creative Team who worked around the clock, busting his/her ass to prove themselves, and sadly they are the ones who are let go.
Leadership need to take more responsibility and maybe not take such huge salaries so there is more money to go around when the unfortunate strikes.
With your attitude, I hope you’re not my Senior Strategy Director.

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Accounts leave for a variety of reasons, many of which have nothing to do with senior management, junior management, creative or anything else related to the agency. Do you know what the average tenure of a CMO at a major brand is? Something like 18 months. Every time there's a new one they come in with new ideas and agencies they have worked with in the past and feel comfortable with.

Agencies are labor intensive businesses. Personnel costs are the highest costs they have. When you lose an account you HAVE to lay off staff. It's a harsh world. Sometimes you have to throw some people overboard to make sure the whole boat doesn't get swamped. The history of the agency business is littered with well-intentioned principals and executives that hung on to staff for too long because an account win was around the corner.

A smart agency leader uses the opportunity of an account loss to retain the best people, even if they worked on the lost account and lay off the dead weight, even if they didn't work on the lost account.

Everything else about taking pay cuts, rainy day funds and keeping people around is magical thinking.

I wouldn't want someone so naive as my group account director.

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You must work at a very small company

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There is no security in any job unless you work as an undertaker. Not sure what motivates people into this business at this point but security isn’t a part of the picture

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@SSD1 - Not fire themselves but maybe take a paycut?

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@SSD1 - for most agencies the principals are not there - they are just holding company drones - and when cuts come for business reasons the axe falls according to who wields the axe rather than according to who merits the axe

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@SSD1 if it's a well-established agency, i can assure you the current leadership did not put any money into starting the business. And accounts are the sweat, blood, and tears of the staff at all levels.

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OP I misread your post. Get it now. TBF I’ve seen a Partner, a few ECD, and a CCO outed at grey in the past three years. They’re usually not part of layoffs but they are let go.

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Why? Who put the money and effort into starting the business? Who took the risk? Want job security? Get a government job.

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Most of the c suite and high level execs have been let go since I've been at my company (it's been 10 yrs). When shit is bad, the blame is at the top.

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