It's ok - Picker/Packer DMW Direct Employee Review

I am a recently hired employee that, admittedly, was a little apprhensive after reading other reviews on glassdoor. My fears were instantly put to rest with the professionalism, sincerity, and kindness of both senior leadership and employees. I have worked for other agencies before, and the complaints you see in these reviews are both overblown AND pale in comparison to some of the real problems you see at big agencies. I know its hard to trust one anonymous review vs the rest, but I guarantee those with experience and who have seen what its like out there will agree that DMW is a great agency to work for. All agencies have tight deadlines, shifting philosophy, and bend to the whims of their clients. The most important thing are the people and culture and DMW has a lot of both.

Regular agency stuff. If you know, you know. Tight deadlines, periods with a lot of work, minimal direction. This happens at all agencies and entreprenuerial self starters swim while others sink.

For the most part, the people are a great bunch. Senior management tries to make a good place to work: free coffee & snacks; the occasional on-site, company-sponsored happy hour; the rare company outing. Benefits are decent: health; vision; dental; PTO; 401k, with occasional company matching; company-paid ad&d coverage; life insurance with optional buy ups available; and company-paid short-term disability with an option for employee-paid long-term disability. Recognition is often based more on who you know and less on what you know or how well you perform.

Culture varies widely by department. Some departments host fun team-building events, ranging from on-site departmental lunch to off-site programs, while other departments only meet as a whole when there is bad news. Work/life balance also varies widely by department and even by teams within departments. Training of new hires has been inconsistent, more or a sink or swim scenario. There is no training or standard set on how to best on-board new employees. It's often left to managers who themselves have never been trained in management. In fact, on the whole, there is little investment in employee training and development, only in sporadic and short-lived pushes. Despite claims to the contrary, there is very little transparency of communication within the company, which has spooked good employees into finding new opportunities. Oftentimes, recognition comes from who you know more than what you know or how well you perform your job.