Ketchum Reviews

Cons

I was laid off after ~8 years of working here - the least Ketchum could have done for a tenured employe, who they promoted twice and recently gave a bonus too, was to put some/any writing on the wall vs pulling the rug. This was a slap in the face -- Never once did I struggle with utilization, raising my hand when I needed work, supporting new biz, contributing to agency culture, our people and teams — even referring talent (who I sang Ketchum praises towards before this layoff). It shows me Ketchum does not care about their people and talent (as leadership consistently preaches) but solely about their bottom line, in a cutthroat environment, where anyone is disposable... In my naive, positive, glass half full mindset, I envisioned future growth and my career playing out long term at Ketchum...NO, always watch your back, assume the worst regardless of tenure, contributions, position, status, etc.

Cons

I have no idea how on earth Ketchum wins awards considering they don’t pay people livable wages, overwork them to the BONE, and don’t give raises. If your billable time isn’t high enough you will be fired. Your hours need to be at LEAST 75% billable and I think they might have just raised it to 90%. If you take vacation time it counts against you. Here your productivity IS equal your worth to them. People who have been there for YEARS have barely gotten any increases and have effectively taken a pay cut each year from inflation while the new CEO talks about being in a new place traveling the world in each of his emails to the employees. It’s incredibly out of touch and tone deaf. Also, a new CCO was just hired right after they laid off people on the account side and employees are noticeably upset considering he’s friends with Jim and Chris (exec leadership). It’s disrespectful to anyone trying to climb their way to the top. As for diversity, I would give an opinion on it if there actually was some. Now with the mandatory RTO I mean “return to connection” just don’t. Run for the hills.