J. Walter Thomspon NY Is Letting ‘Em Go
October 7, 2007
Ah sigh… JWT New York is tightening up the trousers with a round of lay-offs. We’ve spoken with two folks who received their walking papers, but from these sources, the total number is closer to seven with more to come. Meanwhile, Marian Salzman, EVP, CMO, JWT Worldwide, declined to comment. So far, cuts have been made in digital and creative. [UPDATE (9/7/2007): Make that production and account management, too.] Walter is known to let employees go slowly rather than just take ‘em all out in one big bang. Not so good for the image, y’know? It also saves them from having to put their own name in JWT’s HRLive system, which tracks lay-offs within the US. The last notation was in 2002 and at that time, the shop’s reasoning was a good one – restructuring.
SS+K just let go of some folks as well. ‘Tis the season. Look around. Most industries are taking the axe to their employment rolls. Why would advertising be any different? Plus, you know how it is… one lost piece of business can result in 50 heads rolling. Maybe the loss of the Domino’s account in June hurt them more than we thought. Talk to us – agencyspy at mediabistro dot com
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October 7, 2007 at 4:02 am
jwt is also hiring creatives.
I’m not kidding, I know someone who went for an interview.
October 7, 2007 at 12:39 pm
The worst thing is they’ll have to deal with Paris Hilton’s Aunt, possibly the most evil person working in the business today. No one knows why she has such a high-level job or how she keeps it but she sure makes sure everyone there is as miserable as she is.
Not surprising that they are interviewing. Agencies do that a lot. Fire a $150K person and hire a junior for $65K instead. (Or 2 $90K people and bring in 1 $150K)
October 7, 2007 at 11:51 pm
(Or 2 $90K people and bring in 1 $150K)
correct on that.
a mid-level team seems to be what they desire.
imho: juniors need too much grooming to be worth the savings. it’s rare that you find someone who’s just so brilliant that it makes up for their lack of agency-politic-bs experience.
October 8, 2007 at 4:01 pm
The only secure job in America is the one you give yourself.
October 8, 2007 at 5:24 pm
This is horrible, of course, for those people being let go but given the size of JWT,(it is the world’s largest agency)these layoffs are not about a lot of people nor is this the least bit unusual. It’s all just part of running this business today. “Unusual” however; were the massive firings that have gone on at Draft/FCB – 150 people over the last few months seems to be an accurate toll..that’s a sign of their very poor management (duh!) but not what’s going on at JWT. Don’t go after their management for not “commenting” – any comment can be hurtful to departing employees OR to the agency and, most particularly, management groups have been thumped over the head by their lawyers to never, ever comment on “departures.”
October 9, 2007 at 1:47 pm
Layoffs don’t always happen because of lost business. Sometimes agencies need new blood. It’s healthy to shake stuff up once in a while. Hence the layoffs+hirings behavior. But i don’t know if that’s the case at JWT.