Work:
Unless you’re on John Deere, Frigidaire, or Farm Rich, there aren’t a lot of opportunities to make work that feels truly book-worthy. I worked at EP+Co for almost four years, and despite consistently raising my hand for projects beyond monthly social batches, I rarely got the chance to contribute to more ambitious work.
EP has a wide range of accounts, but many of the clients seem deeply risk-averse. That often leaves creatives producing work that feels safe, forgettable, and uninspired. I also never got the sense that EP itself was truly interested in taking risks. Leadership often talks about wanting bigger, more attention-grabbing work, but the “risks” they champion rarely feel risky by today’s standards.
Leadership
With the exception of a few people, I did not find EP’s executive leadership to be especially trustworthy, either creatively or professionally. They love to joke and bust each other's chops, but a lot of the jokes feel very personal. Almost like they aren't really joking, it's always awkward to be a fly on the wall in these instances.
Leadership frequently says they care about people, but their actions often suggest otherwise. One moment that stood out was during a department meeting after layoffs, when the CCO implied that earlier rounds of layoffs were easier because the more people they cut, the more “real talented” people they had to let go. That kind of comment says a lot about how people are valued.
There also doesn’t seem to be a clear vision for what EP wants to be. The agency frequently makes big declarations like, “This is going to be our year,” or “We want to make bigger work that earns attention and awards.” But months pass and the ambition never seems to materialize in a meaningful way.
Leadership has also leaned heavily into AI, using it more and more to generate ideas, copy, art direction, design, and even full social videos. I can’t say whether that has any connection to layoffs, but the quality of the work suffers when it’s clearly being overused (i.e. Country Cow).
EP also has a habit of celebrating its own “successes” without much scrutiny. Leadership will hype up performance, but when you look at the social engagement, much of it appears to come from people who work at EP or on the client side.
Culture
EP often feels like an agency of false promises. I didn’t receive a raise or promotion until after my third year, despite winning internal awards, receiving strong peer reviews, and consistently bringing forward ideas that teams and clients responded to positively.
Each year, there was a different reason why it couldn’t happen. First, it was that the agency wasn’t in a financial position to give raises. Then, in year three, I was told I was capped in my role and couldn’t receive a raise unless I was promoted, which also wasn’t possible yet. That had never been brought up in previous reviews, so it felt really fishy that it was a problem all of a sudden.
In my second year, I was passed over for a mid-level role I felt I had earned based on my work, feedback, and contributions. From my perspective, the main reason was that I didn’t live in Greenville, despite proving I was capable of doing the work remotely. Instead, the role went to someone much more junior.
There is also a clear pattern of certain people getting the “juicy” projects again and again, while others are left without real opportunities to show what they can do. I didn’t get placed on a new business pitch for almost three years, even though I repeatedly asked to be involved. Meanwhile, people hired after me, including people more junior than me, were given those opportunities.
Morale
Between the Omnicom merger, layoffs, constant restructuring, vague leadership, lack of transparency, and unexciting client work, morale has been low for a long time. Many people I’ve spoken with over the years have felt overlooked for raises, promotions, and opportunities, even while continuing to do strong work.
There is also a constant fear of layoffs because EP does not seem to be winning enough new business to support itself. The agency typicaly goes through 2-3 layoffs a year. Leadership likes to point to strong client retention, but retention means very little if scopes are shrinking and layoffs continue to hang over everyone. They specifically hired someone on ELT to help get more clients, but it's mostly been a bust.