Peppercomm Reviews

I will always be grateful for the things I learned, the opportunities I got to participate in and the people I met while working at Peppercomm. The agency had one of the best workplace cultures in the industry and was renowned for being a great place to work in New York City when I started over two years ago. Over the last year, sadly, the people who made it that way have left and the agency continues to move further from the reputation that it once had. Following an agency-wide split, Peppercomm now operates in full survival mode and is built on broken promises of executive transparency, employee empowerment and innovation. There is no more training, teaching or mentoring. Career development and career advancement have ceased to exist. Employees are not valued as people, they are strictly a resource to be exploited fully until they break or burn out. If you are looking for a team-oriented, collaborative and supportive environment, you will not thrive here. Peppercomm paints itself as a 22 year old start-up, yet refuses to adapt and update its resources, tools and strategies. Leadership and upper-management still operate as if they are in a 100 person agency and instead of filling the gaps, junior level staff is expected to juggle the work load of 3 levels above them while managers refuse to stoop below their level and get their hands dirty. In the end, I wish the company and those who are left good fortune, but Peppercomm has a lot of work to do to become something even remotely close to what they claim to be. Do your employees, the ones that are left, a favor and take the time to listen to and address their concerns. You will quickly see that it is not more trouble than it is worth.

There is no structure or organization at the company as it stands. Team leads blindly say yes to any and all client requests, and then look to their thin mid-level and junior staff to make it happen. The only reason autonomy is given is to delegate the brunt of the work down as far as it can go – there are no learning opportunities accompanying the responsibility given. Contrary to the previous review, it’s actually pretty difficult to skate by with minimal effort, because there is more work to do than a staff double Peppercomm’s current size can handle. Since last year’s agency split, no investment has been put into the staff. The previous review here also claims that a small few “soured” the culture, but the reality is that Peppercomm split and forgot how to take care of its employees. Those who try to speak up are marked as problems by management or ignored. Morale is at an all-time low across the agency (not just among the people speaking up), and there is no effort to foster culture outside of the high-level employees who leave early to go to happy hour together. No team building. Few company events. Peppercomm was allegedly a family at some point, but things have clearly changed. There’s more to say about the toxic culture of gossip and backstabbing (just look at, you guessed it, the previous review) but I’ve hopefully said enough to get my point across. Please don’t work here, the recent string of bad reviews are no coincidence.