ho ho ho... you're fired

omnicom set to cut up to 3,500 jobs

this post is not to pick on omnicom...
just a thought about the nature of the company you work for...

what is the point of giving everything you have to a company in good times... if they aren't prepared to repay it with a decent effort to protect you in uncertain times?

big agencies like omnicom and communications companies like viacom ask workers to be loyal...espouse their values... contribute time for free (weekends, no o.t.), etc...etc..

but when things get uncertain on their end... are they prepared to do the same?

stick with people... even if that means the profit on "thursday" isn't as large as it could be...
...or god forbid lose a little bit of money in the name of investing/contributing to their future relationships with employees...

right now these companies look like they are pro-actively stripping out overhead to "prepare" for what is coming next year...

we like to be proactive too...we like things to be "right sized"...
but it seems to us that we might want our employer to hold off as long as possible in making these kinds of decisions in the spirit of protecting us...

we're not talking about being irresponsible to shareholders...
but maybe shifting some priorities a bit...
...and realigning the values of these businesses to reflect a company not scared of what's going to happen on "thursday"... but confident in years ahead.

it's great working for publicly traded company in good times because the capitalization enables investment in new areas quickly to be on the cutting edge of communications...

unfortunately, these days, to us, it's looking tougher and tougher to work for a publicly traded communications company in uncertain times...

people wonder why some folks at smaller agencies like the barbarian group won't sell for millions to publicly traded holding groups like aegis or interpublic...

we think they realize that their business values are not in alignment with the current state of values inside of companies like omnicom....
and we think this is particularly highlighted in times like these...

a friend of ours at connelly partners in boston told us a couple of weeks ago how the owners just took all the employees and their families to disney world, all expenses paid, because it was important to their culture to invest in their employees and by extension their families...

we aren't really that into disney world at farm...
but on that note, most people we know who work at publicly traded agencies, who haven't had their christmas parties canceled, aren't even allowed to take their significant others to the party because of cost...

kinda makes us think... or ask...

in times like these, what is the role (responcibility?) of the large agency?