One of the worst companies I have worked at. Its like dealing with middle school level drama on a daily basis. It has the worst leadership out of all companies Ive been at. Pay and benefits are way below the average for Chicago. Warning to all those who apply. There is a reason why this place always has job openings. Because its terrible and a literal revolving door. Stay away at all costs.

I had read reviews prior to going to ARS. Much was talking about the poor leaders, but I had worked at many places with different styles of management, so I took this with a grain of salt. Boy were those reviews SPOT ON. The company works best when workers are flexible, comfortable and communicating even across 4 offices no matter where their workspace is. About 10-12 people get SUPER SPECIAL treatment; High salaries and work from home options. While A+ employees will get shafted because everything is so mismanaged. Ive seen people making 100k+ work on non-billable work for months on end. While great writers work late nights saving client work while making far less. And the company wonders why theyre going broke. Moving to a new office downtown? Just ask the IT guys if they can move all the computers in their cars instead of hiring movers(true story). For a company that has some big clients, they sure dont know how to manage the most basic tasks. Bait and Switch is the name of the game. Telling people theyll have flexibility. Saying theyll have satellite offices for suburb workers. A city office near the Metra. ALL LIES. Hiring random people with made up titles then having to lay them off because they didnt know what to do with them is common. The top people have been with the company so long that they have not seen how things work at other agencies and have created a bubble where the work is stuck somewhere around 2008 and will refuse to listen to any employees on what to do to better the company. There is a brick wall at the top that is IMPENETRABLE. The “LEADERSHIP” may be the worst leaders ive encountered in my career. They dont inspire a thing and are NOT respected by a single employee working under them. The regular employees are the ones doing the solid work and getting each others backs. These top leaders AVOID employees at all costs. Millions$ in business were lost because of the mistakes of one man when all those knew how to keep that business. The top people make decisions behind closed doors without having open discussions with the smart people underneath. The heads of digital and dev should be removed entirely because the company will not grow into 2019 with their leadership. They arent leaders, theyre just people who have been there longer than others. Employees dont want to climb that mountain when the digital and dev leads are blowhards.The company has some of the WORST health insurances available on the market. Massive layoffs are in affect and happen often at the start of every year. Of all the places I have worked , ARS is the only one that will callously hire and fire people so willy nilly without any forethought. They’ll completely ignore ALL employees, meet behind closed doors and fire whoever. I have never seen anything quite like it. They’ve created a bubble around themselves that they can’t see, but everyone else can. Losing some of your biggest clients over the last few years wasnt a coincidence. It was because they didnt seek advice from others. They really only have few clients right now. And the big ones just massively slashed their budgets. Clients are starting to see the poor management at ARS and are moving elsewhere. Design + Dev are all being moved to a Component only platform. Meaning there will soon be no Custom designs or anything creative altogether. Components are essentially poorly designed boxes done by another company we use to drag + drop into a layout. No creativity or dev knowledge is needed. If youre looking for good creative/dev work, you WILL NOT find it here. Theyre hanging on by a thread and their best solution is to get rid of their most talented people but keep those who have been there the longest. As someone who has worked at multiple agencies, take my word for it. The company will be sinking massively in 2019 and beyond. Horrendous benefits. Their ability to win business is essentially 0.1%. If you have ever wondered what it would be like to work at Sears, Kmart, Toys R Us in the lead up to their demise. Then look no further than ARS.